TOURISM THAT CARES

TERMS AND CONDITIONS 2026-2027

By making payment to us, you indicate your agreement to these Terms and Conditions.

NOTE: 

By completing a booking form or paying a deposit for your trip or instructing us via email or WhatsApp to proceed with the booking, you indicate your agreement to these Terms and Conditions below in full.

NB: If we see you have numerous flight sectors that are on certain high demand routes, and there is a risk of a flight becoming fully booked, we may require a 100% deposit on your flight tickets only, and a 50% deposit on your accommodation. If not, we prefer a 50% deposit of the full trip value.

This is especially important when you are flying on the only flight of the day between a safari area and a major city. Often these seats must be booked and paid for immediately, as it is a smaller plane and seats are limited.

This 50% deposit is normally refundable, less a 10% admin fee of the total trip value, up until 60 days before travel. HOWEVER, if some lodges and hotels charge a 20% to 25% non-refundable deposit, then this refund will be affected.

Please note this does not apply to flights. IT APPLIES only to hotels, safari lodges, and road transport. Flight tickets are generally offered for postponement only, and not transferable to another name.

As a rule, we strongly recommend postponement versus outright cancellation if you enter dates within the 30-day window. Higher cancellation fees normally start to apply then.

Please note: With postponement, a slight increase is possible due to airline ticket increases, fuel costs, or the annual inflation rate of the country or countries you are travelling to.

1. PAYMENT METHODS

Payment is due in ZAR for trips within South Africa and Namibia only. Any prices quoted in your currency are for comparative purposes only and do not constitute a legal contracted price. The ZAR price is the legal tender price as per the invoice.

Payment is due in US dollars for East African (Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania) or any SADC countries (Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Mauritius and Seychelles) journeys.

- The US Dollar price is the legal tender price as per the invoice.

- Unless otherwise stated, payment is via international bank transfer.

We accept Visa and Mastercard, Amex, and are bound by First National Bank of South Africa’s security and safety laws when it comes to processing of payments.

Our credit card machines are ZAR based, and thus if you choose to pay for a US dollar trip in ZAR, we will charge the card with a quoted rate from our bank, and these prices are set taking various factors into consideration including:

• Our bank quoted rates of exchange
• Current volatility of the currency in question

NOTE:

If paying by credit card, you can expect a 2.8% forex service fee to be charged, to protect ourselves from incurring losses due to exchange rate volatility or fees charged to make US Dollar payments.

This forex service fee can be avoided by paying via international bank transfer for any US Dollar-based holidays in East Africa, or some countries in Southern Africa where the output costs are also in US dollars.

These prices exclude the service fees or exchange rate your local bank chooses to charge at the time of deduction.

1.1 EXCHANGE RATE FLUCTUATION

At no stage can we guarantee a rate of exchange if your trip involves multiple currency costs for more than 24 hours. Any major fluctuations will be adjusted on the invoice accordingly, especially if the deposit and balance of payment are over a long period of time, for example deposit paid in March and balance in August, and during this period exchange rates have changed drastically.

Exchange rates are merely guidelines for clients to see the cost in their own currency for comparison, and we cannot be held responsible for the exchange rate your bank uses when converting into your local currency.

1.2 DELIVERY OF DOCUMENTS GUARANTEEING SERVICES

Once you have made full payment, you will receive your necessary travel vouchers within three weeks prior to travel, guaranteeing your trip with detailed inclusions and exclusions. These vouchers are legally binding, service guaranteed documents in accordance with international travel standards set out by SATSA (Southern African Tourism Services).

These documents are normally sent in PDF to your email or delivered by hand or DHL courier services (if requested) at an additional fee.

If you are a travel agent, we will gladly send these documents in Word format for you to transfer to your respective letterheads in order to forward to your customer.

1.3 BOOKING FORM

Due to the extremely important nature of correct spelling of names on flight tickets, as well as safety and security regulations, no bookings will be processed unless a complete booking form and copies of passports are received on conversion of a quote to a booking.

Please be very clear and comprehensive around dietary requirements, Kosher requirements, allergies, special medical needs, etc.

Do not only relay this information verbally to our consultants.

All booking forms must be sent to the travel consultant you are dealing with directly.

2. TRAVEL INSURANCES AND LEGAL DOCUMENTATION

All participants must take out travel, medical, cancellation and curtailment insurance the moment you confirm a trip with us.

The agent, organising committee, or person travelling themselves are responsible to arrange international flights out of and returning to their countries of origin, as well as ensuring each traveller has the necessary visa, health, and other international travel documentation in place prior to departure.

Any omissions in this regard are not the responsibility of our company.

3. ADMINISTRATION FEES

All deposits carry a 10% non-refundable administration fee of the total trip cost.

We carry bank charges, credit card fees, administration, planning and communication costs based on time invested in a booking, which is why we apply this policy.

