Frequently asked questions

 Contact is handled wholly through the site up until a booking request is confirmed. Prior to this stage, you can use Message box to approach  hosts. This allows us to provide you with customer service and maintain your privacy.

 
Booking with us is really easy. You just have to go to the accommodation page you are interested in. Select the dates you wish to stay there. Afterwards, you select the option of the type of room you want.

Once you have selected all these options, on your right hand side, you are going to see a summary of your reservation with all the information about the accommodation, with its prices. Also, the deposit you have to pay will be displayed there. You just have to press the Orange Button that says BOOK NOW and this will take you to another page to enter your personal details. When you are booking you only have to pay the little deposit.

Once the host has been chosen by you and a deposit has been paid upon booking, the  host will confirm the availability of the services required and process your booking, at that time you receive a second e-mail with confirmation of your place.

 You can find the availability status underneath each price on the host page. Nevertheless, if you submit a reservation request and your place is not available, the deposit paid will be 100% refunded.

Best price guaranteed: 100% guaranteed  that you pay the lowest price. Besides, our service is free. We do not charge for any booking fees.

Trust & Safety: We are a marketplace that promotes trust and collaboration. This is the reason why we have built the best ever class tools and services to surely assist and hone you into making the right decisions. Find students' reviews, host references, reviews, ... learn more about trust and safety

Customer Support: If you ever need assistance, you will always be able to call our customer support whether you are a host or a guest. You can easily contact our experienced and friendly consultants. We are always a click away from e-mail, phone call, skype or even live chat!

Your booking 100% confirmed: It is very unlikely that something goes wrong with your booking once confirmed by the host. In fact we are so confident, that if you do not achieve a place for a room at the selected host, we will credit your account with your full deposit and find another possible alternative for you.

Gomfy is a community marketplace built on Trust and Safety, which facilitates the meeting of people in real life. By creating a profile, you allow other members of our community to learn more about you. This implies that you do not to send information about yourself repeatedly, every time you want to contact a host. Please, be aware that some hosts may require a completed guest profile to provide you with better and specific pieces of advise or before they accept a booking request (check listing descriptions to see if this is the case).

• Self Catering (SC) means that no meals are included in the cost of your accommodation, but you will be provided with catering facilities in your accommodation to cook light meals.
• Bed and Breakfast (BB) means that breakfast is included in the price you have paid for your accommodation/holiday package.
• Half Board (HB) means that your breakfast and evening meal is included in the price you have paid for your accommodation. In some cases you can choose to receive lunch instead of breakfast - the host will confirm this upon arrival.
• Full Board (FB) means that breakfast, lunch and evening meals are included in the price you have paid for your accommodation.

A homestay is an accommodation at the residence of a local homestay host / host family who will integrate the guest into their daily life. This way the guest has the opportunity to learn more about the culture of the travel destination and can more easily practice a foreign language in everyday situations. Furthermore, both sides can experience cultural exchanges. This makes a homestay the best choice for students living abroad as well as for culturally inspired travelers. Some homestay accommodations are available also for short stays. These are also an excellent option during popular events such as concerts, trade fairs or championships when hotels are extremely expensive or fully booked.

Hosts will send you all the information about the accommodation by email, as soon as your booking has been accepted and confirmed.

If you are researching airfare costs, we recommend using SKYSCANNER or  CHEAPOAIR – a search engine that lets you compare flight options based on your budget, schedule and preferences. 

If you found a good and cheap flight you can book and pay the flight. We recommend booking the flight as early as possible, but only after you received your booking confirmation from the host. If you book your flight early you can save a lot of money.

 We offer exclusive discounts for the participation in our Facebook activities like sharing photos for repeat clients.

We are able to give our customers the lowest possible rates due to our high volume of reservations and personal relationships with host.

The online registration process saves administration costs. Besides, the hosts manage and update the information displayed on our website themselves.

Gomfy provides you with a totally FREE service, so that you always pay the lowest price in a secure and easy way. 

It is very unlikely that something goes wrong with your booking once it has been confirmed by the host. In fact we feel so confident, that if you do not achieve a place for a room at the selected accommodation, we will credit your account with your full deposit and find another suitable alternative for you.

