Complaints, compensation and service recovery

Do

Report any issue to us the moment your client raises it, by phone or WhatsApp on +971 (4) 392-0202 for anything urgent, or by email to partners@deluxehomes.com for anything that can wait for a written thread.
Give us the booking reference, the property, the guest name, the date and time the issue started, and a factual description.
Send photos or short video at the time of the report — undated screenshots sent weeks later carry little weight.
Give us access. Tell the guest a technician or GRO may need to enter, and confirm a window.
Keep your client in one channel: either they deal with us directly, or everything routes through you. Mixed channels cause duplicate promises.
Send us everything you have in one go — the guest's own account, photos, timestamps, and the confirmation your client was originally sent.
Tell us immediately if your client has also opened a case with an OTA, a card issuer or DET (formerly DTCM). Parallel cases change how we can respond.
Respond to our requests for information within the window we give you. Cases stall on missing guest consent for access or on unanswered emails.
Get the guest's agreement to relocate in writing, or ask us to obtain it directly.
Tell us immediately about accessibility needs, group composition or fixed commitments that limit which alternative units are workable.
Escalate in writing, with the booking reference in the subject line.
Tell us at once if the guest initiates a chargeback. A chargeback pauses any goodwill discussion until the card scheme case is resolved.

Don’t

Do not promise your client a refund, an upgrade, a discount, a relocation or any compensation amount. Only Deluxe Holiday Homes can authorise those.
Do not instruct the guest to book alternative accommodation and claim it back. Unauthorised spend is not reimbursed.
Do not arrange your own contractor, locksmith or cleaner in one of our units.
Do not hold back the complaint until after check-out because you hope to negotiate a larger settlement.
Do not publish or threaten to publish a review as leverage during an open investigation.
Do not edit, crop or re-date evidence supplied by the guest before forwarding it.
Do not withhold the fact that the guest breached house rules, brought extra occupants or caused the damage themselves. It will surface in the inspection and it damages your position on future cases.
Do not refuse a reasonable relocation offer on the guest's behalf and then claim a full refund. A refused reasonable alternative reduces or extinguishes the claim.
Do not raise the same case simultaneously with operations, your account contact and an external authority. Parallel tracks delay the outcome.
Do not treat silence as approval. If it is not confirmed in writing, it is not agreed.

This policy governs complaints raised by guests or owners you have introduced to Deluxe Holiday Homes. It applies to travel agencies, concierge services, corporate partners and real-estate brokers. It covers in-stay issues escalated to us, post-stay complaints, compensation, relocation and how any goodwill payment is settled between us.

Read it together with your commercial agreement. Where your signed agreement and this article differ, the agreement prevails.

Scope: what counts as a complaint

A complaint is any claim by your client that the accommodation, the check-in, the condition of the unit or our service did not meet what was booked. It includes:

Property condition — cleanliness, damage, missing amenities, appliance or air-conditioning failure.
Access and check-in — delayed handover, access failure, incorrect address or unit.
Misdescription — the unit materially differs from the confirmed booking (bedrooms, view, building, capacity).
Building-level disruption — lift outage, water or power cut, construction noise, pool or gym closure.
Service failure — unanswered contact, late response to a reported fault, failed maintenance visit.
Billing disputes — charges the guest says were not agreed, including security deposit deductions.

The following are not complaints under this policy and will be closed as such: guest-caused damage, breaches of house rules, deposit deductions supported by evidence, and dissatisfaction with terms the guest accepted at booking (for example a no-refund rate). Refund entitlement itself is not decided here — see the ruling below.

Exception. Where the booking was made through an OTA or through your own booking channel, refunds and cancellations are governed by that channel's own policy, not by ours. Our complaint investigation still runs, but the refund decision follows the contract the guest actually booked under. Direct bookings follow the Refund Policy page on our website, which may be updated from time to time.

Report in-stay, not post-stay

The single most important obligation in this policy: issues must be reported while the guest is still in the property. An in-stay report lets us inspect, repair, replace or relocate. A post-stay report leaves us with no ability to verify or remedy anything, and materially weakens any claim.

Complaints received after check-out about conditions that were never reported during the stay are investigated but are, as a rule, declined for compensation. If your client did not give us the chance to fix it, we do not pay for it.

Reporting deadlines

Issue type	Report by
Anything affecting safety, security or habitability	Immediately, by phone or WhatsApp
In-stay defect, cleanliness, appliance failure	Same day it is noticed
Billing or deposit dispute	Within 14 days of the charge or the deposit release
Post-stay complaint of any kind	7 days after check-out

In a genuine emergency — fire, flood, medical event, crime, gas smell — contact local emergency services first, then call us on +971 (4) 392-0202.

