Cancellation Policy

The short version

• Your booking contract is with the hotel, airline, clinic, retreat or operator you book with, not with TravelVulture.
• Their cancellation terms are the ones that apply. We do not set them, change them, or override them.
• We do not take your booking payment, so we are not the party that issues a refund.
• Where a provider has given us their terms, we show them before you proceed. Where they have not, we say so.
• We never charge you a cancellation fee of our own. We have no booking fees at all.

Who you are actually booking with

TravelVulture is a search and planning service. When you click through to book, you are dealing directly with that provider or booking site. They take your payment, they hold your reservation, and they own the terms of it.

That means a cancellation, a date change, a refund, a dispute over what was included, or a complaint about the service you received is between you and them. We are not a party to that contract and we cannot cancel, amend, or refund a booking on your behalf.

Why we spell this out

Responsibilities should be clear before you book, not discovered afterwards. We can surface a provider's terms, contact them on your behalf and escalate an unresolved issue. The provider remains responsible for delivering, changing, cancelling and refunding the service it sells.

What we say elsewhere on this site is meant to match what is written here. We tell you what we checked, and we tell you what we did not.

What we do anyway

Not being the merchant does not mean disappearing once you click out.

• Provider terms. Where a provider has supplied cancellation or change terms, we show or link to them before you proceed. If terms have not been provided to us, we tell you to confirm them directly with the provider.
• When a provider stops responding. If you contact us about an unresolved provider communication issue, we may help reconnect you with the provider or escalate the matter using the contact channels available to us.
• Provider accountability. Repeated complaints, failure to honour published terms, or other material service issues may affect a provider's visibility or continued participation on TravelVulture.

To be exact about the limit of that: we can advocate and we can escalate, and we cannot compel a third party to refund you. We will not promise you an outcome we are not the one deciding.

Medical, wellness and event journeys

The same applies, and the stakes are higher, so read the provider's terms with care.

• Medical. TravelVulture is not a hospital, clinic, insurer or medical provider. Treatment, eligibility, pricing and any refund are decided by the provider after they assess you. Our estimates are planning figures, never a quote and never a commitment from anyone.
• Wellness. Some retreats screen guests before confirming a place. Payment being accepted is not the same as your place being confirmed, so check before you buy flights.
• Events. Tickets are usually non refundable once issued, and that is the ticket seller's policy, not ours.

Before you book, check these

• The deadline for a free cancellation, as a date, not as a number of days.
• Whether the deposit is refundable, and separately whether the balance is.
• What is included, and what is charged on arrival.
• Whether travel insurance would cover the reason you might cancel.

If something goes wrong

Contact the provider first, in writing, and keep the reply. If you get nowhere, or you get nothing at all, tell us. We may be able to help reconnect you with the provider or escalate using the contact channels available to us, and we record what you tell us against that provider.