TERMS AND CONDITIONS

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

 

Alright it’s time for the boring part. We know, we know, nobody likes boring stuff, but we want to make sure that you know exactly what will be expected of both you and us when you book a tour with us. So here’s a few terms and conditions that apply to any tours booked by you, the client, with us, Mawenzi Adventures Ltd., based in Moshi, Tanzania. We add a link to them to all our offers and we kindly ask you to have a thorough look at them, because when you book a tour with us, we’ll assume that you’ve read, fully understood and accepted them. We’re cruel, we know.

If you book a tour for more than one person, we’ll even assume that you accept these terms and conditions on behalf of all the other people in the group, and that they’ll all copy your good example of following them. You’ll be the contact person for all the other clients named in your group booking, and will be expected to share all necessary information with them. Basically, you’re the boss! 

 

1. DEPOSITS & FINAL PAYMENT

A deposit of 50% is necessary to secure your reservation in case the trip is booked more than 35 days before its start date. We’ll send you an invoice and payment instructions. Your booking is confirmed after we receive your deposit, and we will send you a confirmation.

The final balance should arrive in our bank account no later than 31 days before the start of your tour. The start date of your tour is the first day on which we are scheduled to offer you any service that’s included in your package. A booking will be considered as cancelled by the client if we don’t receive the final balance in time, and the cancellation fee will be the amount of your deposit.

If you make a reservation 35 days or less before your tour starts, it should be paid in full to confirm your booking.

Exceptions to the standard amount and delays might occur for certain tours, and will be mentioned in the offer we send you.

Payments can be made by bank transfer or in cash if you’re in Moshi when the payment is due. No other payment methods are currently available. You will be responsible for all charges related to any payment, both on your end and ours. The amount of your invoice is the amount that should appear on our bank account. In case of differences, the amount that will be taken into consideration is the amount that appears on our bank account.

All prices on our website and offers are mentioned in USD but payments can be made in USD (US dollars) or TZS (Tanzanian Shillings). Other currencies are not accepted. On our invoices, you’ll find the amount in USD and the account number of our USD bank account. If you prefer to make your transfer in TZS, the money should be send to our TZS account. Please let us know and we’ll send you the right account number.

For cash payments in TZS, the exchange rate at the time of payment will be used for the conversion, using this link. Please consult our Tanzania travel info for important information about money in Tanzania.

In any case and without exceptions, your tour has to be fully paid for before the start of it. If we haven’t received the full payment at the departure time of the tour, we reserve the right to refuse access to the tour, and the tour will be considered cancelled by the client. Any payment we’ve already received will not be refunded.

 

2. CANCELLATION OF A TOUR BY THE CLIENT

You may cancel your booking with us for any reason by notifying us through an email to hello@mawenziadventures.com. The applicable cancellation fees shall be determined with reference to the date on which the request to cancel arrives in our mailbox, and are expressed hereafter as a percentage of the total price of the cancelled tour:

  • Cancellation received more than 31 days before the tour starts, or failure to pay the final balance at least 31 days before the start of the tour, as required in article 1 of these terms and conditions: 50% cancellation fees will be charged
  • Cancellation received 31 days or less before the tour starts or no-show: 100% cancellation fee will be charged

Some tours may be subject to alternative cancellation terms, of which we’ll inform you when we send you our offer.

In case you have paid more to Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. than the applicable cancellation fee, we will refund you as soon as possible. All costs and risks related to this refund such as but not limited to bank charges and loss of VAT are at your charge.

If you cancel your booking with us, we can provide a cancellation invoice to present to your cancellation insurance in order to recover the paid amount.

 

3. CHANGES TO A TOUR BY THE CLIENT

If you wish to make changes to your confirmed tour, you should send a written request to hello@mawenziadventures.com. We will let you know whether or not it’s possible and inform you of the conditions within maximum 5 working days. All requests should be received by us no later than 14 days before the scheduled departure date of your trip. We reserve the right to refuse all changes that are not reasonably possible.

