Terms of Service

A summary of these Terms. It doesn't replace the full text, which is what governs.

• SecondBook is a platform where people and businesses who can no longer travel sell their hotel bookings and others buy them. We are not the agency or the hotel: the contract for the stay is with the hotel or the website where the booking was made.
• To sell or buy you must be 18 or over and give accurate details. Sellers guarantee that the booking is real, transferable and priced no higher than what they paid.
• We review every listing before it goes live. Payment is held until after the stay and refunded if the booking isn't transferred as listed.
• SecondBook's fee is taken from what the seller receives; buyers pay the price they see, with no added charges.
• We may remove listings, block messages or suspend accounts that breach these Terms or the law. We will always tell you why, and you can complain for six months; if you disagree with our answer, you can go to a certified out-of-court dispute settlement body or to the courts.
• Next to SecondBook's bookings we show offers from other websites, marked as such. If you book one, you do so on that website and under its terms.
• We explain how we order results in section 13 and publish our moderation figures in the Transparency report.

These Terms of Service govern the use of secondbookapp.com (SecondBook), a platform operated by SecondBook SLU, tax ID (CIF) B27662352, registered at Avda. Junta de Compensación 17, 41300 San José de la Rinconada, Sevilla, España. You can find the rest of our details in the Legal notice.

By creating an account, publishing a booking or buying a booking, including without an account, you accept these Terms. We recommend that you read them carefully and keep a copy. If you do not agree with them, please do not use the platform.

These Terms are supplemented by our Privacy Policy, which explains how we process your data, and our Cookie Policy. They apply without prejudice to the rights the law grants you as a consumer, in particular under the Spanish General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users (opens in a new tab) (TRLGDCU), the Information Society Services Act 34/2002 (opens in a new tab) (LSSI) and the General Contract Terms Act 7/1998 (opens in a new tab).

In these Terms:

• User: anyone who uses SecondBook, with or without an account
• Seller: the user who publishes a booking in order to sell it
• Buyer: the user who buys a published booking
• Booking: the right to stay at an accommodation on specific dates, previously contracted by the seller with the accommodation or with a booking website
• Listing: the publication of a booking on SecondBook, with its details, its price and its supporting documents
• Name change: the process by which the booking is put in the name of the buyer (or of the guest the buyer designates)
• Price: the amount the seller sets for their booking and that the buyer pays
• Fee: what SecondBook charges the seller for each sale (section 8)
• Accommodation: the hotel or establishment that provides the stay

SecondBook is an online marketplace that connects people who cannot use an accommodation booking with people who want to buy it. To make the transaction safe, SecondBook:

• Reviews every listing and its supporting documents before publishing it
• Collects the price from the buyer and holds it until after the stay, like an escrow (opens in a new tab)
• Handles the name change with the accommodation or with the website where the booking was made
• Pays the seller once the stay has ended

SecondBook acts as an intermediary: it is not a travel agency and does not provide the accommodation service. The stay is provided by the accommodation, under its own conditions (check-in times, house rules, local taxes, board…), and the accommodation is responsible for the stay. The contract for the sale of the booking is concluded between the seller and the buyer.

Some listings may be published by SecondBook itself. In that case, SecondBook is the seller of that booking and assumes towards the buyer the seller's obligations set out in these Terms.

All prices are shown and paid in euros.

To use SecondBook you must be at least 18 years old and have the legal capacity to enter into contracts.

You can buy and sell without an account by providing your contact details; to manage your purchases, sales and balance easily, we recommend creating one. If you create an account, you undertake to:

• Have only one account and not create others to get around a suspension
• Provide truthful, up-to-date details (name, email and phone) and correct them if they change
• Keep your credentials secure: do not share them, and tell us as soon as you suspect unauthorised access. We recommend enabling two-step verification

You are responsible for what is done from your account, unless it results from a failure of our security.

You can ask us to delete your account at any time from Your data. Deletion takes place after 30 days and you can cancel it until then; in the meantime the account is paused and your listings are no longer shown. If you have a purchase or sale in progress, a pending payment or a balance to withdraw, deletion waits until it is settled. The Privacy Policy explains which data we keep and for how long.

