Terms & Conditions
The holidays featured on our website are operated by Echos of Wilderness Ltd (hereinafter called “EOF”, “we” or “us”), which is registered in Tanzania under company law.
Your booking to Africa is with Echosofwilderness (sometimes referred to as EOW).
1. OUR DETAILS
We are based in Arusha and registered under company 101-10-19 number.
2. YOUR BOOKING WITH EOW
A booking with EOW will exist as soon as we issue our ‘Confirmation Invoice & Itinerary’. We will issue this after receiving your deposit and confirming every element of your trip to Africa. Your booking is made on the terms of these booking conditions, and in agreeing to them you guarantee that you have the authority to accept and do accept on behalf of your party (named on the booking form) the terms of these booking conditions.
3. PAYING FOR YOUR TRIP TO AFRICA
When you make your booking you must pay a deposit of 30% of the booking cost, or full payment if your departure is within 90 days. Sometimes your booking may require other upfront payments on top of the usual 30% deposit – for example for international flights, gorilla permits or for some bookings over peak holiday periods. If an additional deposit is required, you will be informed prior to booking your trip with us. The remaining balance of the booking cost must be paid at least 90 days before your departure date. If the deposit and/or balance is not paid in time, we have the right to cancel your travel arrangements and will retain your deposit. If your payment is late, we will send you a reminder and if it is still not paid, we will be forced to cancel your trip.
Any quote offered to you is valid for 7 days from that date, after which we may have to vary the price due to changes in costings.
Our suppliers in Africa have rates in various currencies – TZS, GBP, Euro, Rand, and US dollars are the most common that we deal with. We will gladly quote you a trip in TZS or USD, and any quote you receive from us will be valid for 7 days. After this, we reserve the right to recalculate the cost based on updated exchange rates. Once you have decided to go ahead with your trip, the currency is fixed. This means that the cost of your trip to Africa will not change because of currency fluctuations, regardless of what the markets are doing – we never currency surcharge, but nor can we reduce the cost of any confirmed trip to Africa (please refer to clause 7 for other reasons the cost of your trip might change). You must pay your deposit and your balance in the same currency that was agreed on when you decided to go ahead with your trip to Africa.
If you add any services to your booking at a later stage, they will be costed using the exchange rate of the day. If for any reason we need to refund a part of your trip, it will be refunded using the exchange rate the cost of your trip was originally based on.
4. IF YOU CANCEL YOUR TRIP TO AFRICA
You, or any member of your party, may cancel your travel arrangements at any time. Written notification from the person who made the booking must be received by email. Please send it to info@echosofwilderness.com and ensure that the email is acknowledged by EOW. Since we incur costs in canceling your travel arrangements, you will have to pay cancellation charges as follows (see also the exception below):
| Period before departure in which you notify us | Cancellation charge |
|---|---|
| More than 84 days | Deposit only |
| 70 to 84 days | 35% of booking cost |
| 56 to 69 days | 50% of booking cost |
| 29 to 55 days | 75% of booking cost |
| Less than 28 days | 100% of booking cost |
Note: Some camps have very high cancellation charges over peak booking periods such as Christmas. This may affect the above cancellation charges, making them higher than normal. If higher than normal cancellation charges affect your booking, we will inform you in writing at the quote stage and before you pay your deposit. Once your deposit is paid and we have issued you with a Confirmation Invoice, you are liable for these increased cancellation charges.
If at deposit stage, you paid upfront for gorilla permits or international flights, these are non-refundable, and so the cost of these will be retained by us on top of the cancellation charges indicated above.
If the reason for your cancellation is covered under the terms of your insurance policy, you may be able to reclaim these charges, and we can issue you with a cancellation invoice to support your claim.
5. IF YOU CHANGE YOUR BOOKING
If, after our confirmation invoice has been issued, you wish to change your travel arrangements in any way, for example, your chosen departure date or accommodation, we will do our utmost to make these changes, but it may not always be possible. Any request for changes to be made must be in writing from the person who made the booking. You will be asked to pay an administration charge of TZS 250,000, and any further costs we incur in making this alteration. You should be aware that the closer to your departure date changes are made, the higher these costs are likely to be, so you should contact us to make them as soon as possible. Note: Certain travel arrangements may not be changeable after a reservation has been made and any alteration could incur a cancellation charge of up to 100% of that part of the arrangements. In particular, any changes requested within 90 days of departure will be subject to the cancellation charges above.
You can transfer your booking to another person, who satisfies all the conditions that apply to this booking, by giving us notice in writing at least 7 days before departure. Both you and the new traveler are responsible for paying all costs we incur in making the transfer.
6. IF WE CANCEL YOUR BOOKING
We reserve the right to cancel all or part of your booking if unforeseeable circumstances force us to do so. We will not cancel less than 90 days before your departure date, except for unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, or failure by you to pay the final balance. Unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances mean a situation beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken – and include but are not limited to war, threat of war, riot, civil strife, industrial dispute, terrorist activity, epidemic or pandemic, natural or nuclear disaster, fire, adverse weather conditions, or unavoidable technical problems with transport.