How we investigate

Logged. We open a case against the booking reference and confirm receipt to you.
Verified. We check the report against the PMS record, the housekeeping and inspection log, access records, the maintenance history and any GRO notes.
Inspected. Where the issue is physical, we attend the property or send a technician, and we photograph the condition ourselves.
Remedied. Where the issue is fixable, we fix it. Repair and replacement always take priority over cash.
Assessed. If the issue could not be remedied in reasonable time, or the guest was materially deprived of what was booked, we assess whether a goodwill settlement or relocation is appropriate.
Decided. We issue a written outcome to you: upheld, partially upheld, or declined, with the reasoning and any settlement amount.
Closed. The case is closed once the settlement is paid or the outcome is accepted.

Target timeframes: a logged complaint is acknowledged the same working day, and a written outcome is issued within 3 working days.

Who decides on compensation

Authority sits with Deluxe Holiday Homes, not with you and not with the guest. No GRO, driver, housekeeper, technician or account manager can commit us to a compensation figure. A settlement exists only when it has been confirmed to you in writing by an authorised approver.

Decision	Who authorises
Repair, replacement, re-clean, additional amenity	Operations, without escalation
Relocation to another unit in our portfolio	The Reservations Manager before the stay starts; the Guest Support Manager with the Head of Operations during a stay
Goodwill credit or partial refund	Team Leader up to AED 200, Guest Support Manager up to AED 1,000, Head of Operations above that
Full refund or termination of the stay	The Guest Support Manager and the Reservations Manager jointly, with the Deputy General Manager above AED 5,000
Third-party costs (hotel, transport, out-of-pocket)	Only where authorised in writing in advance by us

Any amount you promise your client without our written authorisation is your own commitment, not ours. We will not reimburse it and it will not be netted off your commission.

Relocation

Where a unit is uninhabitable or cannot be made fit within a reasonable period, we will look to relocate rather than refund. Relocation is our preferred remedy because it preserves the stay and the booking value.

We select the alternative unit from our own portfolio based on availability, capacity and location.
We aim for equivalent or better standard. Where the alternative is of a lower standard, the difference is addressed as part of the settlement.
Where the alternative is of a higher standard, no upgrade charge is passed to the guest.
Transfer of the guest and their belongings between units is arranged by us.
Relocation outside our portfolio, including to a hotel, requires prior written authorisation.

Exception. We do not offer luggage storage and there is no storage in the buildings. If a relocation or a check-out creates a luggage gap, we can refer a third-party storage company, but after check-out we are not responsible for guest luggage at all.

How settlements affect your commission

Compensation reduces the value of the booking. Where a booking is refunded in part or in full, or a goodwill credit is issued against it, your commission is recalculated on the net value actually retained, and the difference is recovered.

Commission is calculated on the net booking value after any refund or goodwill credit, not on the original gross.
Where commission has already been paid, the adjustment is recovered by offset against your next payout. Where no further payout is due, we invoice you instead.
Where the fault is entirely ours — a property or service failure — commission is still recalculated on the net value we actually retain.
Where the settlement arises from something you controlled — wrong dates booked, wrong unit type sold, guest count misdeclared, terms misrepresented to the client — the cost of the remedy is allocated to you. This is not capped at the commission on that booking: the full cost of the remedy is recovered.
Every adjustment is itemised against the booking reference on your statement, so you can reconcile it line by line.

Settlement timing follows the normal commercial cycle: goodwill payments and commission adjustments are processed on the statement for the month in which the settlement is paid.

Repeated complaints traced to misselling — describing a unit as something it is not, or confirming terms we never agreed — are handled as a commercial matter, not a service matter, and may affect your rates or your continued access to the portfolio.

Escalation beyond the first outcome

If you do not accept our written outcome, escalate in this order. Do not restart the case in a new email thread — reply on the existing case so the history stays intact.

Reply to the outcome email within 7 days, stating specifically what you dispute and what new evidence you are relying on.
We conduct a second review, carried out by someone who did not make the first decision.
If you still disagree, escalate to your account contact for a commercial review under your agreement. Escalation for a commercial review goes to the Business Development Manager at partners@deluxehomes.com.
External escalation. Guests may raise tourism-related complaints with DET (formerly DTCM). Where a case is escalated externally, we respond to the authority directly and will ask you for the full correspondence trail.

Deposits and charges raised as complaints

A security deposit is held for all guests except Airbnb bookings and bookings through Homes & Villas by Marriott International, which are deposit-exempt. Where a deduction is disputed, we release the case as a billing dispute and support it with the check-in and check-out inspection evidence.

Deduction disputes are decided on inspection evidence, not on the guest's recollection.
Where evidence does not support the deduction, the amount is released in full.
Where it does, the deduction stands and the case is closed as declined.

Quick reference

Issue reported to us while the guest is still in the property
Booking reference, property, guest name, date and time supplied
Photo or video evidence attached at the time of report
Access window confirmed with the guest
No compensation figure promised to the client by you
Any parallel OTA, chargeback or DET (formerly DTCM) case disclosed to us
Written outcome received and, if disputed, challenged on the same thread

Contact: phone or WhatsApp +971 (4) 392-0202, email partners@deluxehomes.com. In an emergency, contact local emergency services first.

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