Booking terms and conditions

1Making a booking

Dates are not held until a deposit is paid. We will hold dates informally while we are talking, but another enquiry for the same nights may take them.

A booking is confirmed when we have received the 30% deposit and sent you written confirmation. Until both have happened, there is no booking.

You must be 21 or over to book, and the person who books must be one of the people staying.

2Payment

Our rates are in New Zealand dollars, per night, for the whole of the building or property booked.

• 30% deposit — payable to confirm the booking, and non-refundable from the moment it is paid
• 70% balance — payable 45 days before the day you arrive

If you book within 45 days of arriving, the full amount is payable at the time of booking.

We take payment by credit or debit card. We will send you a secure payment link; we never ask for card details by email or over the phone.

If the balance is not paid by its due date and we have not heard from you, we may treat the booking as cancelled and keep the deposit under clause 3.

3Cancellation and changes

Cancellations must be in writing to reservations@slopehill.co.nz. The date we receive your written notice is the date the cancellation takes effect.

• More than 45 days before arrival — the 30% deposit is retained. If you have already paid the balance, it is refunded in full.
• 45 days or fewer before arrival — the full amount is retained and no refund is due.

The same applies if you do not arrive, or leave early. A shortened stay is not refunded.

To change dates, ask us. We will move a booking where we can, but a change we cannot accommodate is a cancellation and is treated as one.

We strongly recommend travel insurance that covers cancellation.

4Security bond

We hold a security bond against damage and additional costs. The bond is the greater of $1,000 or one night’s rate for what you have booked.

We do not take the bond as a payment. Instead, we securely store the card you pay with, through our payment provider, and charge it only if there is something to charge for. We are told whether the card is valid; we never see or hold the card number ourselves.

After you leave, we check the property. If there is nothing to charge, we will tell you so and the authority to charge your card lapses. If there is, we will tell you what it is and what it costs before we charge anything.

The bond is a limit on what we will charge without further discussion, not a limit on what you are responsible for. Where damage exceeds the bond, we may seek the balance.

5Arrival and departure

Check in from 3pm. Check out by 10am.

We will usually accommodate an earlier arrival or a later departure if nobody is booked either side. Ask, and we will tell you honestly whether we can.

Our property manager lives on the property and will be in touch before you arrive about keys, access and anything you want organised.

6Who may stay

The number of people staying must not exceed what you have booked for:

• The Homestead — six
• The Loft — four
• The whole property — ten

These numbers include children and infants. If you want to bring more people than the building sleeps, talk to us first; do not simply arrive with them.

Day visitors are fine in reasonable numbers. Parties, functions and events are not permitted without our written agreement. If an event runs without our agreement we may end the stay immediately, and no refund is due.

Please respect that this is a quiet rural property with neighbours and animals. We ask for quiet between 10pm and 7am.

7What is included, and what is shared

Booking a single building gives you that building, its parking, and the use of the land.

The sauna, ice bath, spa and gym are shared between the Homestead and the Loft when the two are let separately. If the other building is occupied, another party will be using them too.

When the whole property is booked, those facilities are exclusively yours for the length of your stay.

Two bedrooms in the Homestead belong to the owners and are locked. They are not part of what you book and are not available at any price.

Firewood, linen, towels and a starter supply of basics are included. Beyond that, the kitchen is yours to stock.

8Dogs

Dogs are welcome, and there is a fenced run so they can be outside without being watched every minute.

Please tell us at the time of booking how many dogs you are bringing. Arriving with an undeclared dog may mean we cannot accommodate it.

Beyond the fenced run the property is open and has miniature ponies and rescue pigs on it. A dog that chases stock must be on a lead. You are responsible for anything your dog does to the animals, the property, or a neighbour’s stock.

Dogs are not to be left alone in the buildings, and not on beds or furniture. Any additional cleaning needed because of a dog may be charged against the bond.

9The land, the animals and safety

This is a working ten-acre property, not a hotel garden. Please read this part properly if you are bringing children.

• The land is open and the spa and the ice bath are not fenced. Children must be supervised around both.
• There is a pond on the property. It is not fenced either.
• The sauna, the ice bath and the spa carry the ordinary risks of heat and cold. Use them sensibly, and not after drinking.
• There are miniature ponies and rescue pigs. They are friendly, but they are animals. Do not feed them without asking us what they can have.
• There is an open fire in the courtyard and a log burner in the house.

You are responsible for the safety and conduct of everyone in your party, including children, while they are on the property.

Security cameras cover the outside of the buildings. There are none inside, and none overlooking the spa, sauna or ice bath.

10Looking after the property

Please leave the place roughly as you found it. Normal cleaning is included; we only charge where something goes beyond that.

Smoking and vaping are not permitted inside either building. Smoke damage or the deep clean needed to remove the smell will be charged.

Tell us about breakages. Things break and most of it is nothing; what causes a problem is finding out after you have gone.

The ice bath runs on a chiller and is switched on when you want it. Please do not adjust the spa or chiller settings beyond the controls we show you.

11The property manager

Our property manager lives on the property in her own separate dwelling, out of sight of both buildings. She is there to look after the place and to arrange things for you — ski and board fitting, e-bikes, groceries before you arrive, a table booked.

She or a tradesperson may need to enter the property during your stay for maintenance or in an emergency. Except in an emergency we will give you notice and agree a time.

12Winter and mountain parking

Through the ski season we hold reserved parking at Coronet Peak and The Remarkables, and guests may use it. It is not subject to availability and it applies to every car in your party.

This is an arrangement with the ski fields and we pass it on as a courtesy. We cannot be responsible if a mountain closes, restricts access, changes its own arrangements, or if the road is closed.

13Things outside our control

Occasionally something makes the property unusable — a service failure, fire, flood, storm damage, earthquake, an access road closed, or a direction from a public authority.

If that happens before you arrive and we cannot offer you the property, we will refund everything you have paid us. That refund is the limit of what we owe you; we do not cover flights, hire cars or other costs.

If it happens during your stay, we will refund the nights you cannot use.

A facility being briefly out of action — the spa, the sauna, the ice bath, the internet — is not grounds for cancellation or refund, though we will fix it as fast as we can and will make it right if it is out for a meaningful part of your stay.

14Liability

You use the property, the land and the facilities at your own risk.

Your belongings are your own responsibility. We are not liable for loss, theft or damage to anything you bring.

Nothing in these terms limits any right you have under the Consumer Guarantees Act 1993 or the Fair Trading Act 1986 that cannot lawfully be limited. Where we may limit our liability, it is limited to the amount you have paid for the booking.

15Privacy and card details

We collect only what we need to take and manage your booking: your name, contact details, dates, who is coming, and anything you tell us about what you need.

We do not sell or share it. We will not add you to a mailing list unless you ask.

We never see or store your card number. Payments and the security bond are handled by our payment provider, which is PCI-DSS compliant. We see only the last four digits and whether a payment succeeded.

You may ask us what we hold about you, and ask us to correct or delete it, by writing to reservations@slopehill.co.nz.

16General

These terms, together with your booking confirmation, are the whole agreement between us. Where the confirmation and these terms differ, the confirmation applies.

We may update these terms. The version that applies to your stay is the one in force on the day you paid your deposit, and we will send it to you with your confirmation.

These terms are governed by New Zealand law, and the New Zealand courts have jurisdiction.

Questions about any of this are welcome before you book rather than after. reservations@slopehill.co.nz · +64 22 188 3693