In the event a refund is paid to you, we will pay compensation of TZS 750,000 per person except where the cancellation is due to unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances (see definition above). This does not exclude you from claiming more if you are entitled to do so.
7. IF WE CHANGE YOUR BOOKING
(a) Changes to the price
We can change the price of your trip to Africa after you’ve booked, only in certain circumstances:
Changes in the price of the carriage of passengers resulting from changes to the cost of fuel, the level of taxes or fees imposed by third parties including tourist taxes, landing taxes, or embarkation or disembarkation fees at ports and airports mean that the price of your travel arrangements may change after you have booked. However, there will be no change within 20 days of your departure.
If this results in an increase equivalent to more than 8% of the total price of your travel arrangements, you will have the option of accepting or changing to another trip if we are able to offer one (we will refund any price difference if the alternative is of a lower value), or canceling and receiving a full refund of all monies paid, except for any amendment charges. Should you decide to cancel, you must do so within one week of being told of the change.
Should the price of your trip go down due to the cost changes mentioned above, then any refund due will be paid to you. We will deduct from this refund our administrative expenses incurred. Please note that travel arrangements are not always purchased in local currency and some apparent changes have no impact on the price of your travel due to contractual and other protection in place.
(b) Changes other than the price
It is a term of your booking that we are able to make changes to any aspect of your booking. If the change is insignificant, we will ensure that you are notified about it. Examples of insignificant changes include alteration of your outward/return flights by less than 12 hours, changes to aircraft type, change of accommodation to another of the same or higher standard, changes of carriers.
8. OUR LIABILITY TO YOU
You must inform us without undue delay of any failure to perform or improper performance of the travel services included in this package. If any of the travel services included in your package are not performed in accordance with the contract or are improperly performed by us or the travel service suppliers, and this has affected the enjoyment of your travel arrangements, you may be entitled to an appropriate price reduction or compensation or both. We will not be liable where any failure to perform or improper performance of the travel services is due to: you or another member of your party; or a third party unconnected with the provision of the travel services in the package and is unforeseeable or unavoidable; or unavoidable and extraordinary circumstances, which means a situation beyond our control, the consequences of which could not have been avoided even if all reasonable measures had been taken.
Our liability, except in cases involving death, injury, or illness, shall be limited to a maximum of three times the cost of your travel arrangements. Our liability will also be limited in accordance with and/or in an identical manner to
a) The contractual terms of the companies that provide the travel services that make up your booking. These terms are incorporated into this booking; and
b) Any relevant international conventions, for example, the Montreal Convention in respect of travel by air, the Athens Convention in respect of travel by sea, the Berne Convention in respect of travel by rail, and the Paris Convention in respect of the provision of accommodation, which limit the amount of and the conditions under which compensation can be claimed for death, injury, delay to passengers, and loss, damage, and delay to luggage. We are to be regarded as having all benefit of any limitation of compensation contained in these or any conventions.
9. PROTECTING YOUR MONEY
All the trips we sell in Tanzania are protected by local regulations and we follow the guidelines provided by the Tanzania Tourist Board and other relevant authorities to ensure that your money is protected in the event of insolvency.
10. COMPLAINTS
If you have a complaint about any of the services included in your trip to Africa, you must inform our local representative without undue delay who will endeavor to put things right. If they are unable to resolve the matter, you should contact us in the TZ on + 255 754456456 or email your dedicated contact. If the problem cannot be resolved and you wish to complain further, you must send formal written notice of your complaint to our Customer Services Department at Arusha Tanzania within 28 days of the end of your trip, giving your booking reference and all other relevant information. Please keep your letter concise and to the point. This will assist us in quickly identifying your concerns and speed up our response to you.
11. BEHAVIOUR
Please be aware that the booking conditions of some of our suppliers will allow them to terminate your arrangements if your behavior or that of your party falls below an acceptable standard. We will also refuse to deal with you if your behavior is deemed to be unacceptable. In any of these circumstances, we will have no further responsibility to you and no refunds will be made, nor will we pay any expenses or costs incurred as a result of termination.
12. INSURANCE
It is a condition of booking with EOW that you take out appropriate travel insurance to cover your trip to Africa. Your travel insurance must include adequate cover for medical expenses and the cost of repatriation should you fall ill. You must provide us with details of your travel insurance prior to your departure.
13. TRAVEL DOCUMENTATION
It is your responsibility to ensure that you are in possession of all necessary travel and health documents before departure. All costs incurred in obtaining such documentation must be paid by you. We regret that we cannot accept any liability if you are refused entry onto any transport or into any country due to failure on your part to carry correct documentation. If failure to have any necessary travel or other documents results in fines, surcharges, or other financial penalties being imposed on us, you will be responsible for reimbursing us accordingly.
14. GOVERNING LAW AND JURISDICTION
These terms and conditions are governed by Tanzanian law and the courts of Tanzania shall have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve any disputes arising from these terms and conditions or your trip to Africa.
