Terms of Booking

Furnished residences in Cambridge and Boston, Massachusetts. Short stays of 10 to 28 nights can be booked on this website and are paid in full at booking; stays of fewer than 10 nights are not offered. Stays of 29 to 89 nights can be reserved online at the published monthly rate; for a stay of 90 nights or more, send us your dates and we will quote a rate. Short stays are booked at least 24 hours before check-in. Some residences are also listed on Airbnb and Vrbo; The Telford is available for longer stays only.

A residence is furnished accommodation for a temporary purpose — work, study, relocation, medical care or similar — and is not intended to be your primary or permanent home. Your rights and ours are those set by your occupancy agreement and Massachusetts law.

Selecting dates does not hold a residence. When you reserve online, you first verify your identity with Stripe (a government-issued ID and a selfie), then your card is authorized in Stripe’s secure form for the first month’s rent and, if you chose parking, the first month of parking. Your card is authorized, not charged, until confirmation. An authorization is a hold on available funds; no money moves to us.

Within one business day we contact you for screening and identification. Your reservation is confirmed only when screening is approved and every adult occupant has signed the occupancy agreement. Only then do we capture the authorization.

If we do not capture it within seven days, the authorization is released automatically and nothing is charged. It is also released, with nothing charged, if we cannot approve the request or you withdraw before confirmation. When your bank shows the released funds as available again is up to your bank.

Scheduling a tour does not hold a residence. It remains available until a reservation is confirmed.

Stays of 29 nights or more require screening of the primary applicant — a consumer credit report, eviction records and, where lawful, criminal history — and identification for every adult occupant. We pay for the screening. There is no application fee.

Your consent. By submitting a request, you authorize Platinum Stays LLC and its tenant screening provider to obtain consumer reports about you, and to verify your identity, for the sole purpose of deciding your request and the terms on which we can offer it. The screening provider will ask you to confirm this consent before it runs any report.

If a report affects the outcome. If we decline a request, or approve it on less favourable terms — for example, on condition of additional verification — wholly or partly because of information in a consumer report, we will send you the notice the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act requires. It names the agency that supplied the report, states that the agency did not make the decision, and explains your right to a free copy of the report within 60 days and to dispute anything inaccurate. If a credit score was used, the notice also gives the score and the key factors that affected it.

Criminal history. If we consider criminal history, we will give you a copy of the record we have before asking you about it, and before making any decision against you because of it.

We work with every applicant, including international guests without U.S. credit history — approval may involve additional verification, never a flat no.

We do not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religious creed, national origin, ancestry, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, genetic information, marital status, veteran or military status, disability, having children, or receipt of public assistance or a housing subsidy. Screening looks at credit, rental and identity information, not at where you are from.

First month now. When you request, your card is authorized for the first month’s rent (with the room occupancy excise when the stay is 31 nights or fewer). It is captured only when your reservation is confirmed.

Last month and any balance per your agreement. The amounts and dates for the rest of your stay are set out in your occupancy agreement, which you see before you sign. The total for your stay is shown before you authorize.

Short stays booked on this website (10 to 28 nights) are charged in full when you book: the nightly rate, the cleaning fee, damage protection and room occupancy taxes, each shown before you pay. The booking guest must be 21 or older, verified with a government ID through Stripe.

Refundable Damage & Incidentals Retainer (short stays). We place a hold of $500 (Cambridge) or $300 (Boston) on the card you booked with the day before check-in, covering the first 7 nights. It is not a charge, and it is released 48 hours after checkout (or after 7 nights, whichever is first) unless something is damaged or missing. You consent to this hold, and to us saving your card with Stripe for it, when you book.

Short stays booked through Airbnb or Vrbo are paid through that platform, under its terms.

Stays requested on this website are processed by Stripe; other direct bookings may be processed by our booking platform’s payment service. We do not see or store your card number.

The monthly rate is all-inclusive: furniture, linens, kitchenware, water and sewer, high-speed internet, cleaning between stays, and ordinary gas and electric service. On stays of 29 nights or more, gas and electric combined are included up to $200 per thirty nights, prorated for part periods; use above that allowance is billed with supporting statements.

Monthly stays have no cleaning fee. Parking, where a residence has it, is an add-on and is never included in the rate. In Boston, parking is limited and not guaranteed; we confirm availability for your dates before charging for it.

Damage protection included in place of any deposit. Every booking made directly with us carries damage protection as a required line, priced per night and shown in your total before you pay. As a mandatory charge it is part of the taxable amount on stays of 31 nights or fewer.

Before confirmation. If you withdraw, or we cannot approve your request, the authorization is released and nothing is charged.

After confirmation. Cancellation charges after confirmation are those stated in your occupancy agreement, which you see before you sign.

If the residence becomes unavailable. Where a residence becomes unavailable or materially unsuitable through casualty, building action, utility failure or anything else outside our reasonable control, we will offer a comparable residence or refund the unused portion of what you have paid.

Short stays booked on this website. Cancel up to 7 days before check-in for a full refund. Cancel between 7 days and 48 hours before check-in for a 50% refund of the stay. Within 48 hours of check-in, the stay is not refundable. Times are measured from 5:00 PM check-in, Boston time. Refunds go back to the card you paid with, including the room occupancy taxes on the refunded amount. The retainer is never charged for a cancellation, and any hold is released. If we cancel, you receive a full refund whatever the date.

Short stays booked through Airbnb or Vrbo follow that platform’s cancellation policy as shown at the time of booking.

The full rules are in your agreement. In summary:

• No smoking or vaping anywhere in the residence, the building, its shared spaces, or within twenty-five feet of the building.
• No parties, events or commercial use.
• Quiet hours from 11:00 PM to 7:00 AM.
• Only the occupants named on the agreement may stay overnight, and the residence has a maximum occupancy including visitors.
• No pets, unless we have approved one in writing in advance. Assistance animals we are legally required to accommodate are not affected.
• The residence is not a mailing address. Package deliveries are fine; mail service and using the address as a residence or domicile are not.
• Only registered vehicles may use an assigned parking space, and we need the make, model and plate before arrival.

Breaking these rules is a material breach of your agreement. Its remedies, and the specific charges it sets out, apply as the agreement and Massachusetts law allow.

Massachusetts applies a room occupancy excise to a short-term rental stay of 31 consecutive nights or fewer — so it applies to a 30- or 31-night stay. Where it applies, the combined rate is 17.45% in Cambridge and 17.95% in Boston, which includes thestate excise, the local option, the convention centre financing fee and the community impact fee.

Stays of 32 consecutive nights or more are exempt and no room occupancy excise is charged. If a stay is later shortened to 31 nights or fewer, the excise may become due on the whole stay.

Tax is always shown as a separate line before you authorize.

Check-in is from 5:00 PM and check-out is by 11:00 AM. Access codes are released once every adult occupant has signed the agreement and the payments then due have been received. Codes are for named occupants only and may not be shared.

Rates, availability and photographs are kept current from our booking system, but availability can change between the moment you look and the moment you book. We re-check availability when you reserve and will tell you promptly if a residence is no longer free.

Where a residence is shown with photographs of a comparable home in the same building, that is stated on the page.

These terms and any reservation are governed by the laws of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and the parties consent to the jurisdiction of the state courts of Suffolk County, Massachusetts.

Platinum Stays LLC
28 Church Street, Suite 8, Winchester, MA 01890
admin@theplatinumco.com · (774) 295-4790