Cancellation of booked trips
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Ministryofgiraffes
Contributor
(Alex Mustard Underwater Photography )
Given the continuing uncertainty in the world, we have reviewed our Terms and Conditions. As a result, we have included an important new clause – the Corona Clause. You will see it below. Effectively it covers you if you are prevented from travelling due to Covid-19. We have reissued your booking to reflect this update. All other details of your bookings remain the same as previously. Please discard your previous documentation and use these attachments as your new booking confirmation.
If you cannot travel due to Covid-19, we will honour the monies paid to us and move the booking to a later date. For this to be applicable, one of the following must apply:
If any of the above do not apply, it is your responsibility to get yourself to the point of embarkation. The ‘Corona Clause’ can be removed at any time.
For more information and our full terms and & Conditions, please go to: https://blueotwo.com/terms-and-conditions
Given the continuing uncertainty in the world, we have reviewed our Terms and Conditions. As a result, we have included an important new clause – the Corona Clause. You will see it below. Effectively it covers you if you are prevented from travelling due to Covid-19. We have reissued your booking to reflect this update. All other details of your bookings remain the same as previously. Please discard your previous documentation and use these attachments as your new booking confirmation.
If you cannot travel due to Covid-19, we will honour the monies paid to us and move the booking to a later date. For this to be applicable, one of the following must apply:
- You have contracted the virus and can provide medical evidence to support this
- OR Your final destination country prevents you from entering due to their governmental guidelines and restrictions on your country of residence
- OR Your country of residence prevents you from departing due to their governmental guidelines and restrictions on the embarkation point for the liveaboard
If any of the above do not apply, it is your responsibility to get yourself to the point of embarkation. The ‘Corona Clause’ can be removed at any time.
For more information and our full terms and & Conditions, please go to: https://blueotwo.com/terms-and-conditions
I'm reading this (and other threads) with much interest. I'm not one to judge what others do, but I thought I'd chime in and let the community know what we've decided to do here at Geko. This may help other operators make decisions for themselves. No matter what choices anyone currently makes, only future will tell what the best choices would have been.
On the customer side, we feel it's totally legitimate to expect a full refund of deposits when legally prohibited from fulfilling their bookings. We've decided to refund all deposits for guests unable to travel. This does go against our clear Terms & Conditions. These normally allow for deposits to be transferred to a different date within the current year at least 72 hours in advance, but never refunded. We actually decided not to refund a number of deposits when the volcano erupted as the area was not closed for tourism and flights were still coming to Bali. We took some flak for this elsewhere, as well as on this very forum, but coming or not coming was only a matter of personal choice then, not an obligation, nor a reflection of the non-existent danger on the ground.
The only exception to the current full refund policy is cases of dive courses where pretty much 100% of deposits go towards paying for eLearning. We're actually in touch with PADI to see whether these can be cancelled and re-credited to our account as some guests fail to care for this last point. It is a disappointment to see the bad will displayed by some guests regarding this. It's reassuring to see that PADI is exploring potential solutions in spite of their own clear policies.
Deposits here are small. The 50$ to 100$ we ask merely constitute a show of goodwill to prevent no-shows, thus covering our asses. They are much easier to reimburse than the 50% to 100% that resorts and liveaboards need to charge at the time of booking. At the same time, it's increasingly difficult to understand divers' constant focus on prices to the detriment of more essential aspects, such as safety, care for the environment and a dedication to the well-being of the local community. The latter aspects are the most costly for any dive business. These are seldom covered by discount operators... Guests that rely on these are complacent!
On the staff side, we felt it was necessary to hold a meeting with our employees to try to reassure them. A lot of businesses in the area are exploring ways to "give" staff unpaid leave for an indeterminate period of time (illegal in absentia of bankruptcy). Others (more respectful of the law) are offering 45 to 50% of basic wages and imposing a rolling roster (e.g.: 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off) to their staff. We've decided to pay 100% of basic wages to all our staff for as long as we can. We have the treasury for just under two months. After that, I'll go out of pocket until unable to. This should see us through a little over 8 months. Should the return of tourism take much longer, the entire team, including management, will be in unknown territory. At the same time, if it comes to that, will this not be the case of most people on Earth, no matter what they do?
This decision may seem crazy to some, but we know that many members of our team will suffer tremendously even with their full basic wage. No insurance, social security, nor nanny state will come to their rescue. More and more have unfortunately contracted loans with banks (or loansharks) and find it tough to meet repayment deadlines, even on a good year (last proper one was 2016-17). Staff and the local community have allowed us to live the life we chose for more than a few years. How could we leave them in the dump?
On the management side, we have to sacrifice small parts of ourselves for the good of the team. At the end of the day, we do have skills towards earning money in different ways along with the luxury of being able to do so elsewhere should the absolute need arise. No need to state that nearly 100% of the staff does not benefit from such latitudes. Salaries for us stop starting this month. These may not resume for a long time. My personal treasury set aside is my kids' school funds. That should normally see them through to middle school. That's a large part of what will go towards paying the staff's wages, if/when it comes to that. In all honesty, if divers are unable or unwilling to come to these parts of the world to engage with their passion of scuba diving for much longer than that (10-12 months), it's unlikely that either party (both management, staff and guests) will be able to continue doing what they've been doing, where they have been doing it in the past 20 years or so...
