All payments are final — for the owners who hire us and the guests who book. Here is exactly what that covers.
Last updated September 22, 2026
Saga Haus is a property management company first. We run short-term rentals on behalf of the owners who hire us, and we host the guests who book them. This page speaks to both, and it says the same thing to each: money paid to Saga Haus is not refunded. We would rather you read that before you sign or book than discover it afterwards.
Saga Haus does not give refunds — to anyone, for any reason. Management commission, design and strategy fees, costs we have already paid out on a property's behalf, and confirmed guest bookings are all non-refundable, in whole and in part, whatever the circumstances and however early you tell us. The sections below spell out what that means on each side.
Two things sit alongside this policy and are not exceptions to it. A stay booked on Airbnb, Vrbo or another platform is contracted there and follows the cancellation policy shown at that platform's checkout. And a signed management or design services agreement controls where it says something different from this page. That first point is about a guest's payment for a stay: it does not reach anything an owner has paid us, and commission, design and strategy fees and costs on a managed property sit outside it entirely. Neither of those creates a right to a refund from us; they simply say which rules apply to which transaction, and to whom.
If we manage your property or you have hired us for design strategy, the commercial terms of that relationship live in the management agreement or design services agreement you signed with us. This section tells you how we treat money that has already changed hands under it.
Our management fee is a percentage of the revenue your property earns, and we are paid out of that revenue at the same time it arrives. That is the whole model — it is built on growing your revenue rather than inflating our fees. Commission is earned as revenue is received for your property — when a booking is paid, whether or not the stay has yet happened — and it is not refundable after that. A guest who cancels, a slow month, a season that disappoints, a change of heart about short-term renting, a sale of the property, or a decision to move the property to another manager does not reach back and undo commission on revenue already received. If a channel later refunds a guest or claws a payout back, that is handled under the channel's rules and your management agreement; it is not a refund we owe you. The rate, and how and when commission is calculated and taken, is set out in your management agreement, and where your agreement says something different from this paragraph, your agreement governs.
Design and strategy work is quoted per property and billed as set out in your design services agreement. Those fees are not refundable once billed — not before the work starts, not part-way through it, and not long after it is delivered. What you are buying is the thinking and the plan: the market and competition analysis, the story-driven concept, the listing copy, the space plans and the curated aesthetic choices. Whatever happens next, the fee is not returned — if you stop the engagement before we deliver, decide not to implement the plan, implement only part of it, sell the property, or hand it to someone else, it stays with us. Installation is not part of our design services — most owners hire a local handyman for that — so an installation that goes sideways is not grounds for a design refund.
Running a property means spending money on it: cleaning and turnovers, routine maintenance and upkeep, restocked essentials, listing and channel costs. Once those costs are incurred they are not refundable — the cleaner has cleaned, the supplies are in the cabin, the channel has already taken its cut. We bill them as your agreement provides, and we will always show you what a charge was for. Money we hold in advance against costs that have not yet been incurred is not a Saga Haus fee, and this policy neither makes it refundable nor keeps it: it is applied to costs on your property and settled at the end of the engagement exactly as your management agreement provides. Returning an unapplied balance is the settlement of your own money — it is not a refund of anything you have paid us.
You can stop working with us at any point — moving to another manager, taking the property back in hand, or selling it; nobody is locked in a room. But ending early does not produce a refund, a rebate or a credit. Fees and commission already earned stay earned, costs already incurred stay payable, and nothing is prorated, rebated or credited back to you. Your signed agreement is the only place a settlement on termination could come from, and it says what it says — this page does not create one. How notice is given, and what happens to bookings already on the calendar, is set out in your agreement rather than here.
Your rate, billing timing, how revenue reaches you, term and termination, and everything else specific to your property are in your management agreement or design services agreement. This page is the general position; where your agreement says something different, your agreement controls. If you are not certain what yours says, ask and we will walk through it with you. Your agreement decides which rules apply to your property. It is not a second route to a refund from this page.