The BOOK NOW button on the Shopping Cart's page will take you through a very quick and user-friendly online application system, where you have to pay only a deposit as part of your total fees by credit card, Paypal or bank transfer. The Balance should be paid directly to your chosen host.

Once the host has been chosen by you and a deposit has been paid upon booking, the  host will confirm the availability of the services required and process your booking, at that time you receive a second e-mail with confirmation of your place.

 - once I complete the online booking?

As far as changes are concerned, the special policies of the individual host apply. Gomfy will not charge you an additional fee for changes. We will do our best to accommodate your desired changes.

- once I have received the confirmation and the invoice

If for personal reasons, your availability have changed or you need to change your accommodation, please let us know immediately so we can inform the host and make changes on your booking

 The deposit is non refundable once the booking is accepted by the host. By making a reservation with a accommodation, you accept and agree to the relevant cancellation and refund policy of that  host, and to any additional (delivery) terms and conditions of the service provider that may apply to your reservation or during your stay, including for services rendered and/or products offered by the host (the delivery terms and conditions of a host can be obtained with the relevant host).

 We strongly advised to all students to take out insurance in case of the need to return home early, medical conditions and other unpredictable circumstances. European students should apply for a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC), which may give you access to reduced-cost medical treatment if you are travelling within the European Economic Area country (EEA) or elsewhere in the world. .

 We value your privacy. Your personal data will be absolutely confidential and will be shared with no one else except the host of your choice in order to facilitate your booking.

 In order to maintain a high quality of listings on Gomfy, we review each offer before they are approved and made available for search. Uploading good quality photos and providing complete information about your property help speed up the review process. If your listing still doesn't appear in the search results within one week, please contact our customer support team for further advice.

No. Gomfy does not verify guests' identity. Before you accept, read the student's profile and booking request carefully and talk to them through Gomfy's messages: it is the best way to get an impression of the person before deciding whether you want to host them. Contact details are shared once the booking is confirmed: asking for or giving them before then goes against our terms and conditions, and the system hides them in messages.

Yes, you can at any time. After you have created and verified your account you will be able to log onto your account administration. Go to "Overview" tab. Click on Edit Profile.

No. By accepting a booking from a guest through Gomfy you have agreed to provide the accommodation. If for some reason you have agreed with your guest mutually to cancel a booking, please contact our customer service department or email us at [email protected].

If you have set up your profile on the booking on request mode, you will be able to screen each guest profile first before confirming a booking request. However, it’s not advisable for you to express certain preferences on your host profile. You should be open-minded. There might be guests appealing to you who you never thought of. But you have the freedom to choose what gender do you want on your accommodation, you can write it on the title discription of your accommodation listing.

Once you have created and verified your account you can either temporarily unpublish or permanently delete it in your account administration at any time. If you temporarily unpublish your host profile, you will be able to reactivate it at any time. This also includes the option to modify any information of your profile. If you permanently delete your account, all the profile information will be lost.

No. Please use the upload function of your profile in order to share pictures.

Yes. To cancel an accepted booking, the guest has to tell you and Gomfy. Once you have accepted the booking, Gomfy's service fee is not refunded to the guest, unless you cancel the booking or the accommodation does not exist. Any advance the guest has paid you follows the conditions you agreed with them.

We have automatic and manual screening processes in place, which allow us to validate your data to a certain extent. However, currently only for certified host profiles we check official documents such as ID and criminal record.

 At Gomfy we want to provide our users with the highest level of security and professionalism we possibly can. Therefore all our hosts listed have the chance to become certified and validate their identity. Host certification means that the hosts send us copies of their IDs, an utility bill and (optional) their Criminal Record Certificates electronically. We compare the documents received with the personal data which the host provided to us for their registration. If the information matches we mark those hosts as certified on our website giving details of whether we have checked the ID only or additionally the criminal record document. The documents themselves will not be shown on the website.

Become a Certified Host! Visit the Trust and Verification section within your profile. 

- Your listing gets a better position in our search results.
- Your listing shows the Certified badge (identity checked): you create trust and attract more guests.
For certification you need to upload the digital copy of a Current (valid) official photo ID, any uitility bill and you must pay a fee of 19.90 Euro ( nosubscription / auto renewal).This is not refundable in case you don't provide the required documents. 

