Bluerhino Cancelation Policy
Yes this is the reality. Sometimes life gets in the way of even the best laid plans and preparation. This affects Bluerhino as a business as much as it affects the traveler and therefor there are a few rules regarding cancelation. Here they are:
1. The booking deposit:
The booking deposit will be indicated on the quote you have received. The purpose of this payment is to confirm your commitment to the tour and secure your place on the tour. This booking deposit is fully refundable up to the point where the preparation for the tour has begun and proprietary information has been shared. Typically things like the itinerary or camp sites or routes or other proprietary information.
This typically happens when Bluerhino issues the link to the preparation pages, or verbally sharing more detail of the route, giving you access to more sensitive information. At this point the booking deposit becomes non refundable and also non transferable, to other tours.
In other words, once we start talking detail of a tour and I start sharing more details of the tour, your insight in to more details of the tour constitutes the sharing of information and the deposit is then non refundable.
In the case where a guest has to cancel the participation in a tour, and preparation /more info has been shared, the non refundable deposit can be moved to a rescheduled time for the same tour if agreed to by Bluerhino and according to point 2 below.
2. The refund schedule after proprietary information has been shared:
Once we have moved beyond step 1 as described above, when considering a refund, we look at the total tour cost as indictated by the website or invoices that may supersede the website costs, including the booking deposit, to calculate the refund.
A. More than 90 days before departure: Cancelation of your tour by yourself before 90 days from departure, ie the date of our first night, will result in the refunding of all your fees minus the booking deposit referring to the conditions in point number 1 above.
B. Between 90 and 30 days from departure: Cancelation of your tour by yourself in the period 90 to 30 days from departure, will result in the loss of 50% of the tour value. Unless Bluerhino have not shared sensitive information as described above. Therefor if you book and pay in this time period and cancel before Bluerhino has shared preparation info as described in point 1 above you will get a full refund.
C. In the last 30 days before departure: Cancelation of your tour by yourself in the last 30 days before departure, will result in no refund, and you will still be liable to pay the full Bluerhino invoice.
3. Can you recover your lost fees?
The only way to recover your lost fees would be for you to find someone to take your place on the tour. However the booking deposit as described above is non refundable after sharing proprietary information regardless of you finding a replacement.
4. If Bluerhino Safaris cancels a tour.
In the event that Bluerhino cancels a tour, a special arrangement will be made to shift the tour or accommodate you. If however this is not to your liking, you would be entitled to a full refund.
This does not apply to tours affected by COVID or COVID related issues or force majeur.
5. COVID
Traveling to any country has a range of inherent requirements imposed by the government of the country. As tourists we are obliged to adhere to these regulations or stay home. Note that these regulations can change even whilst we are on tour.
With COVID vaccines approved by the FDA and SAPHRA, and vaccines freely available, not being vaccinated is no longer a valid reason for cancelation. It is the traveler’s free choice to be vaccinated or not, however the traveler then also has to deal with the result or impact of their choice.
If Bluerhino is faced with a choice on tour to accommodate unvaccinated guests vs vaccinated guests, Ie having to wait for test results for unvaccinated guests, Bluerhino will favour the vaccinated guests route. This is because it will make traveling easier and shorten our time wasting on borders. Unvaccinated guests must be prepared to spend the extra time and catch up with the rest of the group asap. Off course I will assist with this, but once the vaccinated group is cleared we will move on.
Bluerhino has to operate in line with local government regulation. Further Bluerhino will plan and execute all tours, assuming the traveler conforms to local government requirements, be it fully vaccinated or complying with PCR testing etc. Note that these regulations change without notice and Bluerhino can not be held responsible should a guest not comply to local requirements.