Booking Terms & Conditions
Updated 09 August 2024.
Effective August 2024 the following T&C will now apply for all new bookings made by Bhutan & Beyond. These will provide our travellers with more transparency & financial security.
It is both mandatory, and your obligation as a traveller, to read these T&C carefully and to fully understand your liabilities. This is essential and for your own protection.
Our Bhutan & Beyond T&C comes in two parts. The first is the current Terms & Conditions from our parent company, MTA Travel, via their pdf link below. The second part, further below, is our own revised Terms & Conditions peculiar to Bhutan & Beyond. Both sets of T&C complement each other.
MTA Travel Booking Terms & Conditions
It is both mandatory, and your obligation as a traveller, to read these T&C carefully and to fully understand your liabilities. This is essential and for your own protection.
The MTA Travel T&C can be found on the pdf link below.
MTA Booking Terms and Conditions
Bhutan & Beyond - Additional Booking Terms & Conditions
It is essential you carefully read and agree to the following Booking Terms & Conditions. These form a component of the contract you enter into when making travel reservations with Bhutan & Beyond and our overseas partner suppliers.
It is important you are aware, and accept, that pre-planned arrangements may occasionally need to be amended at late notice due to events beyond the control of any operator involved in the provision of your travel related services.
1. Booking Form & Passport Scan:
It is mandatory that you fully complete our on-line tour booking form and submit this in order we can hold a reservation on your behalf. At the same time we require a quality scan of your passport photo page (regardless if it has expired or will expire before travel) which we use to ensure we have your name details 100% correct. We appreciate you limiting each passport scan to between 1 MB andf 2 MB in file size.
2. Deposits & Final Payments
Please note all our Bhutan & Beyond (referred to as B&B) Bhutan & Nepal land tour costs are quoted in USD dollars and India land travel costs either in USD or INR (Indian Rupee) and will be converted into Australian dollars, at the bank exchange IMT (International Money Transfer) rate of the day, when payments are due.
USD = US dollars and AUD = Australian dollars. Please do NOT confuse the two!
Initial land tour deposits will be collected in Australian dollars, as quoted below, and in the accompanying table of fees.
Payment Options:
B&B accepts payment by EFT and IMT along with selected credit cards. Please note we do not accept payment by cheque or cash.
Credit Card payments do incur merchant fee surcharges as follows:
Australian Credit Cards:
MasterCard 1.15%
Visa 1.35%
Amex 1.80%
Example of calculating CC merchant fees.
Just say you pay B&B a deposit of AUD1100.00 for 2 adults. You elect to pay by MasterCard at the rate of 1.15%. Please key AU$1100 into your calculator, multiply it by 1.15 and press the % key on your calculator. The CC merchant fee in this case is therefore AU$12.65. Please don’t press the = key!
All Overseas Credit Cards:
There is a flat merchant fee of 3% when we debit all overseas credit cards. (MasterCard, Visa or Amex). Please note under Australian law we can only debit overseas credit cards in Australian dollars.
Additional Deposit & Service Fee Information:
Some of our airfares, particularly those into Paro, Bhutan, and some domestic Nepal & India flights, are also quoted in US dollars. These will be clearly advised to you when quotes are provided and bookings are confirmed.
- Our standard land tour deposit is AUD550.00 per adult & AUD275.00 per child under 12.
- Of the land tour deposit, AUD290.00 per adult / AUD150 per child is non-refundable should cancellation be made for any reason. This is our Bhutan & Beyond service fee regardless of whether travel takes place or not.
- This service fee is your total liability, to Bhutan & Beyond, for the base land tour component. Prior to final payment.
- Land tour deposits for India & Nepal tours may vary slightly & will be confirmed at time of quotation.
- In some cases the B&B service fee may be claimable against your travel insurance.
- Where upgraded/luxury hotels are requested, substituting standard grade hotels used on most of our tours, additional deposits may be required.
- B&B requires your tour deposit within 7 days of your tour bookings being confirmed in writing.
- Final balance of land tour costs is due 60 days prior your arrival into Bhutan, Nepal or India.
- Cancellation of your tour reservations may occur if your final payment is not received by the due date.
- Personal bank charges incurred making payments to Bhutan & Beyond, must be borne by the traveller.
- Airfares & en-route stopovers (ie. Singapore; Bangkok) may require earlier payment & be subject to their own T&C.
3. Voluntary Amendments & Cancellations to Your Land Tour:
- Deposit date until 60 days prior arrival; land tour deposit is refundable less B&B service fees as gazetted above.
- 60 days or less prior to arrival; no land tour refund permitted.
- Airline hotel fees as applicable, plus a B&B service fee of up to AUD75.00 per person.
4. Your Health & Travel Insurance: ESSENTIAL READING PLEASE:
- You are personally responsible for ensuring your general health & fitness is sufficient for your planned journey.
- We strongly recommend you consult your personal doctor, or nearest Travel Medical Alliance (TMA) centre, at least 6 weeks before departure, for advice on vaccinations and medications. TMA can be contacted in Australia toll free on T: 1300 421142.
