Bluerhino Cancellation Policy
Last updated: 5 October 2026. This policy replaces the earlier Bluerhino cancellation policy. The policy in force on the day you paid your booking deposit applies to your booking.
When Plans Change
Sometimes life gets in the way of even the best-laid plans. A cancellation affects Bluerhino as a business as much as it affects you as a traveller, so there are a few clear rules. Here they are.
By paying the booking deposit, you confirm that you have read and understood this policy, and that you accept it.
Days are counted back from the date of our first night on tour. Deposits are all amounts marked “deposit” on your quote or invoice. Committed fees are amounts already paid to suppliers that cannot be cancelled. Bluerhino fees are everything else on your invoice that is not a deposit.
If you cancel
The schedule above applies. What you lose depends on how close to departure you cancel, and whether proprietary tour information has been shared with you.
Finding a replacement
If someone takes your place on the tour, you can recover your Bluerhino fees. Committed fees I will try to transfer, but cannot guarantee.
If Bluerhino cancels
We move the tour or make another arrangement for you. If that does not suit you, you get a full refund.
1. The booking deposit
Your quotation can carry more than one deposit: a booking deposit, which is often a small amount, and a deposit balance. Together they make up your total deposit. In this policy, “the deposits” means every amount on your quotation or invoice that carries the word deposit. Everything else on your invoice that is not a deposit is a Bluerhino fee.
The booking deposit confirms your interest and secures your place. It is fully refundable until you commit to the tour. For a tour booked well in advance, that moment comes roughly 12 months before departure, when I confirm the tour costs, confirm that the tour is live and reissue the quotation. At that point you choose: take your booking deposit back, or commit by paying the deposit balance.
Once you have committed, the deposits stay refundable until proprietary information about the tour has been shared with you — the detailed itinerary, the campsites, the routes and similar detail. Proprietary information counts as shared on the date I send you the link to the preparation pages. From then on the deposits are non-refundable and cannot be transferred to another tour. If you have to cancel, they can be moved to a rescheduled departure of the same tour, if Bluerhino agrees.
2. The refund schedule once you have committed
After you have committed, this is what happens if you cancel. Refunds are calculated on the total tour cost — as shown on the website, or on your invoices where they supersede the website.
A. More than 150 days before departure, before proprietary information has been shared: you get everything back, including the deposits — except committed fees.
B. More than 150 days before departure, after proprietary information has been shared: you lose the deposits and any committed fees. The rest of the Bluerhino fees are refunded.
C. Between 150 and 90 days before departure: you lose the deposits and committed fees, and also 50% of the Bluerhino fees.
D. In the last 90 days before departure: you lose everything, and the full Bluerhino invoice remains payable. By then I can no longer fill your place: other travellers need months to arrange leave, funds and vehicle preparation. This is subject to the Consumer Protection Act — see point 5.
Committed fees. From the reconfirmation onwards I start paying suppliers for the tour — for example motorhome hire or flights. Once I have paid a supplier, and you have been made aware of that payment, that amount is non-refundable for the rest of the booking period, because the money is no longer in my possession. I will always try to get it back, or help you find a replacement, but I cannot guarantee it.
3. Can you recover your lost fees?
If you do have to cancel, there are ways to recover your lost fees: you can find someone to take your place on the tour, or claim from your travel insurance if you have cancellation cover. I will gladly help where I can.
Please note that once the preparation-pages link has been sent, the deposits remain non-refundable even if you find a replacement. The reason is that the proprietary information I share to prepare you for the tour — the detailed itinerary, campsites, routes and preparation material — is a valuable product in its own right, and the deposits are what it is worth. Committed fees I will do my best to recover or transfer to your replacement, although I cannot guarantee it.
4. If Bluerhino Safaris cancels a tour
If something goes wrong and Bluerhino has to cancel a tour, Bluerhino reserves the right to move the tour to a more suitable time, and I will make every effort to accommodate you. If the new arrangement is not acceptable to you, Bluerhino takes responsibility and you are entitled to a full refund.
This does not apply to tours affected by force majeure.
5. The Consumer Protection Act
Bluerhino abides by the Consumer Protection Act, 68 of 2008. This policy is applied in accordance with the Act, and where the Act gives you stronger rights, the Act applies. This policy is governed by South African law.
Death or hospitalisation. Under section 17 of the Act no cancellation penalty is charged if a traveller cannot honour the booking because of death or hospitalisation. Bluerhino goes further and applies this to the death or hospitalisation of the traveller or the traveller’s spouse — at any time, including the last 90 days before departure. In that case everything you have paid is refunded, except committed fees I cannot recover.
Travelling partners. Two people sharing a motorhome or vehicle who are not spouses are treated the same way. If one of them dies or is hospitalised, I first expect the other to try to find a replacement — another friend to share the vehicle. If that is not possible, the same rule as for spouses applies.
Committed fees paid to suppliers abroad — for example motorhome hire in Morocco or Croatia — fall under the laws and consumer protection rules of that country, not South African law. I will do everything I can to recover them, but their refund depends on the supplier and that country’s rules.
I ask for reasonable documentary proof, such as a death certificate or a hospital admission letter, in line with what the Act requires.
6. How to cancel
A cancellation must be made in writing, by e-mail or WhatsApp. Bluerhino will confirm that it has been received.
The date that counts is the date you sent it — even if I only acknowledge it later.
7. Refunds
Refunds of rand amounts are paid within 30 days of your cancellation.
Refunds of foreign-currency portions — money recovered from suppliers abroad — are paid as soon as Bluerhino actually receives them back. Their timing is set by the supplier, not by me. For example, if a motorhome company refunds in euro cash when we are there, I can only pay you out once I am back home and have converted those euros back into rand. These portions are refunded at the exchange rate on the day of conversion, so that Bluerhino does not lose money on the refund calculation.
8. Payment before departure
Bluerhino expects all tour fees to be fully paid 30 days before departure. If they are not, Bluerhino reserves the right not to allow the guest on the tour.
9. On tour
Leaving the tour early. Unfortunately there is no refund for any part of the tour you do not complete — whether you withdraw for your own reasons, or are removed from the tour. Once the tour is under way, the costs have been incurred and there is nothing we can do about them.
Removal for conduct. A guest may be removed from the tour for breaking the Bluerhino Tour Rules, without a refund.
Changes to the route. Changes to the route or itinerary forced by weather, road conditions or border situations are not a cancellation — they are simply a change of route.
See also How Booking a Bluerhino Tour Works and Understanding Bluerhino Pricing.