Publishing a booking is free. By publishing it, the seller represents and warrants that:

• The booking is genuine and confirmed and has not been cancelled
• They are its holder or have the right to dispose of it
• The booking allows a name change, or they accept that SecondBook checks this with the accommodation
• All the details of the listing are true and complete: accommodation, dates, room, board, guests, conditions and any charges the buyer will have to pay at the accommodation
• They will not sell or cancel the booking through another channel while it is listed or after it has been sold

To publish, the seller must provide the holder's name, the confirmation code and at least one supporting document for the booking. These details are not published: only our team uses them, to verify the booking and handle the name change.

Private or business seller: when publishing, the seller declares whether they sell as a private individual or as a business or professional. Anyone selling in the course of their business or profession must provide their name or company name, address, phone, email, identification document or number and, where applicable, the trade register they are entered in and their registration number, and certify that they only offer products and services that comply with European Union law (art. 30 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065, the Digital Services Act). SecondBook may verify these details, ask for them to be corrected, and reject or remove the listing if they are false or incomplete. The trader's name, address, phone, email and registration are shown to buyers; the identification number is not. Falsely declaring to sell as a private individual is a serious breach of these Terms.

Price: set by the seller, it cannot exceed the price they paid for the booking. It can be changed as long as the booking has not been sold. If you turn on dynamic pricing, you authorise SecondBook to lower the price of your booking automatically on the dates and down to the minimum amount you accepted when turning it on; you can turn it off or change the price at any time before the sale.

Review: every listing is reviewed before it is published and reviewed again if the seller changes the booking details. SecondBook may ask for more information, reject or remove a listing that does not comply with these Terms, appears fraudulent or whose booking cannot be transferred, stating the reason.

The seller can withdraw their listing as long as it has not been sold. Listings that are not sold stop being shown on the check-in day.

Once the booking has been sold, the seller must cooperate with our team on the name change and may not cancel or modify it. If a booking turns out to be false, inaccurate or non-transferable for reasons attributable to the seller, SecondBook will refund the buyer and the seller will not receive any amount for that sale, without prejudice to the other measures provided for in these Terms and to the seller's liability.

Who sells: before buying, the buyer sees whether the seller is a private individual, a business or SecondBook itself. If it is a private individual, consumer protection law does not apply to the sale between them; against SecondBook, as intermediary, the buyer keeps their consumer rights and the guarantees in these Terms (the payment held and a full refund if the change of name cannot be completed). If it is a business or SecondBook, the buyer has the rights that law gives them against it, except withdrawal (section 9). If SecondBook becomes aware that a business offered an illegal product or service, it will inform those who bought it in the previous six months, with the seller's identity and the means of redress (art. 32 of the Digital Services Act).

Price: the buyer pays exactly the price shown, with no SecondBook fees or surcharges. Local taxes (such as tourist tax) and extras charged directly by the accommodation are not included unless the listing says otherwise.

Payment: payment is made at the time of purchase through Stripe, our payment provider, using the methods shown. SecondBook never sees your full card details. A booking cannot be bought from its check-in day onwards.

If two people pay for the same booking at the same time, it goes to the first whose payment is confirmed, and the other is automatically refunded in full.

Money held: SecondBook keeps the amount and does not pay it to the seller until the stay has ended (section 7).

Name change: after the purchase, our team contacts you and arranges with the accommodation or the booking website for the booking to be put in your name or in the name of the guest you designate. We will confirm when it is done. For this we need the guest's name, email and phone, and timely replies from you.

If the name change cannot be completed, for example because the accommodation refuses it or the booking is not as advertised, we refund the full amount you paid. The refund is made to the same payment method, through Stripe; your bank may take 5 to 10 business days to show it.

The purchase is complete when the booking is in the buyer's name. From then on, the stay is governed by the accommodation's conditions.

When: the sale amount, less the fee, is added to the seller's balance once two full days have passed since the check-out date of the stay, unless the sale is in dispute or the buyer has been refunded.

How: the seller can withdraw their available balance by bank transfer to an account in their name, providing their IBAN (opens in a new tab) and tax details. The minimum withdrawal is €50. Our team reviews each withdrawal before sending it; once sent, the time it takes depends on the banks. The seller is responsible for the bank details being correct.

Holds: SecondBook may hold the payment for a sale, and the seller's balance withdrawals while it lasts, when there is an open issue, a dispute between users, a chargeback (opens in a new tab) by the buyer with their bank or signs of fraud, until it is resolved.

If, after a payout to the seller, the purchase is refunded or a chargeback succeeds for reasons attributable to the seller, the seller must repay the amount received for that sale, and SecondBook may deduct it from their balance.

