Direct bookings

Rental agreement

Draft 1 · October 11, 2026

This agreement covers stays booked directly with us, by phone or on this website, and paid on Stripe's secure page. It's written to be plain. Please read it before you book.

1. About this agreement

• "We", "us" and "the hosts" mean The Junction Retreat, operated by Virtually LLC (Seattle short-term rental operator license STR-OPLI-26-005482). "You" means the person who books and pays.
• It applies to direct bookings only. If you found us on Airbnb or booked there, please book and stay under Airbnb's terms and the house rules on the listing. Direct booking isn't offered to Airbnb guests.
• You accept this agreement by ticking "I agree to The Junction Retreat rental agreement" on the Stripe payment page. Stripe records that you ticked it, and when.
• You accept it for everyone staying with you, and you make sure they follow it.
• The version shown when you booked applies to your stay. We keep every version.

RA-1, for legal review: is the checkbox a valid signature for this agreement, the damage clause and the $500 hold? Should every adult accept separately (for example on the guest page before arrival), and should a copy be emailed with the confirmation?

2. Who can book

• The person booking must be 21 or older.
• The person booking must be one of the adults staying at the house, and does the ID check in their own name (section 7).
• Booking for someone else, such as a parent booking for a grown child, or a company for an employee? Please contact the hosts. They set those stays up directly.
• If the last name on the ID clearly differs from the name on the booking, the hosts review the booking before it goes ahead.

RA-2, for legal review: is a minimum booking age of 21 lawful for a Washington short-term rental, and can we require that an adult of 21 or older stays for the whole stay?

3. Your stay

• Check-in is at 3:00 PM and checkout at 11:00 AM, Pacific time. Early check-in and late checkout aren't part of a booking, but you're welcome to ask.
• The minimum stay is 2 nights. Stays of 30 nights or more are arranged with the hosts directly.
• Direct bookings need at least 2 days' notice. For sooner dates, contact the hosts and they'll see what's possible.
• While you pay, your dates are held for 45 minutes. If the time runs out, the hold ends and nothing is charged.
• Check-in is keyless. The hosts email your arrival details (entry, your door code and parking) the day before check-in. The address is shared only after your stay is booked.

4. Price and payment

• The total on the payment page is the full price: the nightly rate, the cleaning fee, the pet cleaning fee if pets come, and lodging taxes. There's no booking or service fee on top.
• Prices at the date of this draft: $365 a night, $210 for cleaning per stay, $80 per stay if pets come (not per pet), and 15.7% lodging tax (8.7% Washington sales tax plus 7.0% Seattle convention and trade center tax) on the nights, cleaning and pet cleaning fee, for stays under 30 nights. The prices shown when you book are the ones that apply.
• How the payment works. When you book, your card is authorized for the full total: the amount is held, not taken. It's charged once your ID check passes and our final calendar check is clear. Then your stay is booked and your confirmation email follows.
• If the booking doesn't go ahead, we cancel the authorization and nothing is charged. If your bank shows a pending amount, it drops off within a few days, depending on your bank.
• You pay only on Stripe's secure page, by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay or Link. We never take card numbers by phone, text or email, and we don't take cash, checks, Venmo, Zelle or a payment split across cards.
• Stripe saves your card securely so we can place the damage hold (section 6). By booking, you authorize us to place that hold on the saved card, and to charge it for damage as section 11 describes.

RA-3, placeholder: the lodging tax rate is still to be confirmed with the Washington Department of Revenue address lookup, and whether Seattle's per-night short-term rental fee applies to direct stays. Update the prices above if either changes.

5. Cancellation

• "5 days before check-in" means 3:00 PM Pacific time, five days before your check-in date (120 hours before check-in). We go by the time your request reaches us.
• After check-in, there's no refund under this policy.
• To cancel, email or call the hosts. They confirm by replying to the email on your booking, so nobody else can cancel your stay.
• Refunds go back to the card you paid with, through Stripe.
• To change your dates, book the new dates first. The original stay is then cancelled under this policy.
• If we ever have to cancel your stay, we refund everything you paid.

