Immagine you have a booking at Rhulani. But your plans change, you have an agenda conflict, or there is another reason why you can not or do not want to go on the journey. However, there will be a penalty in case of a cancellation. Why is that, and what can you do to protect yourself?

A booking at Rhulani is confirmed with your payment of a deposit. In case of a cancellation at a later stage, specific rules will apply regarding the refund of the deposit. The so called “cancellation policy” is part of the contractual relationship and the booking terms and conditions. The current cancellation policy (applied for direct bookings) are published on our website here.

"As a matter of fact, customer satisfaction is very important to us, and so, we are not very happy when we have to enforce our cancellation policy”, says Rhulani’s owner Rolf Steiner. "We analyze carefully each case, to find a satisfactory solution for all", says Rolf. But what are actually the reasons for this penalty? Why not just waive it?

Rolf says: "A reservation means that the guest receives a guarantee from us for the requested room/-s. We will therefore reject other bookings. I remember that once we rejected a big group who wanted to book Rhulani for exclusive use and which would have brought us lucrative business. But just one single chalet had already been reserved by another customer, and which we honoured. Now, if this customer cancels, the big group will have found another place already, and the search for a replacement is not easy, especially when the cancellation happens shortly before the day of arrival."

“Moreover, we want to ensure that we receive bookings from clients who are interested in a Safari in Rhulani," says Rolf. "Nowadays, there is a huge market in the safari industry with special offers, discounts and last minute opportunities. If we offered free cancellation, customers would probably make a booking in different lodges at the same time, to subsequently cancel all of them and rebook where there is the best short-term deal. This is not value creating”.

But is there an option to cancel a booking without penalty if there is a good reason such as force majeure? “Yes, there is”, says Rolf. “We strongly recommend our guests to buy a travel insurance that refunds cancellation costs", says Rolf. "This is the best way, as unfortunately, there is no insurance for lodges to protect themselves against the financial loss of a guest cancellation".

In summary, we recommend our guests to:

• make a reservation if you are confident
• carefully read the Cancellation Policy
• buy a travel insurance