On the customer side, we feel it's totally legitimate to expect a full refund of deposits when legally prohibited from fulfilling their bookings. We've decided to refund all deposits for guests unable to travel. This does go against our clear Terms & Conditions. These normally allow for deposits to be transferred to a different date within the current year at least 72 hours in advance, but never refunded. We actually decided not to refund a number of deposits when the volcano erupted as the area was not closed for tourism and flights were still coming to Bali. We took some flak for this elsewhere, as well as on this very forum, but coming or not coming was only a matter of personal choice then, not an obligation, nor a reflection of the non-existent danger on the ground.
The only exception to the current full refund policy is cases of dive courses where pretty much 100% of deposits go towards paying for eLearning. We're actually in touch with PADI to see whether these can be cancelled and re-credited to our account as some guests fail to care for this last point. It is a disappointment to see the bad will displayed by some guests regarding this. It's reassuring to see that PADI is exploring potential solutions in spite of their own clear policies.
Deposits here are small. The 50$ to 100$ we ask merely constitute a show of goodwill to prevent no-shows, thus covering our asses. They are much easier to reimburse than the 50% to 100% that resorts and liveaboards need to charge at the time of booking. At the same time, it's increasingly difficult to understand divers' constant focus on prices to the detriment of more essential aspects, such as safety, care for the environment and a dedication to the well-being of the local community. The latter aspects are the most costly for any dive business. These are seldom covered by discount operators... Guests that rely on these are complacent!
On the staff side, we felt it was necessary to hold a meeting with our employees to try to reassure them. A lot of businesses in the area are exploring ways to "give" staff unpaid leave for an indeterminate period of time (illegal in absentia of bankruptcy). Others (more respectful of the law) are offering 45 to 50% of basic wages and imposing a rolling roster (e.g.: 2 weeks on, 2 weeks off) to their staff. We've decided to pay 100% of basic wages to all our staff for as long as we can. We have the treasury for just under two months. After that, I'll go out of pocket until unable to. This should see us through a little over 8 months. Should the return of tourism take much longer, the entire team, including management, will be in unknown territory. At the same time, if it comes to that, will this not be the case of most people on Earth, no matter what they do?
This decision may seem crazy to some, but we know that many members of our team will suffer tremendously even with their full basic wage. No insurance, social security, nor nanny state will come to their rescue. More and more have unfortunately contracted loans with banks (or loansharks) and find it tough to meet repayment deadlines, even on a good year (last proper one was 2016-17). Staff and the local community have allowed us to live the life we chose for more than a few years. How could we leave them in the dump?
On the management side, we have to sacrifice small parts of ourselves for the good of the team. At the end of the day, we do have skills towards earning money in different ways along with the luxury of being able to do so elsewhere should the absolute need arise. No need to state that nearly 100% of the staff does not benefit from such latitudes. Salaries for us stop starting this month. These may not resume for a long time. My personal treasury set aside is my kids' school funds. That should normally see them through to middle school. That's a large part of what will go towards paying the staff's wages, if/when it comes to that. In all honesty, if divers are unable or unwilling to come to these parts of the world to engage with their passion of scuba diving for much longer than that (10-12 months), it's unlikely that either party (both management, staff and guests) will be able to continue doing what they've been doing, where they have been doing it in the past 20 years or so...
Cert1967
Contributor
@BLACKCRUSADER
Any local news regarding China Air or Eva suspending or reducing service to the USA?
LAX in particular.
runsongas
Contributor
@BLACKCRUSADER @Joneill
you can conceivably hit all the sites (although the peleliu ones are a pretty long haul even by speedboat). the thing is you end up getting fewer dives in due to motoring out and back every day.
you can conceivably hit all the sites (although the peleliu ones are a pretty long haul even by speedboat). the thing is you end up getting fewer dives in due to motoring out and back every day.
Blackcrusader
Contributor
I always take 2 week vacations. I understand a LOB might be nice but being on land is also nice.
I could do a lob for one part of the trip land based for the other.
Blackcrusader
Contributor
Blackcrusader
Contributor
You do not address the fact that the only opportunity cost you would take if you were to refund this person in full is the 10% discount you offered, vs someone else who pay full price and book with no deposit then cancel with no penalty. I do not know how your books look or what your liquidity looks like but your reasoning is irrational to me given guests have the choice to pay no deposit in the first place.
In present situation any operator refusing a full refund is shooting its own foot!.
Negative comment on FB, TripAdvisor etc etc will be enough to deter a lot of potential customers.
PR is very important.
I am very reluctant to pay deposit because of one very unhappy incidence with an operator that I have used for many yrs. Customers are suckers to them!
LoB operators are the WORST.
Negative comment on FB, TripAdvisor etc etc will be enough to deter a lot of potential customers.
PR is very important.
I am very reluctant to pay deposit because of one very unhappy incidence with an operator that I have used for many yrs. Customers are suckers to them!
LoB operators are the WORST.
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