Cancellation and Refund Policy

[Legal entity name] ("RespiteAway", "we", "us")

Version 1.0

Effective [Effective date]

In short

• Free to request. No commitment. RespiteAway never charges you. If a facility accepts your request, it will share its payment, deposit and cancellation terms with you before you pay anything, and you pay it directly.
• Until a facility answers your request, you can withdraw it at any time, at no cost.
• A facility has 24 hours to answer your request. If it does not answer in time, the request is declined automatically and we tell you.
• RespiteAway has no cancellation policy of its own. If you cancel after a facility accepts, we tell the facility. Any money is between you and the facility, under the terms it gave you.
• If a facility reports that the person you are booking for did not arrive, we tell you. If the stay did happen, tell us.
• Every facility has agreed with us to refund what you paid for the stay if the person you are booking for is admitted to hospital or dies before check-in, with reasonable proof. Facilities have also agreed with us to refund unused nights in full if they cancel or end a stay early for a reason other than your choice.
• Your rights under consumer protection law always apply.

This summary is a guide. The numbered sections below are the policy.

1. How payment works on RespiteAway

RespiteAway is a booking service. We help you find a facility, send it a stay request, and keep a record of the booking. The facility provides the stay and the care. Your agreement for the stay is with the facility.

• Sending a request is free. It commits you to nothing.
• RespiteAway never charges you. We do not take payment from families. We do not collect or store your payment card.
• You pay the facility directly, under the facility's own terms (section 4).
• RespiteAway has no cancellation policy of its own. We do not set cancellation, refund or deposit terms for facilities. Each facility sets its own. In our Facility Platform Agreement, every facility makes some commitments to us about how it treats families. Sections 4, 5 and 7 describe them.
• The facility issues any refund. We cannot issue refunds, because we never hold your money.
• Facilities pay RespiteAway a commission. We do not add anything to the price you pay.

2. Words used in this policy

• You: the account holder who made the booking.
• The person you are booking for: the person who will stay at the facility. It may be you.
• Request: what you send to a facility from its Book page.
• Confirmed booking: a request the facility has accepted.
• Check-in time: the date and time your stay starts, in the facility's local time. If no check-in time is set for your booking, we use 3:00 pm.
• Stay price: the total shown on your booking for the room, care and any community fee. It does not include taxes.
• The facility's terms: the payment, deposit and cancellation terms the facility gives you for your stay.

3. Before the facility answers

• You can withdraw at any time. Until the facility answers, open the booking and choose Cancel. It costs nothing. We tell the facility.
• The facility has 24 hours to answer. If it does not accept or decline within 24 hours of your request, the request is declined automatically. We tell you and the facility. Nothing is owed.
• If the facility declines, nothing is owed. If the facility gives a reason, we pass it on to you as written.

4. After the facility accepts

• The facility confirms its terms with you. Once a facility accepts your request, it confirms its own deposit, payment and cancellation terms directly with you.
• Before you pay anything. In our Facility Platform Agreement, every facility agrees with us to tell you its deposit, payment and cancellation terms before it takes any money from you, and never to present a charge as a RespiteAway charge.
• You pay the facility directly. You arrange any deposit and payment with the facility, under its terms. Keep a copy of the terms it gives you. If anything is unclear, ask the facility before you pay.
• The facility's terms decide any money. What a facility charges, keeps or refunds is between you and the facility, under the terms it gave you. This is subject to the commitments in sections 5 and 7, and to your rights under the law (section 11).

5. If the person you are booking for is admitted to hospital or dies before check-in

Every facility has agreed with us, in our Facility Platform Agreement, to the following. It applies at any time before check-in, whatever the facility's own cancellation terms say.

What the facility has agreed

• You can cancel the booking.
• The facility refunds everything you paid for the stay, including any community fee, within 15 days of your cancellation.
• You owe nothing for the stay.

What we ask

• Tell the facility as soon as you reasonably can. If the Cancel button has closed, call the facility, then email us at support@respiteaway.com.
• The facility may ask for reasonable proof. For example, a note from the hospital confirming the date of admission, or a death notice.
• You do not need to share a diagnosis or medical records. Send any proof to the facility, not to us.
• If the facility does not accept your cancellation under this section, contact us at support@respiteaway.com. See section 10.

If the person is admitted to hospital or dies after check-in, see "Leaving early" in section 8.

6. How to cancel

Up to the day before check-in

• Open your booking and choose Cancel booking.
• Give a short reason. We share it with the facility. You do not need to give medical details.

On or after the check-in date

• The Cancel button closes at midnight at the start of the check-in date, in the facility's local time.
• From then on, call the facility directly. Then email us at support@respiteaway.com and tell us when you told the facility, so the booking record is right.

