Houfy Link & Video Guidelines

These Guidelines apply to every link and every video you add on Houfy — on a listing, on your profile, in a post you publish, and in a message. They form part of our Terms of Service, and words defined there have the same meaning here. They sit alongside our Listing & Platform Guidelines, Photo Guidelines and Community Standards.

A link and a video are part of your listing. Anything you would not write in your description, do not put behind a link or on screen.

Links you may add

• Your own property website, in the field built for it

• Floor plans, virtual tours and property layouts

• Pages that help a guest understand the property or the area — local attractions, transport, the town, the beach

• Your listing on another site, where the purpose is to let a guest check that the property is real

A link must work, must use https where the site offers it, and must go where you say it goes. Tell a guest what a link is before they click it.

Links you may not add

• Anything that asks a guest to pay, book, or send a deposit outside Houfy. A booking that starts on Houfy stays on Houfy — see our Terms of Service.

• Affiliate links, referral links, or any link you are paid to include

• Contact details put in front of a guest to move an enquiry off Houfy before booking. Your phone number, email address and website belong in your profile and in the fields built for them, where we show them to the guest at the right time.

• A link to a different property from the one you are letting

• Anything listed under “What a link or video must not contain” below

Your video

Your video must show the property a guest will actually stay in — the rooms they will use, as they are now. If the property has changed since you filmed, film it again. If part of the video is a shared or nearby amenity, a pool, a beach or a view, say so on screen.

Shoot at 720p or better, hold the camera steady, and light the rooms properly. Clear sound helps. Read the music section below before you add any.

Editing and AI-generated video

Colour, stabilisation, trimming and music are fine. Changing what the property is like is not. Do not add, remove or alter rooms, furniture, views or condition, and do not publish a generated or virtually staged walkthrough as though it were footage of the property. If part of a video is a rendering or a staged mock-up, say so on screen. You are responsible for what the finished video shows, whatever tool made it.

Do not film anything that would help someone get in

Keys, lockboxes and their codes, alarm panels and keypads, camera positions, and doors or windows that do not lock. Take care with house numbers, street signs and number plates, including your neighbours’.

No contact details in the video

No phone numbers, email addresses, website addresses, social handles, booking links or QR codes — in the footage, in an end card, in an overlay, in the title, or in the file name. The rule is the same as for listing text and for photographs.

Music, footage and copyright

Upload video you filmed, or that you have permission to use on Houfy. If you paid a videographer, check what your agreement says: the videographer often keeps the copyright even though you commissioned and paid for the work, and a licence for your own website does not automatically cover Houfy.

Music is the part people get wrong. Almost all recorded music is licensed, and a licence to listen is not a licence to publish. Use silence, your own recording, or music expressly licensed for commercial use, and keep the licence. The same goes for footage, drone shots, floor plans and virtual tours made by someone else.

Our Copyright Policy explains how to report your material being used without permission, and what happens if someone reports yours.

Other people in your video

If someone else is identifiable in a video you upload, you need their permission — neighbours, passers-by, previous guests, and anyone working at the property. For children you need the permission of a parent or guardian, and we would rather you did not include them at all. If someone asks us to remove a video they appear in, we will normally remove it.

Drone footage is regulated differently in every country, and it captures your neighbours as well as your property. Check the rules where the property is before you fly, and do not publish footage that looks into a neighbour’s home or garden.

What a link or video must not contain

Our Community Standards set what is and is not acceptable on Houfy, and they apply to a link and a video exactly as they apply to anything else you post. In particular, do not link to or upload:

• Anything that discriminates against a guest, or suggests one is unwelcome, on any ground protected where you are. Read our Fair Housing Guidelines before you write or film anything about who a property suits.

• Sexual content, violence, or anything else unsuitable for the general audience a listing page reaches

• Hate speech, harassment, or content promoting illegal activity or illegal substances

• Spam, malware, phishing, or anything that tries to collect a visitor’s passwords or payment details

• Anything misleading about the property, the price, what is included, or who you are

• Anything that infringes someone else’s copyright, trademark or other rights

• A link that is broken, that goes somewhere other than it says, or that leads to a page that does not exist yet

Where your video is hosted

If you add a video from another platform, that platform loads its own player on your listing page and may set cookies or store data on the viewer’s device. Our Cookie Policy explains how that is handled and how a visitor can refuse it. If a video cannot be embedded, or has been made private or deleted where it is hosted, it will not play on Houfy and we may remove it.

Links go to sites we do not run

When you follow a link a member has added, you leave Houfy. We do not control those sites, we do not review them before they appear, and we are not responsible for what is on them, what they do with your data, or what they charge. Read a site’s own terms and privacy policy before you give it anything. What we are and are not responsible for is set out in our Terms of Service.

If a link or video breaks these Guidelines

We may ask you to fix it, hide it, remove it, or act on your account. What we do depends on what happened and whether it has happened before, and it follows the process set out in our Community Standards — including telling you why, and your right to appeal within 30 days. Where a link is fraudulent, malicious, or puts someone at risk, we remove it and act on the account as soon as we know.

If we remove a link or a video, we will tell you why. You can appeal within 30 days by replying to that notice: tell us what you think we got wrong, and include anything that helps, such as a screenshot, the original file, or a licence.

Reporting a link or video

If a link or video on Houfy is unsafe, misleading, or uses your material, report it from the listing or profile it appears on, or write to info@houfy.com. If it is your copyright, follow our Copyright Policy. There is more on how reporting works in Reporting Posts, Listings and Profiles on Houfy.

If you are not sure whether a link or a video is allowed, ask us at info@houfy.com before you publish it.

Changes

We update these Guidelines as the platform changes, and change the date at the top.