RA-4, pending decision: what "half of the stay" covers. Draft reading, the kinder one: half the nightly price, with the cleaning fee and any pet cleaning fee refunded in full, plus the lodging tax on what's refunded. Example: a 2-night stay for 2 adults paid $1,064.44, so a late cancellation refunds $642.14. The other reading (half of the total paid) would refund $532.22.

RA-5, placeholder: how long a refund takes to reach the card (Stripe says usually 5 to 10 business days), and whether a date move inside the 5 days is treated more kindly than a cancellation. The hosts to confirm the last bullet (the hosts cancelling) and any help with rebooking.

6. The $500 damage hold

• It's a hold, not a charge. It goes on the card you paid with, the day before check-in. If you book after that, it's placed shortly after your stay is booked.
• It's released about 36 hours after checkout, unless there's damage (section 11). Your bank decides how fast the released amount shows as available again.
• Card holds lapse after a few days. On a longer stay, a fresh hold may be placed before the old one lapses, so you may briefly see two. A hold is never placed again after checkout.
• If your card declines the hold, we email you a link to approve it. Your arrival details are sent once the hold is in place, or once the hosts have sorted it out with you.
• If a stay is refunded before check-in, the hold isn't placed.

RA-6, pending decision: the release timing (about 36 hours after checkout) is the recommended setting and still to be confirmed by the hosts.

7. The ID check

• Every direct booking includes the ID check, by phone or on the website. By booking, you agree to a one-time identity check by Stripe: a photo of your government ID and a live selfie that Stripe compares to it.
• The person booking does it, straight after paying, on Stripe's secure pages. It takes about 2 minutes on a phone. A driver's license, passport or ID card works. On a computer, Stripe shows a QR code so you can finish on your phone.
• On the website you agree to the check with its own checkbox before you reserve. On the phone, we ask before any talk of payment, and you say yes. Stripe also asks for your consent on its own screen before you start.
• What we keep: whether the check passed, and whether the name on the ID matches the name on the booking. Stripe handles the photos for us. We don't copy them, and we don't keep the name, date of birth, address or number from your ID. The hosts can view the check in Stripe if they need to sort out a problem with your booking.
• You get three tries. Glare and blur are the usual reasons a photo doesn't take, so just try again on the same page. If the third try doesn't pass, the booking doesn't go ahead: we cancel the authorization, the dates reopen, and nothing is charged.
• A few things end the ID check at once, such as saying no on Stripe's consent screen, or a type of ID that Stripe can't check. If that happens, the booking doesn't go ahead and nothing is charged.
• If the check isn't finished within 48 hours of booking, or by 24 hours before check-in if that's sooner, the booking doesn't go ahead in the same way.
• If Stripe reports that the selfie or the ID was altered, the booking ends straight away, nothing is charged, and we don't take another direct booking from the same email or phone number for 30 days.
• If the check passes but the last name on the ID clearly differs from the booking name, the hosts review it and approve or decline. If they haven't decided by the deadline above, the booking doesn't go ahead.
• Your stay is booked only once the ID check has passed, the calendar check is clear and your card has been charged.

More about the ID check and your rights: Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy and Privacy Policy.

RA-7, for legal review: notice and consent under Washington's biometric law (RCW 19.375) and the My Health My Data Act (RCW 19.373); whether a recorded spoken yes is valid consent on the phone; whether anything here is covered by the FCRA; and whether to keep the sentence saying the hosts can view the check in Stripe.

8. Guests

• The house welcomes up to 5 guests in total. Adults (13 and up) and children from 2 to 12 count toward the total; up to two babies under 2 are not counted.
• Up to 2 babies under 2 are welcome, and they aren't counted.
• Only the people in your booking stay overnight. If your party changes, tell the hosts before you arrive.

RA-8, pending decision: the hosts are confirming the guest limit. This section, the booking system, the website and the insurance will all use the final number.

RA-9, placeholder: daytime visitors. The hosts to decide whether visitors are allowed, and if so on what terms (for example, with the hosts' OK, never more people than the guest limit, and gone by quiet hours).

9. Pets and service animals

• Up to 2 pets (house-trained dogs or cats) are welcome, for one $80 pet cleaning fee per stay (not per pet). Tell us about them when you book, so the fee is in your total.
• Other kinds of pets aren't allowed.
• There's an outdoor dog-wash station. Damage by a pet is treated like any other damage (section 11).