What happens next

• We tell the facility right away and record the time you cancelled.
• Any money is between you and the facility, under the facility's terms. We do not decide what the facility may keep or must refund. If section 5 applies, the facility has agreed to refund everything you paid for the stay.
• We keep the record of your booking and the time you cancelled. We share that record with you and the facility when asked.

7. If the facility cancels or ends a stay early

If the facility cancels a confirmed booking

A facility can cancel a confirmed booking up to the end of the check-in date. It must give a reason, and we send it to you as written. Every facility has agreed with us that when it cancels a confirmed booking:

• it refunds everything you paid it for the stay, including any community fee, within 15 days; and
• you owe it nothing for the cancelled stay.

A person on our team contacts you within one business day to help you look for another place. We cannot promise that one will be available. We record the cancellation on the facility's account. Repeated cancellations can lead us to pause or remove a listing.

If the facility ends a stay early

After the check-in date, a facility cannot cancel a stay through RespiteAway. Every facility has agreed with us that if it ends a stay early for any reason other than your choice, for example because it can no longer safely meet the person's needs, or because of a safety pause, it refunds every unused night in full, plus anything you paid for care that was not delivered, within 15 days. Each night's share is the stay price divided by the number of nights booked.

If you think the facility ended a stay unfairly, tell us (section 10).

8. Changing dates, leaving early and staying longer

Changing dates

Ask the facility. It may agree to move your booking. If you cancel and book again instead, the facility's terms apply to the cancellation.

Leaving early

If the person you booked for leaves before the end of the stay, for any reason other than the facility ending the stay, tell the facility as soon as you can. The facility marks the stay complete.

Any refund for the nights not used is between you and the facility, under the facility's terms. This applies if the person leaves because they are admitted to hospital or die during the stay.

Staying longer

An extension is a new booking with new dates, within the shortest and longest stay shown for the room. Ask the facility first. Every respite stay booked on RespiteAway has a fixed end date.

9. If the person does not arrive

A no-show means the person you are booking for did not arrive on the check-in date, and you did not cancel or tell the facility.

• A facility reports a no-show through RespiteAway. When it does, we tell you.
• If the report is wrong and the stay did happen, tell us. Use "File a dispute" on your booking page, or email support@respiteaway.com. See section 10.
• Any money for a no-show is between you and the facility, under the facility's terms.
• If the person did not arrive because they were admitted to hospital or died before check-in, section 5 applies. Tell the facility as soon as you can.
• If you are running late, call the facility.

10. How to raise a problem

1. Tell the facility first, in writing if you can.
2. Then tell us. Use "File a dispute" on your booking page, or email support@respiteaway.com.
3. Within two business days, a person on our team contacts the facility and asks it to keep its commitments to us.
4. If a facility will not keep its commitments, we may pause or remove its listing.

Tell us in particular if a facility:

• asked you to pay before telling you its deposit, payment and cancellation terms;
• presented a charge as a RespiteAway charge. RespiteAway never charges families;
• did not keep a commitment in section 5 or 7; or
• reported that the person did not arrive when the stay did happen (section 9).

What we cannot do

• We cannot pay you a refund ourselves, because we never hold your money.
• We do not decide what a facility may charge, keep or refund under its own terms.
• We cannot make a binding decision in a dispute between you and the facility.

You keep every right you have under the law, including the rights in section 11. You can also go to court in your province, including small claims court.

11. Your rights under consumer protection law

Nothing in this policy limits your rights under Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002, or any other law that applies to you. For example:

• If you did not get the information the law requires before you agreed to the booking, you may be able to cancel within 7 days after you receive a copy of your agreement.
• If you did not get a copy of your agreement within 15 days, you may be able to cancel within 30 days after you made the agreement.
• If you cancel under one of these rights, the refund is due within 15 days of your notice. You can give notice in any way that lets you show you gave it.
• If you paid by credit card and a refund you are owed under the law does not arrive, you can ask your card issuer to reverse the charge.

Consumer Protection Ontario can tell you more: 1-800-889-9768.

12. Help during a stay

• In an emergency, call 911.
• About the person's care during a stay, call the facility directly. Its phone number is on your confirmed booking.
• If the room, the care or the facility is not what the listing and your booking described, tell the facility first. Then tell us by replying to your confirmation email or writing to support@respiteaway.com.
• We answer email and messages every day from 8:00 to 22:00 Eastern time, not overnight. We are not an emergency service.
• If you are worried about someone's safety, see our Safety and Safeguarding page.

13. Changes to this policy

• If we make a material change to this page, we email account holders at least 30 days before it takes effect.
• Changes never apply to bookings already made.

14. Contact

• Help with a booking or a cancellation: support@respiteaway.com, answered every day from 8:00 to 22:00 Eastern time, not overnight
• General questions: hello@respiteaway.com
• Emergencies: call 911
• By mail: [Legal entity name], [Business address]