extreme bike tours

Unpredictable events, tour cancellation, security deposits & refunds

Unfortunately this year we are witnessing the spread of the Coronavirus. Quite rightly, some of our customers raised a few concerns and asked about the situation with upcoming tours.

Last year in April we had a terrible event in Sri Lanka – where we are based – and this affected all the tourism in the country as well as some of our tours. Luckily, nothing else has happened and Sri Lanka has returned to its normal island life in a very short period.

This time we cannot yet say what’s going to happen but we are optimistic and all the 2020/2021 scheduled tours are confirmed. These kind of events are unpredictable but if we take a look at the recent global history, there has been precedents that were contained (SARS, MERS, etc.).

Nevertheless, we have to be realistic and any of the tours could be cancelled last minute or you could not feel comfortable enough to travel.

The question is: What happens to the deposit?

Since this is a very important topic, we’d like to take the opportunity to explain how we handle deposit refund requests.

By our Terms & Conditions (“Point 3.6 Booking charges, cancellations and refunds”), generally deposits are non-refundable unless we cancel a tour.

However as many of our customers can confirm, we are very reasonable and evaluate case by case.

Here are the main scenarios:

If you have any questions please leave a comment below and we will reply as soon as we turn off our bike engines.

Ps. Don’t forget to have a look at our upcoming motorcycle tours

2 Responses

  1. Seems reasonable to me. Does this work differently once you’ve paid the balance as this is due some months before the date?

    1. Hi Jeff, good question!

      Balances are due 2 months before the tour and by then we are 100% sure that we do the tour though unfortunately it’s impossible to know what could happen within those 2 months.

      The general rule applies: if we cancel, we refund you in full or we can use the funds for another tour; if you cancel then we would need to evaluate the reasons and we’ll offer you the best possible solution. However keep in mind that by then we will have made all arrangements and it will not be possible for us to offer a full refund, yet we always try the best so that none of us lose money.

      A recommended option for any trip would be to sign up with a CFAR (Cancellation for any reason) insurance policy. As the name says, these policies are offered to cover up to 100% of the travel cost in case of cancellation for any reason.

      Let me know if you have any other questions.

      Simone

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