In case you wish to bring changes that affect either the number of people, either your travel dates, either your accommodation, the following costs apply and have to be paid by you, the client:

  1. An administrative fee of 200 USD per booking to cover our extra work.
  2. Any potential costs that increase the price of your new tour compared to your original tour.
  3. In case we need to change or cancel confirmed bookings with 3rd parties in order to satisfy your request, you’ll have to cover any expenses that we’ve already made at the time of your request and cannot recover.

For all other changes or in case you wish to combine 2 or more of the changes mentioned above, we will inform you of the costs upon your request.

If the price of your new package including all fees is higher than the price of your original package, a new payment will have to be made in order to respect the delays and percentages written in article 1 of these terms and conditions. If your new package including all fees is cheaper than the original one, we will reimburse you the difference by bank transfer, whereby you are responsible for all costs related to this reimbursement. In case you haven’t paid your final balance, we can also deduct the amount we owe you from the final balance, in order to avoid costs related to the reimbursement, if you wish.

If you postpone your trip, all payments that have already been made by the client to Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. will be retained by Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. until the time of the new tour, and all supplements for the new tour should be paid to Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. according to article 1 of these terms and conditions. In this case, cancellation fees for your new travel dates will be those that were valid at the time when you informed us of your decision to postpone your trip until this delay is reached again for your new dates, after which they follow the list of article 2 in these terms and conditions. For bookings with special cancellation policies, the special policy will replace this list.

 

4. CANCELLATION OF A TOUR BY MAWENZI ADVENTURES LTD.

We guarantee that all tours for which you hold a confirmed booking will depart as scheduled (subject to reasonable itinerary changes), with the exception of Force Majeure situations (see article 14), situations arising from your fault or negligence or situations that are within your reasonable control.

If we cancel a tour before the agreed date of departure for reasons not arising from the exceptions mentioned above, you have the choice of:

  • accepting a substitute tour product of equivalent value, where such substitute is reasonably available; or
  • accepting a substitute tour of lower value if no tour of equivalent value is reasonably available, and to recover the difference in price between the price of the tour originally purchased and that of the substitute tour; or
  • accepting a substitute tour of higher value if no tour of equivalent value is reasonably available, and to pay the difference in price between the price of the tour originally purchased and that of the substitute tour; or
  • accepting a full refund of all monies paid for the cancelled tour.

If we cancel a tour before the agreed date of departure for reasons that do arise from the 3 exceptions mentioned above, we reserve the right to cancel the tour following the conditions under article 2 of these terms and conditions or to cancel the tour following conditions that will be determined according to the actual situation.

We are not responsible for any incidental expenses or consequential losses that you may have incurred as a result of the cancelled booking such as but not limited to visas, vaccinations, non-refundable flights or rail, nonrefundable car parking or other fees, loss of earnings, or loss of enjoyment. We reserve the right to issue a full refund in lieu of the other choices above, in our sole discretion.

Where after departure a significant element of the tours as described cannot be provided, we will make suitable alternative arrangements for the continuation of the tours. If it is not possible to provide a suitable alternative, we will provide a refund of unused tour products or tour product portions.

 

5. CHANGES TO YOUR TOUR BY MAWENZI ADVENTURES LTD.

By booking a tour with us, you acknowledge that the nature of adventure travel requires considerable flexibility and that you will allow reasonable alterations to the tour and/or itinerary. You acknowledge your understanding that the route, schedules, timings, accommodations, itineraries, amenities and mode of transport may be subject to change without prior notice due to certain circumstances or events, which may include sickness or mechanical breakdown, incidents in the location where the tour will be operated, flight cancellations, strikes, events emanating from political disputes, entry or border difficulties, extreme weather and other unpredictable or unforeseeable circumstances which are beyond our reasonable control. We are not liable to any client for such changes or amendments.

