Cancellations & Trip Insurance
While canceling hunting or fishing trips can be difficult, things do happen and trip cancellations are a fact of life. Whenever possible, we will work with you and the outfitter to reschedule your trip for alternate dates of that season or the next.
If alternative dates won’t work for you, there are a couple of other options:
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If you can find someone to replace you, it is usually just a paperwork change on our end and there is no fee for that service.
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If you can’t find a replacement, we may be able to rebook your trip to another client and if we can do so, we will refund your deposit, less a 15% cancellation fee. These cancellation and rescheduling policies are the most lenient in the industry and we will always do our best to accommodate and serve you.
Travel Guard
In order to protect your trip payments, airline tickets and other expenses, we strongly recommend that you consider trip insurance. We firmly believe that Travel Guard offers the very best possible insurance coverage for hunters and anglers, and strongly encourage all of our clients to consider purchasing a policy with them.
Working closely with outfitters and sporting travel consultants, Travel Guard has developed specialized programs for hunters and anglers. The cost is very reasonable and the coverage is extensive. They even include medical evacuation coverage in their policies, which is sufficient for most of the destinations that we represent.
Global Rescue
If you will be venturing into very remote areas and potentially dangerous situations, we may also recommend that you consider a policy (actually a membership) with Global Rescue. They are widely recognized as the industry leader with both medical and security evacuations from remote areas. No matter where you’re at or what’s happened, Global Rescue will get you out and take care of you. We can discuss insurance options when you are booking your trip and make recommendations to you at that time.
Learn more and sign up for Global Rescue here.
Booking Terms & Escrow Accounts
Booking Terms
Our booking terms are very simple and straightforward. If the trip you’re booking will operate within 12 months or less, a 50% deposit is required at the time of the booking. If your trip will operate in 13 or more months, a 25% deposit is required at the time of the booking, with another 25% deposit due when the trip is 12 months out. All remaining balances are due in our offices within 60 days of the trip start dates. These are industry standard payment terms and widely accepted by most outfitters and lodges. If these terms do not meet your current needs, please ask about payment options. Whenever our outfitters will allow us to do so, we try to be as flexible as possible and payment plans or installments may be an option. Please keep in mind that as a “rule-of-thumb” in this industry, trips that are booked with less than a 50% deposit may be subject to price changes. Trips that are booked with a 50% deposit are usually “locked-in” for price. We will always inform you at the time of booking if we anticipate that price changes are a possibility. All payments (deposits, final balances, etc.) can be handled with personal or company checks and most major credit cards. We accept Visa, Master Card, American Express and Discover. Unless it is your preference, there is no need for certified funds, wire transfers or money orders. Many of our international clients prefer to make payments via wire transfers and that is perfectly acceptable.
Escrow Accounts
For clients booking certain African safaris or other hunts that can require trophy fees and other expenses to be paid at the conclusion of the hunt, you may want to consider establishing an Escrow Account with our firm. Some African, Asian and European outfitters will not accept credit cards or personal checks as payment for such things as trophy fees. Establishing an escrow account will allow you to enjoy your hunt and vacation, without having to carry a lot of cash or some form of certified funds on your person. When you are booking such a hunt, we can give you an estimate of what these additional fees may be and you can deposit this amount into an escrow account that we will administer for you. At the conclusion of the hunt, the outfitter emails our offices an invoice for trophies taken and any other such fees. That invoice is then emailed or faxed to you and pending your signed approval, we immediately transfer those fees from your escrow account to the outfitter. Any remaining funds in the escrow account are immediately refunded to you. There is no fee for escrow accounts established via checks (personal, company or certified), other than the wire transfer fee to the outfitter, which is usually in the range of $25 to $40. For escrow accounts established with a credit card, we do charge a 5% service fee.
Discounts & Specials
While we certainly have no intention of ever becoming a “clearing house” or “liquidator” for discounted trips, sometimes our clients need to cancel a trip due to a schedule conflict.
We always try to get as much of our client’s money back to them as possible, but trips that are cancelled on short notice, or are still available close to the trip’s operational dates, may be offered at discounted prices.
Additionally, sometimes our outfitters will have perfectly good trips, scheduled during prime time dates that are still available for whatever reasons. Whenever such specials or discounts become known to us, we will pass them along to you, our valued customers. If you are interested in trip cancellations or specials please call or email us. Typically, if you have a flexible schedule and can travel on short notice, you may be able to pick up a great trip at a substantially discounted price.