RA-10, placeholder: house rules for dogs (for example: not left alone in the house, off the beds, picked up after). The hosts to confirm.

Service animals

RA-11, placeholder text until the lawyer answers: Service animals are welcome, and no pet cleaning fee is charged for them. Let the hosts know when you book, and they'll set up your stay with you. We ask nothing about the animal or anyone's disability.
For legal review: please give this section's wording under the ADA (Title III) and Washington's Law Against Discrimination (RCW 49.60): what, if anything, the hosts may ask; emotional support animals; whether the dog limit and house rules apply; and damage caused by a service animal.

10. House rules

• Quiet hours are 9 PM to 8 AM. It's a quiet residential street, so please keep voices and music low outside, on the deck most of all.
• No parties or events. RA-12, placeholder: the hosts to confirm the wording.
• No smoking or vaping of any kind indoors. RA-13, placeholder: the hosts to decide on the deck and yard, and on cannabis.
• The Softub. Every adult who uses the Softub signs the online Softub waiver before their first soak, and follows the rules posted beside it. Children use it only with an adult within arm's reach. The waiver is its own agreement; this one doesn't replace it.
• Leave the house as you found it. RA-14, placeholder: the checkout steps (dishes, trash and recycling, towels, lock-up). The hosts to add.
• Safety first. In an emergency, call 911. If you smell gas, or a smoke or carbon monoxide alarm sounds, get everyone out first, then call 911. Then let the hosts know.
• Be a good neighbor. Park legally and keep the street as quiet as you'd want your own.

RA-15, placeholder: any other house rules the hosts want in the agreement (for example candles, fireworks, the fire pit, the grill and the pergola). Amenities are left out until the hosts confirm them.

RA-16, for legal review: should this agreement include or refer to the Softub waiver, and must the waiver be signed before arrival?

11. Damage and responsibility

• You're responsible for your party and your dogs, and for loss or damage beyond normal wear during your stay.
• Please tell the hosts about any damage or breakage when it happens. Accidents happen, and telling us early helps us fix things for the next guests.
• If there's damage, the hosts may charge its cost to the $500 hold before it's released. We email you what was charged and why, with photos and any receipts. If the damage costs more than $500, you agree to pay the difference.
• Damage or misuse of the Softub beyond normal wear is billed at cost, as the Softub waiver says.
• If a serious rule is broken (a party, more people than booked, smoking indoors, or danger to people or the house), the hosts may end the stay early.

RA-17, for legal review: the damage clause and how a guest can dispute a damage charge; ending a stay early and whether any refund is due; whether to add an extra-cleaning charge for unusual mess (the hosts to decide).

RA-18, for legal review: limitation of liability and indemnity, to be drafted by the lawyer. For discussion, the waiver's approach: your party uses the house, the deck and the Softub at its own risk to the extent the law allows, except where harm is caused by the hosts' gross negligence or willful misconduct.

RA-19, for legal review: whether to mention the hosts' liability insurance (RCW 64.37.050), and whether to suggest travel insurance to guests.

12. If something goes wrong

• The hosts live just up the street. Tell them about any problem at the house, and they'll fix what they can, quickly.
• Only the hosts can agree a refund or a credit.
• Locked out? For your safety, the hosts share door codes only by email to the address on your booking, or by calling you back on the number on your booking.

13. Your information

Our Privacy Policy explains what we collect and why. Our Consumer Health Data Privacy Policy covers the ID check's selfie and your rights over it. Calls to our booking line are recorded so we can follow up.

14. Other terms

• Washington law applies to this agreement.
• If a court finds part of this agreement can't be enforced, the rest still applies.
• This agreement, the Softub waiver and the details in your booking confirmation are the whole agreement for your stay.

RA-20, for legal review: governing law, venue (King County) and how disputes are resolved; the severability and whole-agreement wording; whether a Spanish version is needed, and when.

15. Contact

Email the hosts at stay@junctionretreat.com.

RA-21, placeholder: confirm the support email (it also goes in Stripe's public details) and whether a phone number is listed here.