Should a postponement take place due to Covid 19 or similar, this fee is retained and you are provided with a credit voucher for the new dates set out within 12 months of the original planned dates of travel.

If any service providers are unwilling to provide a credit voucher, we will advise the proposed alternative solution in conjunction with the service providers’ postponement terms.

4. CANCELLATION POLICY APPLICABLE TO TOTAL TRIP COSTS

4.1 Any bookings cancelled, no matter the length of time before travel, will incur at the bare minimum a 10% admin fee of the total trip cost.

4.2 Any bookings cancelled less than 90 days but more than 60 days before travel are subject to a 10% admin fee of the total trip cost, plus any fees charged by the hotels or service providers.

The typical norm is a 25% cancellation fee from service providers within this time frame, but it could be less depending on their individual terms.

4.3 Any bookings cancelled less than 60 days but more than 45 days prior to departure are subject to a 50% cancellation fee.

4.4 Any bookings cancelled less than 45 days but more than 21 days prior to departure are subject to a 75% cancellation fee.

4.5 Any bookings cancelled less than 21 days prior to arrival, especially if it is in peak season, will incur a full 100% cancellation fee.

It is important to note that we try our best to mitigate cancellation fee risk on a case-by-case scenario and leverage our relationships with suppliers to the best of our ability.

This excludes all airline tickets, which are listed separately under point 7.

5. CANCELLATION POLICY EXCEPTIONS

5.1 Some safari lodges and smaller private resorts can enforce stricter non-refundable deposit policies than the above policy.

Please note: Some safari lodges, resorts or boutique hotels with a small room total are now enforcing 25% non-refundable deposits within 14 days of making a booking, and the balance is due 60 days prior to arrival.

5.2 In some cases in peak seasons, any cancellations less than 60 days carry a 100% cancellation fee with these smaller lodges.

Therefore their policy overrides our general cancellation policy in point 4 when a specific lodge applies this higher percentage of cancellation.

5.3 Specific supplier cancellation policies can be requested from us when making a booking.

6. FESTIVE OR PEAK SEASON BOOKINGS

Between 5 December and 10 January each year most hotels, resorts and lodges enforce a stricter cancellation policy than our standard policies stipulated above.

These can be obtained on request when booking over this period.

In some instances July and August may also have peak season policies in place, please enquire with your consultant if you have any questions.

7. AIRLINE TICKETS

Flight prices are only guaranteed for 12 hours on our systems and are subject to availability.

They will be re-quoted if you have not paid as per the flight deposit deadline.

Most tickets are generally partially refundable but always carry an amendment or cancellation fee. Refunds are treated case by case depending on the fare class booked and the individual airline policy.

If booked in the cheapest class they are non-refundable.

8. REFUND POLICY

8.1 Our refunds are processed within the cancellation guidelines listed above.

Refunds are processed within 14 days of receiving your cancellation, which must be put in writing via email to your travel consultant, supported with necessary documentation such as medical certificates.

Refunds are only paid over once we have received the finances back from the supplier.

8.2 If in the case of a service delivery failure please lodge your complaint in writing to your travel consultant or to [email protected] or call +27 71 372 4916 if you wish to speak to a manager.

8.3 Once we receive a complaint regarding a specific hotel or service provider, we will investigate the matter within 7 days and thereafter issue a refund instruction and refund form to complete if your complaint was verified and approved.

Refunds are processed using the same form of payment that was used when you made payment to us.

8.4 We operate within the laws of the Consumer Protection Act (Act No. 68 of 2008) of South Africa.

https://www.saica.co.za/portals/0/technical/legalandgovernance/gon271codeofconductcgso.pdf

We will also refer to SATSA’s code of conduct by which we are required to comply.

http://www.satsa.com/code-of-conduct/

If you believe we are not complying with this code you may lodge a complaint with SATSA directly.

SATSA contact details:
+27 (0) 86 12 72872
+27 (11) 886 9996
Email: [email protected]

9. CANCELLATION INSURANCE AND NEGOTIATING REDUCTIONS WITH MANAGEMENT

Based on points 4–8 we repeat it is advisable to take out cancellation insurance, complete booking forms properly and understand that our terms relate to the service providers and principals that we use under the SATSA code of conduct.

We will try to negotiate the reduction of cancellation policies per case should the need arise.

The final decision lies with the hotel or service provider’s management team, not with us as a travel agency.

They will take into account factors such as reselling of rooms, time of year or loss of revenue.

These negotiations are made to minimise costs to our clients but under no circumstances can we override supplier policies

10. PRIVACY POLICY AND THE POPI ACT

10.1 All information received in booking forms, payment forms and correspondence via email will be treated with strict confidentiality.

10.2 No unsolicited emails, spamming or usage of client information other than for direct communication relating to the client’s travel needs will occur.

10.3 Client information will not be sold or passed onto any third parties for usage in promotional databases or marketing activities.