Cancellations.

The short version

Your deposit is not refundable in cash. If you cancel two months or more before you arrive, it becomes a credit you can put towards a later journey. Anything you have paid above the deposit comes back to you if you cancel more than seven days before arrival. Inside the final seven days, nothing is refundable. These terms apply whatever the reason for cancelling — which is why we ask every guest to travel insured.

Paying for your journey

A booking is confirmed in two payments:

• 50% on booking — this confirms your dates and is what allows us to hold rooms, guides, and vehicles in your name. It also covers the design work already done for you.
• The remaining 50% before the final week — the balance must reach us no later than seven days before your arrival date. Your journey must be paid in full before the final week begins.

We will invoice you for the balance well ahead of that deadline — usually around three weeks before arrival — with reminders as the date approaches. International transfers can take several working days to clear, so please start the payment early enough that it arrives, rather than leaves, in time.

If you cancel

What you receive back depends on when your written cancellation reaches us:

• Two months or more before arrival — we refund everything you have paid above the 50% deposit. The deposit is not refunded in cash, but becomes a travel credit towards a later journey with us, on the terms set out below.
• Between two months and seven days before arrival — we refund everything you have paid above the 50% deposit. The deposit is not refunded and no credit is issued.
• Within the final seven days, or on the day of arrival, or if you do not arrive — no refund is due and no credit is issued, whatever has been paid.

In practice this means: if you have paid only the deposit and cancel three months out, nothing comes back in cash, but the full deposit is held as credit for a future trip. If you had already paid in full and cancel three months out, half the total is refunded to you and the other half becomes credit. If you cancel one month out having paid the deposit only, the deposit is lost. If you cancel three days before arrival, nothing is refunded.

The 50% deposit is never returned as cash, at any point, for any reason. By the time you have booked, that money has been committed to the hotels and operators holding your arrangements, and we cannot recover it on your behalf. What we can do, when there is enough notice for us to release those arrangements, is hold its value for you.

Your travel credit

If you cancel two months or more before your arrival date, we hold the value of your deposit as a credit towards a future journey. We will confirm the amount and its expiry date in writing when we acknowledge your cancellation. The credit works like this:

• It lasts six months. Your new journey must begin within six months of the date we confirm the credit — it is your arrival date that has to fall inside the window, not merely the date you book. If it falls outside, the credit lapses and its value is lost. Please bear the seasons in mind when you rebook: six months from a cancellation may not reach the time of year you had in mind, so talk to us early and we will help you find dates that work.
• It belongs to you. The credit is issued to the person who paid and cannot be transferred, given away, or sold to anyone else.
• It is used once. The whole credit is applied to a single booking. If your new journey costs less than the credit, the difference is not refunded and does not carry forward.
• New journey, current prices. Your credit is a sum of money, not a held price. The new journey is quoted at the rates available when you rebook, and you pay any difference.
• One deferral only. If you cancel the journey you booked with your credit, the terms on this page apply to that booking in the usual way and the credit is not reissued. We can hold a journey for you once; we cannot hold it open indefinitely.
• Never cash. A credit cannot be converted to money at any point, and it has no cash value if unused.

These terms apply whatever the reason

We have written one rule and we apply it evenly. Illness, a change of heart, a missed flight, visa trouble, a family emergency, severe weather, civil unrest, a public-health event — the charges above apply in the same way in every case, and so does the travel credit. We know that reads as unbending, and we would rather be plain with you now than appear generous here and disappoint you later. We are a small studio, and the money you pay us goes out to our partners long before you arrive.

What decides the outcome is how much notice we have, not what prompted the cancellation. The same applies to changing your dates: see below.

Please travel insured

Because we cannot make exceptions, comprehensive travel insurance is not a formality for a journey with us — it is the thing that protects you. Take out a policy that covers cancellation and curtailment as soon as you book, not closer to departure: most policies only cover events that arise after the policy begins, so a late policy leaves a gap exactly where you need cover.

Look for cover for cancellation for medical reasons, trip interruption, missed departures, and — if it matters to you — cancellation for any reason. Your insurer, not Serendria, is who reimburses a cancelled trip.

Changing your dates

We are not able to move a confirmed booking to different dates. Our partners hold specific rooms on specific nights, and releasing them is a cancellation on their side whatever we call it on ours. A change of dates is therefore treated as a cancellation of the original booking, charged as set out above, followed by a new booking at the rates available for the new dates.

If you tell us two months or more ahead, this is less painful than it sounds: your deposit becomes a travel credit, and that credit goes towards the new booking. Inside two months, a change of dates costs you the deposit like any other cancellation. If your plans are uncertain, tell us early.

If the balance is not paid

If your balance has not reached us by the deadline, and we have not heard from you, we will treat the booking as cancelled on that date. Because that deadline falls inside the final seven days, you will lose the 50% deposit and no travel credit arises. We will release your rooms and arrangements, and we will not pursue you for the unpaid balance.

Where we have already committed funds to suppliers that exceed the deposit, we reserve the right to recover those costs — though in practice we would far rather talk to you before it reaches that point. If a payment is going to be late, write to us. We will do what we can.

If one traveller drops out

If someone in your party cancels but the journey goes ahead, the cancellation charges above apply to that traveller's share, and any travel credit is issued to them rather than to the party. Our prices are built on shared occupancy, so the remaining travellers will be re-quoted at the rate for the smaller party — a room booked for two costs the same whether one person or two sleeps in it, and that difference has to sit somewhere.

Unused parts of a journey

Once a journey has begun, we cannot refund anything you choose not to use — an excursion skipped, a night cut short, an early departure home. Those arrangements are paid for and held for you whether or not you take them up.

If we cancel

If we cancel your journey for any reason other than your non-payment, you receive a full refund of everything you have paid us, including the deposit. We would also help you rebook if you would like us to. This is the one case where the deposit comes back.

How to cancel

Cancellations must be made in writing to hello@serendria.com. A cancellation takes effect on the day we receive your email — not the day you decided, and not the day you posted a letter. We will acknowledge every cancellation in writing; if you have not heard back from us within one working day, please call +94 77 310 6248 rather than assume it arrived.

Refunds

Where a refund is due, we return it by the same method you paid, to the person who paid, within 14 working days of acknowledging your cancellation. Bank charges, card-processor fees, and any movement in exchange rates between payment and refund are borne by you — we refund the sum we received, in the currency we received it.

Your legal rights

Nothing on this page removes rights you hold under mandatory consumer-protection law in your country of residence. Where that law gives you more than this policy does, that law prevails. These terms sit alongside our Terms, and the terms in force on the day you book are the ones that govern your booking.

Contact

If any of this is unclear before you book, please ask — we would much rather answer the question now.