Once a guest has stayed at your property, we send them an email encouraging them to leave a review at their own discretion. Only guests who have stayed in your property through Gomfy can add reviews.
While reviews are the cornerstone of the Gomfy reputation system, references help people new to Gomfy get started building their reputation. Formerly known as recommendations, references are a complete enhancement to this feature. Everyone is now required to add profile photos before they can leave references. Finding your acquaintances and asking them to write you a reference only takes a single click once you are connected to Facebook.

The student pays you your full price directly, in the way you agree (bank transfer, cash, PayPal…). Gomfy's service fee is paid by the student online and is not taken from your price, and Gomfy does not handle the payment between you and the student. We recommend asking for one or two weeks in advance.

1. Create your profile.

- Sign up with Gomfy, create a great profile, and upload a profile photo (with your face, noone will rent from your cat!). Build your reputation by getting verified, and hit up your friends for some references.

2. Add your student accommodation.

- Click the blue button to list your accommodation, set your address, and upload photos. Accurately describe your space and select the appropriate amenities to give potential guests a good idea of what your listing has to offer.  

- Add different rooms to a property and set different prices per room per person. Don’t forget to set your calendar availability to make sure guests don’t contact you when the rooms are not available!

- Add a additional services to make sure all your guest needs are met. 

- Check out our tips for creating a good listing.

3. Book your student accommodation.

- Answer messages and reservation requests from prospective guests in a timely manner using the messaging system on the site. Your response rate and search rank depend on it, so don't keep your potential guests waiting! 

- Review your guest once they have checked out. Voicing your experience is an essential part of building our trusted community.

Tips & tricks!

- Check that your listing is visible in the search results.

- Make sure that our emails reach you by setting up your email account to accept messages from [email protected].

- In your main photo think about including something distinctive in the image. A visual hook in your photo may help them remember your particular property.

- Think carefully about the written description of your property. After the photographs, it the next thing that people see. You only get one chance to impress, so make what your write as descriptive as possible!

Signing up and creating a Gomfy account is free! The easiest way to sign up is by connecting with your Facebook account. This will automatically fill out some of your profile, and you’ll get an additional verification.

If you don’t have or don’t want to use Facebook, you can also sign up with your email address to create an account.

After signing up, make sure to finish completing your listing and as well your profile so that the community knows how awesome you are.

Sign up today at http://www.gomfy.com/backend/add/accomms/?step=1. We’re looking forward to welcoming you to our community!
 

Gomfy connects students with hosts.

List it

• Sign up and list your accommodation for free.
• Set the amount you want to receive and keep your calendar up to date.

Confirm it

• Before booking, you and the student can talk through Gomfy's messages to get to know each other. We recommend it. Asking for or giving contact details (phone, email, social networks or messaging apps) before the booking is confirmed goes against our terms and conditions, and the system hides them.
• A student sends you a booking request through Gomfy.
• You read the student's profile and request, and accept or decline it.
• When you accept, the student pays Gomfy's service fee online and you both receive each other's contact details.

Get paid for it

• The student pays you your full price directly. We recommend asking for one or two weeks in advance.
• Host your guest and enjoy!

Listing your accommodation on Gomfy is free: no registration fee and no fixed costs.

You set your price and receive it in full: the student pays it to you directly. Gomfy charges the student a service fee when they book, paid online when you accept the booking. Nothing is taken from your price.

Here are our top 9 tips for enticing visitors to stay in your Gomfy property.

1 -  Photographs. In your main photo think about including something distinctive in the image. For example: a painting, or a bright cushion, or a flowing plant and so on. Why? Many unregistered users browse through the site who will only register weeks later. A visual hook in your photo may help them remember your particular property. They can then add it to their favourites once they join the Gomfy website.
Also make sure that you upload clear, good quality photos for your property and for each room.

2 - Think carefully about the written description of your property. After the photographs, it the next thing that people see. You only get one chance to impress, so make what your write as descriptive as possible!
Are there sports activities nearby? Golf, sailing, horse riding, hiking etc. What about restaurants, shopping, night-life, beaches? If yes, tell people about it!
If your property is far away from the nearest town, this doesn’t have to be a disadvantage. Inform people of driving times or public transport. Staying in an isolated and quiet property is some people’s idea of heaven. For those who want to get away from it all, point out the benefits of the tranquillity and privacy that you offer.