We will not be liable to pay any discounts or refunds for missed or unused services which were missed or unused by the client due to reasons that are not our fault our the fault of our suppliers or representatives. This includes any termination of your participation in the tour due to your own fault, negligence or breach of these terms and conditions.

Although we will strive to ensure that the tour you have booked goes as planned, we do not guarantee that we will abide by the agreed tour itinerary and we therefore reserve the right to amend the tour itinerary where doing so may be necessary or advantageous. We will strive to notify you of any changes prior to the tour departure. However, we are not obligated to do so, and are not liable to pay any refunds that may be claimed to result from such changes.

We are not in control of the management of the accommodation providers we use on our tours. Therefore, in some circumstances errors may occur or we may be notified by our accommodation providers that our reserved accommodation is no longer available, due to reasons that are beyond our control, and not our fault or negligence. In such circumstances we will provide alternative accommodation of at least the same standard or reimburse the price difference.

Where it is absolutely necessary to amend your tour itinerary during the tour, your tour guide will arrange the best available alternative. The decision to do so will rest on the tour guide and his/her decision is final. This is mainly applicable but not limited to mountain climbing products where the guide believes the client is not able to continue with the climb due to illness, injury, extreme weather, or other factors beyond the guide’s or Mawenzi Adventure’s control.

 

6. TRAVEL INSURANCE

We do not provide travel insurance and we strongly recommend you to obtain personal travel insurance with medical, evacuation and repatriation coverage covering all applicable dates of travel with us. This insurance should cover personal injuries and emergency medical expenses. We also strongly recommended that you extend your coverage to include cancellation (preferably for any reason) and all other expenses that might arise as a result of loss, damage, injury, delay etc. You should make sure your insurance company is aware of the type of travel you plan to undertake, in order to get the right type of insurance.

We can’t, under any circumstances, lower our cancellation fees in case you cancel your trip with us and didn’t get cancellation insurance.

 

7. MEDICAL CONDITIONS

You are obligated to provide us with all relevant medical information upon booking your tour. You are fully responsible for assessing your own suitability and capability to participate in a tour with us, and when in doubt you should consult your physician.

We recommend all clients to seek medical advice regarding necessary or advisable vaccinations, medical precautions, or other medical concerns regarding the entirety of their travel. We can provide tips concerning these topics, but they can under no condition be seen as accurate medical advice.

The adventure tours that we provide involve visiting remote or less developed regions of Tanzania, where medical facilities may not meet the standards of those found in your home country. The condition of medical facilities in these areas varies and we make no representations and give no warranties in relation to the standard of such facilities or medical treatment in those regions.

 

8. SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

We will strive to accommodate your special requests, including but not limited to dietary and accommodation requests, but such requests do not form part of these terms and conditions or the contract between you and us. We are not liable for any failure to accommodate or fulfill such requests.

 

9. PRICES, SURCHARGES AND TAXES

The prices that we give in our offers are based on the assumption that the 3rd party services that we suggest are available at your time of travel. We can only confirm this availability after receiving your deposit. In case any service that we’ve suggested isn’t available, we’ll suggest one or more alternatives. We do our best to suggest alternatives in the same price range, but these aren’t always available. If changes increase the total price of your booking by more than 10% of the total value of your booking, you can cancel your tour without cancellation fees. Fees for the reimbursement by bank transfer and VAT on your deposit are however at your charge. If changes increase the total price of your booking by less than 10%, you can still cancel but normal cancellation fees will apply.

Due to the nature of the tourism industry in Tanzania and the prices of the resources on which it depends, the published and confirmed price of any tour product are subject to change at any time, before or after booking confirmation, up to 31 days before the start of such a tour. We reserve the right to impose surcharges on any tour product, but only for reasons arising from increases in accommodation costs, transportation costs, fuel costs, dues, taxes or fees chargeable for services such as third party supplier costs, currency and exchange fluctuations, park fees, increases in taxes, or government action which impacts the price of the applicable tours and only where the increase in question is higher than the minimum of 100 USD and 2% of the total value of your booking.

