How it works

Rental Policies & Procedures

Policies & Procedures

Island Vacation homes Ltd. acts as an agent on a contract basis for private homeowners who wish to rent their homes on a nightly, weekly or monthly basis. We are a registered vacation home agency (Consumer Protection BC license 30210).

Our role at Island Vacation Homes Ltd. Is to assist guests by:

  • Working with you to book the vacation home that best suits your needs.
  • Confirming your reservation with an emailed confirmation.
  • Taking a deposit of 50% at the time of booking.
  • Taking the balance owing 45 days prior to arrival.
  • Providing written directions to our office from the BC Ferries Swartz Bay terminal and the Victoria Airport.
  • Registering you at the office and providing you with written instructions and keys for your vacation home.
  • Serving as your host while you are in our community.

We require a minimum damage / excessive cleaning deposit of $500.00 CAD on all of our bookings. Special events, larger groups, bringing a pet, or occasions (such as New Year’s or end of school year) may result in a higher deposit. We establish a pre-authorized hold for the deposit on your credit card prior to check-in.  If there is no damage or excessive cleaning needed when you check out, we do not process the transaction.

Cancellation Policy

Our cancellation policy is as follows:

  • A 50% deposit of the total amount owed is due at the time of booking.
  • The balance is owed 45 days before you arrive.
  • If you cancel before the 45 days deadline, your 50% deposit will be returned to you, minus a Cancellation Fee. The Cancellation Fee is equal to Island Vacation Homes’ non-refundable credit card transaction fees (approximately 7% of the total deposit). The minimum Cancellation Fee is $50.00 CAD.
  • If you cancel after the 45 days deadline, you may receive a refund of what we can obtain by re-renting the property. Good faith effort will be made to re-rent the property. However, there is no guarantee that this will occur. If you are worried about a cancellation, we advise that you purchase trip cancellation insurance.
  • There are no refunds if you leave early.

Event Pricing

Pricing for special events involves the following additional considerations:

  • If your event involves only the rental of a vacation home, and there will be no visitors who do not have a bed in the home, there is no extra accommodation charge. However the cleaning fee and the damage / excessive cleaning deposit may be increased.
  • If your event involves extra guests who are not staying at any of our vacation homes, accommodation charges, cleaning fee and damage deposit will be increased.
  • Under certain circumstances, there may be additional event fees ranging from $500.00 to $1500.00 CAD to cover the cost of servicing the event. This includes such things as allowing extended access to the property (for set-up and take-down) or when the event involves our staff in extra work such as supervising the set-up and take-down, or when dealing with caterers, musicians, and photographers etc.

Check-in / Check-out Times

Check-in is at 5:00 pm. Check-out is at 10:00 am in High Season, and 11:00 am in Shoulder and Low Seasons.

Pet Policy

Pets are allowed at selected properties, so long as you adhere to the following conditions:

  •  Inform us in advance about the pet you are bringing.
  •  Agree to remove animal waste from all areas of the property.
  •  Keep pets off of the furniture (use a crate to contain your pet during the night).
  • Have your pet’s nails trimmed to prevent accidental damage.
  • Attend to your pet at all times (i.e., not leaving the pet alone in the house or unsupervised on the property).
  • Maintain control of your pet at all times and to obey local leash laws.
  •  Able to provide evidence of a recent flea treatment.

COVID-19 update

We are taking ordinary short-term bookings that are consistent with social distance guidelines. In addition to extra cleaning of high touch surfaces, we are spacing bookings out with at least a day between each one.