Taxes: each seller is responsible for declaring and paying any taxes due on their sales.

Publishing is free. A fee is charged only if the booking is sold, and it is paid by the seller:

• 10% of the sale price + VAT (opens in a new tab) (12.1% including VAT)
• With a minimum of €15 + VAT (€18.15 including VAT)

The fee is deducted from the amount the seller receives and is shown before publishing. If the sale is cancelled and the buyer is refunded, the seller receives no amount for it.

Buying is free of fees: the buyer pays only the price of the listing.

The buyer cannot cancel a purchase once it has been paid: the booking is set aside for them and the seller can no longer sell it to anyone else. If the name change cannot be completed, they get the full amount back (section 6). Once the booking is in their name, cancellations and changes are governed by the accommodation's conditions.

The seller can withdraw their listing as long as it has not been sold, but cannot cancel a sold booking.

Right of withdrawal: as a consumer, you generally have 14 days to withdraw from a distance contract. However, this right does not apply to accommodation services for specific dates, under Article 103(l) of the TRLGDCU (opens in a new tab) and Article 16(l) of Directive 2011/83/EU (opens in a new tab). The bookings sold on SecondBook are always for specific dates, so it is not possible to withdraw from the purchase once it has been paid. This does not limit your right to a full refund if the name change cannot be completed.

If something is not as advertised (for example, the accommodation does not recognise the booking when you arrive), write to us as soon as possible from our contact page. While the payment is still held we can better protect your money, so we recommend telling us before two days have passed since check-out.

In a dispute between buyer and seller, our team may ask both for information and evidence, hold the payment while it reviews the case and decide, impartially and with reasons, whether the buyer is refunded in full or in part or the seller is paid. This decision does not prevent you from going to the consumer authorities or the courts.

If the buyer starts a chargeback with their bank, the sale goes into dispute and its amount is held until the bank decides. Before doing so, please write to us: we can usually resolve it sooner and faster.

On SecondBook you may not:

• Publish bookings that are non-existent, false, tampered with or already cancelled, or that you have no right to dispose of
• Sell the same booking through another channel, or cancel it, after listing or selling it
• Negotiate or pay outside SecondBook: share emails, phone numbers, links or bank accounts to close the deal off the platform or avoid the fee
• Make fake purchases, use payment methods that do not belong to you, or start unfounded chargebacks
• Impersonate another person or an accommodation, or engage in phishing (opens in a new tab)
• Insult, harass or threaten other users or our team, or send spam
• Create several accounts, or use a new one to get around a suspension
• Scrape data from the platform automatically, interfere with its operation or try to access it without authorisation
• Use SecondBook for any unlawful purpose or one contrary to these Terms

To protect buyers and sellers, we review listings before publishing them and chat messages before delivering them. Messages are checked by an automated system that detects contact details, offers to pay outside SecondBook, scams, insults or spam; if it does, the message is not delivered and counts as a warning. If warnings add up, the account is suspended automatically, first temporarily and, if it happens again, permanently. Our team may also reject or remove listings, suspend an account or cancel a transaction in case of a breach of these Terms, illegal content, fraud or risk to other users. Anyone can report a listing from the listing itself. Any measure will be proportionate.

Reasons. When we restrict your content or account we will tell you, by email and in "Moderation decisions": what we decided, its scope and duration; the facts relied on, including whether it followed a third party's report (without revealing who); whether automated means were used to detect or decide it; the section of these Terms or the legal provision applied; and how to contest it.

Account suspension. While your account is suspended, your listings are taken off sale. When the suspension ends, they go back on sale automatically, except those whose stay has already started, which expire.

Complaints. You may complain free of charge about any such decision, and about our decision on a report you submitted, for six months after being told of it, from "Moderation decisions", the link in our email or, if your account is suspended, straight from the sign-in screen. Every complaint is reviewed by a member of our team, never by an automated system alone, diligently and objectively, and we will give you a reasoned answer. If we agree with you, we will reverse the decision without undue delay. A suspension reversed after a complaint is treated as never having happened and does not count towards future measures.

Out-of-court settlement and courts. You may also go to an out-of-court dispute settlement body certified under Article 21 of Regulation (EU) 2022/2065 (Digital Services Act) (European Commission list: link (opens in a new tab)); SecondBook will engage in good faith with the body you choose. None of this prevents you from going to the courts (section 20).