3 - Become a Certified Host!
- Your listing gets a better position in our search results.
- Your listing shows the Certified badge (identity checked): you create trust and attract more guests.
For certification you need to upload the digital copy of a Current (valid) official photo ID, any uitility bill and you must pay a fee of 19.90 Euro ( nosubscription / auto renewal).This is not refundable in case you don't provide the required documents.


4 - Upon arrival provide to guest  your house rules, fliers for activities, sights and events in your local area or anything else of interest. A simple map of the surrounding area marked with where to buy food, petrol, restaurants will help orientate your guests on their first day.

5 - Do you have contacts in your local area who you could form a mutually beneficial arrangement with? What about providing guests the opportunity for discounts for local activities, or services? You keep your guests happy while simultaneously generating new customers for local businesses, who will then refer people back to you.

6 - Think about what kind of guests you would ideally want? For example: Are you happy to attract guests who are families with children? Or perhaps you only want young international students. What things are on offer in your property or surroundings would attract your ideal guests to you? Once you’ve found the answer to this, include some tantalising text in your description.

7 - The Gomfy website is not just a platform to advertise your apartments or home. By making friends with others registered on the site, you have boundless possibilities to make new contacts, with other hosts and with potential guests. Share your tips about being a successful host with other hosts on the site. Get feedback from guests or potential guests as to why they didn’t or did rent your place. Use this information to implement some changes to help bring more guests to your home.

8 - If you haven’t done so yet, get going and register as a host here. Get familiar with our website, browse around and see how it works and make sure to update your calendar regularly so potential guests are always up to date.

9 - The apartment or house should be spotlessly clean for new guests. It should smell nice too. Fresh flowers always smell nicer than chemical room fragrance and apart from the scent, are a nice personal touch.

10 - Furnishing and decorating your property in an aesthetically pleasing manner will encourage people to want to stay there. However, if the property is too individually decorated it may be off-putting to some guests. Try to maintain the fine balance between having mass-appeal but also standing out. 

Best of luck!

Please copy the link and paste it into the address/URL line of your web browser. The link might run over several lines in your e-mail layout. Please make sure, that you copy and paste the entire link. If it still doesn’t work. Please send us a message at [email protected].

There's no need to restart the process. You can continue with the registration process anytime you just need to log in with your email address and the password you registered.

We use sophisticated detection and editing software making sure that we will recognize any bypassing attempts, no matter if they were made intentionally or by accident. If a bypassing attempt is detected, the message delivery to the recipient will be delayed and the message itself will be edited.

A homestay is an accommodation at the residence of a local homestay host / host family who will integrate the guest into their daily life. This way the guest has the opportunity to learn more about the culture of the travel destination and can more easily practice a foreign language in everyday situations. Furthermore, both sides can experience cultural exchanges. This makes a homestay the best choice for students living abroad as well as for culturally inspired travelers. Some homestay accommodations are available also for short stays. These are also an excellent option during popular events such as concerts, trade fairs or championships when hotels are extremely expensive or fully booked.

Gomfy as a company only mediates the bookings between Gomfy hosts and guests. The guest closes a contract directly with the host. Gomfy is never a contracting party for a booking. Therefore our company does not intervene in discussions and negotiations between hosts and guests. If there is a disagreement please solve the issue directly with your host. For more information please see our terms and conditions.

If you are temporarily unable to respond to enquiries / messages from potential guests, you should temporarily unpublish your host profile. If you temporarily unpublish your host profile, you will be able to reactivate it at any time. This also includes the option to modify any information of your profile. If you permanently delete your account, all the profile information will be lost.

 We welcome an extensive range of accommodation types, not only apartments and houses. If your property type is not listed on the List Your Accommodation page, please contact our customer support team who will be happy to advise you.

Gomfy wants to provide an environment that is free of fraud and scam to our host and guest alike. Specially when money transfer is involved. We have a secure payment platform that will verified payment data (credit card info.) that can be trace back their identity thus avoiding fraud and scam. Also we want to protect your privacy.

Yes, with registration you are automatically signed up for our free matching service, sending you guest profiles fitting to your offer. Also the student or guest can send you a message in our messaging system where you can also reply.