If something on a statement or invoice looks wrong — a cost you do not recognize, a duplicate, an amount that does not match what we agreed — email gaby.pincombe@sagahausrentals.com as soon as you spot it, and in any case while the statement is current, and we will go through it line by line with you. If a charge was genuinely wrong — a duplicate, a miskeyed amount, a cost that belonged to another property — we correct it on your next statement, quickly and without a fight, because we would rather be accurate than be right. That is a correction of a mistake, and a conversation about whether a charge was correct — not a route to a refund of fees that were. Where your agreement sets its own window for querying a statement, that window is the one that counts.
Every confirmed booking takes a set of dates off the market — dates another guest would have taken, and that we usually cannot resell on short notice. The owner whose cabin you booked is counting on those dates too. That is why this side of the policy is strict, and why we ask you to read it before you book rather than after.
Saga Haus bookings are non-refundable. Once your booking is confirmed and paid, we do not offer refunds, full or partial, for any reason. That includes:
We know that reads strictly. It is meant to — we would rather you book with clear eyes than be surprised later.
The one thing this does not cover is us. If Saga Haus cancels a confirmed direct booking and cannot give you the property you paid for, we return what you paid for that stay. It is the only circumstance in which money comes back, and it exists because we will not keep payment for a stay we did not host. It is not a refund of anything else, and it does not apply where we end a booking because of a breach of our Terms of Service.
Because we cannot refund you, we strongly recommend travel insurance for every stay. A policy covering trip cancellation and interruption costs a small fraction of most bookings and protects the money you have paid if illness, a family emergency, a road closure or anything else keeps you from traveling. If there is any chance your plans could change, insure the trip.
Our cabins sit in the Blue Ridge Mountains, and the mountains do as they please. Rain on your hiking weekend, fog over the view you saw in the photos, snow or ice on winter roads, and storm- or utility-related interruptions to water, power, internet or hot tubs are part of cabin country — and none of them are grounds for a refund, including when winter roads call for more vehicle than you brought. Check the forecast before you travel, and in winter, check road conditions for your cabin too. We are glad to tell you honestly what the drive is like.
Tell us right away — the hot tub, the grill, the Wi-Fi, anything. We will make reasonable efforts to repair or replace it as quickly as the mountains allow, because we want your stay to be what we promised. An amenity outage does not entitle you to a refund, but it does entitle you to our full attention until it is fixed.
We may, at our sole discretion, offer to move your booking to different dates, subject to availability and to any difference in rate, which is payable by you. If the new dates price lower, the difference is not refunded and is not credited. A date change is a courtesy we extend when we can — never an obligation, and never something this policy promises. If your plans shift, reach out as early as possible; the earlier you ask, the easier it is for us to say yes.
This policy applies to bookings made directly through our booking site. If you booked one of our properties on Airbnb, Vrbo or another platform, your booking follows the cancellation policy shown at checkout on that platform, and any cancellation or refund is handled there under that platform's terms. That is the platform's rule, not a Saga Haus refund.
Disputing a valid, non-refundable charge with your card issuer or bank instead of talking to us is a breach of our Terms of Service, and that applies to property owners exactly as it applies to guests. We keep thorough records on both sides — confirmations, correspondence and check-in details for stays; agreements, statements, invoices and vendor receipts for the properties we manage — and we will contest improper chargebacks with them. An owner chargeback against earned commission, billed design fees or costs already paid out on your property is improper. We will contest it with our records and take it up with you under your agreement. If you genuinely believe a charge is an error, a duplicate or the wrong amount, email us first: a genuine billing error is corrected on your next statement, quickly and without a fight.
If anything here is unclear — before you sign a management or design agreement, or before you book a stay — ask. Email gaby.pincombe@sagahausrentals.com or call (815) 721-9077. A person answers, and it is usually Gaby.
Read alongside our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.