We will notify the affected client(s) by email as soon as reasonably possible upon learning of the necessity to impose a surcharge in accordance with this section. Upon receiving notification from us, you may decide to either:

  • cancel the applicable tour booking against a fee that equals the expenses that we’ve already made to secure bookings for you with 3rd party providers and that we cannot recover; or
  • make changes to the tour in order to lower the price; or
  • accept the change of price.

You must inform us of your decision within 7 days after we notify you of the increase, or we will assume that you’ve accepted the price change and the liability for payment of the increase. If the acceptation of the increase occurs before the payment of your balance, the increase should be paid at the same time as your balance. If not, it should be paid within 10 days after acceptation of the increase.

From time to time we may offer reduced pricing on selected tours. In this case, the reduced pricing applies strictly to new bookings and not to confirmed bookings.

 

10. RISK

You acknowledge that the nature of our tour products is adventurous and may involve a significant amount of risk to your health and/or safety as well as to your personal belongings. There are dangers inherent to adventure travel generally, especially if your tour involves physical activities, travel to remote locations or locations with underdeveloped infrastructure, high altitude activities, encounters with wild animals or other high-risk activities and you acknowledge that you have considered such risks and are willing to assume them to the full extent legally possible, by confirming your booking of this tour. You hereby acknowledge that you have considered the potential risks, dangers and challenges in light of your own personal capabilities and needs, expressly assume the risks attendant to travel under such conditions and release Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. from all claims and causes of action arising from any losses, damages, injuries or death resulting from these risks inherent to travel in general and adventure travel specifically, visiting wild and remote areas, and participating in adventurous activities such as those included in our tour itineraries.

The client acknowledges and agrees that Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. will provide, to the best of its ability, information or guidance to the client with respect to local customs, weather conditions, specific safety concerns, physical challenges or laws in effect in any locations where tours are operated, but will not be liable if the given information is incomplete or if the client does not act according to the information provided.

You must at all times strictly comply with all applicable laws and regulations of Tanzania and regions visited on the applicable tour. Should you fail to comply with the above or commit any illegal act when on the tour or if, in the opinion of Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. (acting reasonably), your behavior is causing or is likely to cause danger, distress or material annoyance to others, we may terminate your travel arrangements on any tour immediately without any liability on our part and you will not be entitled to any refund for unused or missed services or costs incurred resulting from the termination of the travel arrangements, including, without limitation, return travel, accommodations, meals, and/or incidentals.

You agree that you are responsible for any costs incurred by Mawenzi Adventures Ltd., as a result of damage, destruction, theft, or excess cleaning fees caused or occasioned by you while on tour. You agree to immediately report any pre-existing damage of this kind to the staff of the accommodation, transportation service, or facility (as appropriate) and/or a Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. representative as soon as possible upon your discovery.

You agree to take all prudent measures in relation to your own safety while on any Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. tour, including, but not limited to, the proper use of safety devices such as seatbelts, harnesses, and helmets, and obeying all posted signs and warnings in relation to your health and safety. We and our third party suppliers shall not be liable for any failure on your part to comply with safety instructions or recommendations given by us or our third party suppliers.

 

11. COMPLAINTS

You agrees to bring any complaints regarding a tour to Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. as soon as it appears, in order to provide us with the opportunity to address such complaint properly. You agree to inform the head guide or another designated Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. representative at the earliest opportunity. We assume no liability for complaints that are not properly brought to our attention with sufficient notice for us to resolve them and no refunds will be made for issues that could have easily been solved had they been brought to our attention sooner. Any complaint made after the completion of a tour must be received by email to hello@mawenziadventures.com within 30 days of the end of the tour in question.

