Cancellation & Refund Policy

1. The short version

This table is a summary for convenience. The clauses that follow are what actually govern your booking.

2. What this policy covers

This policy applies to every booking made through this website and forms part of our Terms & Conditions. Words defined there have the same meaning here.

Where a listing, a promotional fare or a private-charter agreement states different cancellation terms, those terms apply to that booking and are shown to you before you pay. Anything else is governed by this policy.

3. Your free-cancellation deadline

Every departure has a free-cancellation window: a number of hours before departure, up to which you may cancel at no charge. It is 24 hours for most of our trips, but it varies by boat and by season, so the figure that governs your booking is the one shown on the listing page when you booked and repeated on your confirmation.

Cancel at or before that deadline and you are entitled to a full refund of everything you have paid us for that booking, deposit included. We do not deduct an administrative charge, a booking fee or a payment-gateway charge.

4. Cancelling after the deadline

Once the free-cancellation deadline has passed, the seats are committed: the crew is rostered, the vessel is held for you, and it is too late for us to sell those seats to anyone else. No refund is due for a cancellation after that point, and the full fare remains payable.

We will still always try to help. Depending on how much notice you give and how full we are, we may be able to move you to another departure instead of losing the money altogether. That is at our discretion, and it is not a right you can insist on, but it is worth calling us.

If you have to cancel late for a medical emergency or a bereavement, tell us. We will look at it sympathetically and on its facts. Travel insurance is the reliable route to recovering money in those circumstances, which is why we recommend it.

5. No-shows and late arrival

If you do not arrive at the boarding point by the departure time, the boat sails without you and the booking is treated as a no-show. No refund is due.

If you arrive late but the boat has not yet left, the crew will take you if they safely can, but they will not delay a departure. If you miss it, we will try to fit you onto a later departure the same day where there is space, at no extra charge. We are not obliged to, and space is often not there at sunrise or during Dev Diwali.

6. How to cancel

You can cancel in either of these ways:

1. Sign in and cancel it yourself from Your Trips. This is immediate and is the fastest way to be certain the cancellation is recorded.
2. Call us on +91 73076 98635 or email hello@yavatrip.com with your booking reference. We will record it and confirm back to you.

A cancellation takes effect when it is recorded in our system, not when you decided to cancel or sent the message. If you are close to your deadline, cancel online or call rather than email. We will send you written confirmation of the cancellation; if you do not receive it, assume the booking is still live and contact us.

Only the lead traveller, or someone they authorise, may cancel a booking.

7. What happens to your seats

Cancelling releases your seats back to sale immediately, so somebody else can book them. That is irreversible: a cancellation cannot be undone, and if you change your mind you have to make a fresh booking at the price and availability then current.

8. How and when you get your money back

Refunds go back to the original payment method. We cannot redirect a refund to a different card, a different account, a wallet or cash, because that is how payment rules work and it is also the main way refund fraud happens.

Refunds are not automatic and are not instant. Cancelling releases your seats straight away; the money is then returned by our team. The timeline we work to is:

The last step is with your bank, not with us. UPI and wallet refunds are usually quicker than credit-card refunds; international cards can take longer. If it has been more than 10 working days since we told you the refund was initiated, come back to us with your booking reference and we will chase it with the gateway and give you the tracking reference.

Refunds are made in Indian Rupees for the amount received. Where you paid on an international card, the amount credited in your own currency may differ because of the exchange rate on the day and any charge levied by your own bank. That difference is not something we control or can compensate.

9. Deposits

The deposit is part of your fare, not a separate booking fee, and it is refunded on exactly the same basis as the rest of what you have paid. Cancel within your free-cancellation window and the deposit comes back in full.

If you cancel after the deadline having paid only the deposit, the deposit is not refunded, and we will not pursue you for the unpaid balance.

10. Bookings where the balance is not paid

If you paid a deposit, the balance is due before departure. You can pay it at any time from Your Trips, and we will remind you.

If the balance is still unpaid at departure, we may refuse boarding and treat the booking as cancelled by you. In that case the ordinary rules above apply: if the free-cancellation deadline has passed, the deposit is not refundable.

11. Payments that fail or get stuck

If money leaves your account but you do not get a confirmation, do not pay again. Our systems reconcile against the payment gateway automatically and repeatedly, and one of two things will happen: the payment is found and your booking is confirmed, or it is not, and the money is returned to you by your bank.

A payment that never completes does not create a booking, and the held seats go back on sale. Bookings left unpaid in this way are cancelled automatically.

If you are out of pocket and nothing has resolved within 7 working days, contact us with the date, the amount and the reference from your bank statement, and we will trace it with the gateway.

12. When we cancel or reschedule

If we cancel your departure, or make a significant change to it, you choose between:

• the alternative departure we offer, with any price difference settled either way;
• a different date or boat of your choice, subject to availability; or
• a full refund of everything you have paid us, including the deposit.

Tell us which you want and we will action it. If we cannot reach you before the departure time, we will refund you in full by default rather than leave your money sitting with us.

A refund in these circumstances covers what you paid us. It does not extend to flights, trains, hotels, taxis or other arrangements you made separately. Travel insurance is the right cover for those.

13. Weather and river conditions

We do not sail when it is not safe to. Departures are commonly affected by high water and flooding in the monsoon, by very low water in high summer, by storms, high winds and fog, and by orders of the district administration closing the river to traffic — during major festivals, state or religious events, and VIP movement.

Where that stops your departure, it is treated as a cancellation by us and the clause above on cancellation by us applies: an alternative date, or a full refund, at your choice.

A decision to sail or not is the master of the vessel's alone and is final. If you choose not to travel on a departure that we are running safely and on schedule, that is a cancellation by you and the ordinary rules apply.

14. Changing your booking instead of cancelling

Before your free-cancellation deadline, you can ask to move to a different date, time or boat rather than cancel. There is no charge for the change itself; you pay or receive the difference in fare. Changes depend on availability.

Changing the names of people in your party is free at any time before departure.

After the deadline, a change is at our discretion in the same way a late cancellation is.

15. Reducing your party size

On a per-person fare, you may reduce the number of travellers before your free-cancellation deadline and we will refund the fare for the seats released, provided the party stays at or above the minimum for that listing. The rest of the booking stands.

On a whole-boat charter, the price is for the vessel, so fewer people does not reduce the fare.

After the deadline, seats released are treated as a late cancellation of those seats and are not refundable.

16. Invoices and GST credit notes

When we refund you, we do not delete or withdraw the tax invoice already issued. We issue a credit note against it for the refunded amount, which is the correct treatment under GST and keeps your records and ours consistent.

The credit note is emailed to you and stays available with your other documents when you are signed in.

17. Chargebacks

If you believe a charge is wrong, please contact us first. We can almost always resolve it faster than your bank can, and a refund we process directly reaches you sooner than a chargeback.

Where a chargeback is raised, we will respond to it with the booking record, the payment record and our correspondence with you. Raising a chargeback for a booking that was validly supplied, or that you cancelled outside the free-cancellation window, does not change what this policy says you are owed.

18. If you are unhappy with a refund decision

Write to us at hello@yavatrip.com or call +91 73076 98635 with your booking reference. We will acknowledge within 48 hours and aim to resolve within one month.

Escalation details for our Grievance Officer are in the Terms & Conditions. Your rights under the Consumer Protection Act 2019 are unaffected by this policy, and nothing here stops you approaching a consumer forum.

19. Contact