- It is strongly recommended you hold adequate travel insurance when you pay your tour deposit. Please forward us the front page of your certificate of travel insurance as soon as this is purchased.
- Some travel insurance providers do NOT provide any cover at all for a range of adventure activities such as hiking over 2500 metres, high-altitude trekking, white-water rafting, motorcycling or mountain biking. It is essential you ensure your chosen insurance policy covers you for all the activities you intend to undertake whilst on your journey.
- B&B can assist you with your travel insurance. Alternatively you are welcome to purchase travel insurance direct via a provider of your choice.
- Most insurers now offer limited extra cover for COVID-19 Coronavirus related events. Please ensure you carefully review travel insurance Product Disclosure Statements (PDS) before you make your decision to purchase insurance.
Please BEWARE!
Travel insurance does NOT cover you if governments close international borders and/or the Australian Government places a ‘DO NOT TRAVEL’ status on your destination via their Smart Traveller website, therefore preventing travel to be undertaken at late notice.
5. Itinerary Changes:
South Asia can be challenging regions to travel in for a wide variety of reasons. B&B, along with our partner operators in each region, reserve the right to make necessary changes to your pre-arranged and prepaid land tour itinerary structure, where unforseen circumstances dictate such changes. Depending on circumstances a refund may not be offered for such late changes and your travel insurance may cover for any financial loss.
6. Airline Flight Cancellations & Delays
Bhutan & Beyond, and our partner ground operators, take no responsibility for airlines amending flight times at short notice and/or cancelling and/or rerouting flights for operational reasons. No responsibility can be assumed for delay, cancellation or unavailability of a flight, or for missed connections. In such an instance any additional costs must be borne by the traveller and claimed via their travel insurance.
7. Trip Costs:
Occasionally we reserve the right to increase prices after a trip has been quoted on, however this is only in instances beyond our control. An example of this is a foreign Government imposing higher tourism taxes before travel has been undertaken or an airline increasing fuel surcharges/airfares prior to ticketing.
Unless advised otherwise, your trip pricing does NOT include items of a personal nature such as tipping & gratuities, medications, travel insurance, telephone calls, laundry, visa charges (except Bhutan where visa fees are always included), excess baggage charges, daily incidental expenses or drinks.
8. Minimum Participants for Small Group Tours in Bhutan:
All our standard small group ‘cultural tours’ in Bhutan, which have set dates, are guaranteed to depart at quoted prices providing a minimum of 2 persons travel.
The maximum tour size will be 8 persons, and the average tour size is 4-6 persons. We like to keep our tours small. Less is best in Bhutan!
For our small group motorcycle tours, trekking tours and some other special interest tours, a minimum of 3 persons is required to operate the tour. There may be other T&C associated with these special interest tours as detailed on the tour web pages.
9. Motorcycle Insurance & Mandatory Bond Requirements:
On our Bhutan motorcycle tours, your motorcycle comes with comprehensive travel insurance cover included with the exception of a USD500 excess. This excess must be paid, by way of an advance bond in cash or CC, in the event of an accident or damage to your motorcycle or for any 3rd party damage. This will be refunded at the end of your trip should no damage have occurred during your journey.
This insurance excess can be covered by purchasing a travel insurance policy that provides a suitable motorcycle cover. Please contact B&B for further information on the above.
It is also mandatory to hold a ‘full motorcycle’ license allowing the rider to use an ‘over 250cc’ motorcycle legally.
10. Your Acceptance of Risk.
You acknowledge your journey to/from and through this region of South Asia comes with the usual risks of travel and, in some cases, additional risks that are associated with adventure activities and the specific nature of your chosen journey. You accept these risks and the possibility personal injury, death, property damage or loss may result from your decision to participate in such a journey.
You agree that should you be affected by any sickness, serious injury or other unforseen circumstance, that Bhutan & Beyond, and/or any of our overseas partner operators, can arrange any urgent medical treatment or emergency evacuation as deemed necessary for your safety and that all such costs will be borne by you and/or your travel insurer.
You also agree that upon completion of our tour booking form and payment of your deposit that you release all claims of liability against Bhutan & Beyond (and all staff) and any and all of our partner operators overseas , including all their staff, for any personal injury, death , property damage, loss or inconvenience sustained by you as a result of this tour, be it a private journey or as part of a small group tour.
11. Company Information:
All travel referred to on this site is arranged through James Irving & Nicola Irving t/a Bhutan & Beyond.
This business is owned and operated by James Irving & Nicola Irving trading as Bhutan & Beyond ABN 17 802 191 944 under licence from MTA – Mobile Travel Agents Pty Ltd ACN 603 064 044 trading as MTA Travel & Mobile Travel Agents.
IATA number 0235190-4.
Postal Address: P.O. Box 691, Robina DC, Q 4226, Australia.
T: 07 5661 1605; Toll Free 1300 367875: M: +61 412416111 or +61 413598669
E: enquiries@bhutan.com.au W: www.bhutan.com.au