 

12. THIRD PARTY SUPPLIERS

We make arrangements with accommodation providers, activity providers, other tour operators, airlines, coach companies, transfer operators, shore excursion operators, tour and local guides and other independent parties (“Third Party Suppliers”) to provide you with the travel services and other services you purchase or which form the component parts of your tour. Third Party Suppliers may also engage the services of local operators and/or sub-contractors for the provision of travel services that form part of the tour(s). Although we take all reasonable care in selecting Third Party Suppliers, we are unable to control them and do not supervise them and therefore we cannot be responsible for their acts or omissions. The travel services and other services provided are subject to the conditions imposed by these suppliers and their liability is limited by their tariffs, conditions of carriage, tickets and vouchers and international conventions and agreements that govern the provision of their services. These may limit or exclude liability of the supplier. You acknowledge that Third Party Suppliers operate in compliance with the applicable laws of Tanzania and we do not warrant that any Third Party Supplier is in compliance with the laws of your country of residence, or any other jurisdiction.

To the fullest extent permissible by law, we are not liable and will not assume responsibility for any claims, losses, damages, costs or expenses arising out of inconvenience, loss of enjoyment, upset, disappointment, distress or frustration, whether physical or mental, resulting from the act or omission of any party other than Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. and its employees. For clarity, neither Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. nor any carrier is liable for the acts or omissions, whether negligent or otherwise, of Third Party Suppliers or any independent contractors.

 

13. LIABILITY

We are not responsible for any damages, expenses, losses, or claims which are attributable to the fault of any client, the unforeseeable or unavoidable act or omission of a third party unconnected with the provision of any services that form any part of the tours, or a force majeure event.

We shall have no liability for loss, theft of or damage to baggage or personal effects of clients while participating in a tour. You should not leave personal belongings unattended in any public areas, on board any mode of transportation, or elsewhere, and are responsible at all times for your own effects and belongings. We cannot accept responsibility for and in no event shall be liable for loss or damage of valuables or other articles left in or on facilities used by us, such as but not limited to hotels, home stays, vessels, expedition vehicles, or any other mode of transportation.

In the event that any loss, death, injury or illness is caused by the negligent acts and/or omissions of Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. or of the third-party suppliers of any services which form part of the contract, Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. limits its liability, where applicable by all applicable International Conventions.

 

14. FORCE MAJEURE

Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. shall not be liable in any way to the client for death, bodily injury, illness, damage, delay or other loss or detriment to person or property, or financial costs both direct and indirect incurred, or for Mawenzi Adventures Ltd.’s failure to commence, perform and/or complete any duty owed to the client if it’s caused by an Act of God, war or war like operations, mechanical breakdowns, terrorist activities or threat thereof, civil commotions, labor difficulties, crisis situations, pandemics, interference by authorities, political disturbance, howsoever and where so ever any of the same may arise or be caused, riot, insurrection and government restraint, fire, extreme weather or any other cause whatsoever beyond the reasonable control of Mawenzi Adventures Ltd., or an event which Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. or the supplier of services, even with all due care, could not foresee.

 

15. IMAGES AND MARKETING

You agree that while participating in any Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. tour, images, photos or videos may be taken by other clients and/or Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. representatives or guides that may contain or feature you in part or in whole. You acknowledges that you consent to any such images, photos and videos being taken and grant a perpetual, royalty-free, worldwide, irrevocable license to Mawenzi Adventures Ltd., its affiliates and assigns, to reproduce for any purpose whatsoever (including marketing and promotions), in any medium whatsoever, whether currently known or hereinafter devised, without any further obligation or compensation payable to you.

 

16. AMENDMENTS

We reserve the right to update and/or alter these terms and conditions at any time, and shall post the amended terms and conditions on the Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. website. We also reserve the right to update our conditions for bookings to which special conditions apply. In this case, we will inform you by email about any changes as soon as possible.

Any amendment shall take effect immediately and shall apply to new bookings as well as current ones. You shall be deemed to have accepted them directly after they take effect.

The latest terms, as amended, may be accessed at any time on the Mawenzi Adventures Ltd. website (for bookings to which special conditions do not apply), or will be sent to clients upon their written request to hello@mawenziadventures.com.

 

 

Last updated: 1st April 2023