Misuse. After a prior warning, we may temporarily suspend the account of anyone who frequently provides manifestly illegal content, and for a time stop processing the reports and complaints of anyone who frequently submits manifestly unfounded ones. We assess each case: the number of manifest cases and their share over the last year, their gravity and consequences, and the intent shown. You will be told of the measure and its reasons and may contest it.

Serious offences. If we become aware of information giving rise to a suspicion of a criminal offence involving a threat to the life or safety of persons, we will inform the competent authorities.

Listings and hotels are shown in the order you choose in “Sort by”. The criteria are: soonest date (stays that start soonest first; the default on Explore), latest date, biggest discount (how much the listing cuts the booking's original price), price (lowest or highest total) and relevance (offers from the most recently added places first). For hotels from other websites, relevance is the popularity order our hotel data provider gives us; you can also sort them by price, guest rating, distance to the centre or number of reviews. Within a hotel, prices from other websites go from lowest to highest.

Nobody pays SecondBook to appear higher or to feature a listing, and we don't order results by your browsing: the same search shows everyone the same order. The “Personalised recommendations” option in Your data only lets us suggest destinations based on what you've viewed; you can switch it off at any time, and then that profile isn't built. If we ever offer featured or paid positions, they will be marked as such and we will update this section.

On some pages we show, alongside SecondBook bookings, prices from partner booking websites, identified as such. If you choose one of those offers, you will leave SecondBook and the booking is made on that partner's website, under its own conditions and privacy policy: SecondBook is not a party to that contract and is not liable for it. We may receive compensation from those partners, which does not affect the price you pay.

Partner prices are shown as they provide them to us and may change; the valid price is the one shown on their website when you book.

The platform, its design, its code, its trademarks and its content belong to SecondBook or its licensors, as set out in the Legal notice.

The content you publish (such as the details and descriptions of your listings) remains yours. You grant us a free, non-exclusive licence to display it on SecondBook while it is published, and you warrant that you have the right to do so.

SecondBook is responsible for providing its intermediation service with due diligence: verifying listings, safeguarding the payment, handling the name change and refunding the buyer where appropriate under these Terms.

To the fullest extent permitted by law, SecondBook is not liable for:

• The stay and anything that depends on the accommodation: its facilities, its services, its changes or its cancellations
• False or inaccurate information provided by users, even if we review it
• Third-party offers and websites (section 14)
• Service interruptions due to causes beyond our control or to necessary maintenance

Nothing in these Terms excludes or limits liability that the law does not allow to be excluded, such as liability for wilful misconduct or gross negligence, or the rights the law grants you as a consumer.

Each user is liable for the damage they cause by breaching these Terms, in particular a seller who publishes a false or non-transferable booking.

Neither party is liable for a failure to perform caused by unforeseeable or unavoidable events beyond its control (force majeure (opens in a new tab)), such as natural disasters, epidemics, conflicts, decisions of the authorities or general communication outages. If the stay cannot take place for those reasons, the accommodation's conditions and the applicable law apply; we will help you deal with the accommodation.

We may amend these Terms to adapt them to legal or service changes. If the change is significant, we will tell you by email and on the platform at least 15 days before it takes effect. If you do not agree, you can stop using SecondBook and delete your account before that date.

Purchases and sales already made are governed by the Terms in force when they were made. The date of the last update appears at the top of this page.

You can stop using SecondBook at any time and delete your account (section 4).

SecondBook may permanently close an account for serious or repeated breaches of these Terms, fraud or use that harms other users, explaining the reason and with the possibility of appeal (section 12).

Transactions in progress will be completed in accordance with these Terms: the buyer keeps their right to a refund where applicable and the seller their right to be paid for completed sales, subject to the holds in section 7.

These Terms are governed by Spanish law. If you are a consumer residing in another country of the European Union, you keep the protection granted to you by the mandatory rules of your country.

If you are a consumer, you may bring a claim before the courts of your place of residence. If you are not a consumer, the parties submit to the courts of Seville (Spain).

Before going to court, we invite you to write to us: we will try to resolve the matter amicably. You can also contact the consumer authorities where you live.

For any question about these Terms, a purchase or a sale, write to us from our contact page. For privacy matters, write to soporte@secondbookapp.com.

Our postal address is SecondBook SLU, Avda. Junta de Compensación 17, 41300 San José de la Rinconada, Sevilla, España.