Cancellation & Refund Policy
Baseline terms, pending final review by a qualified solicitor before launch.
How cancellations work
Your booking is confirmed by a 25% deposit, and the remaining 75% is collected automatically 7 days before departure using the payment method you paid the deposit with. Both payments are part of the price of the trip, and both are covered by this policy.
If you cancel, what comes back to you is a percentage of the total trip price — not of the deposit — and never more than you have actually paid at that point. Timing is measured against the scheduled departure date and time for your trip.
Refund windows
- 14 days or more before departure: you are refunded everything you have paid.
- 7 to 13 days before departure: you are refunded 50% of the total trip price, up to what you have actually paid at that point. If you have only paid the 25% deposit, that means the whole deposit comes back.
- Less than 7 days before departure: no refund.
Take the 7 to 13 days before departure band. If your balance has already been collected, you have paid the whole price, so you get 50% of it back and we retain the rest. If you have only paid the 25% deposit, 50% of the total price is more than everything you have handed over — so the whole deposit comes back and nothing is retained.
How refunds are paid
Refunds are returned by Stripe to the payment method you paid with. Where a booking was paid in more than one payment — a deposit and a balance, or several Group Pay contributions — the refund is spread across those payments in proportion to what each one paid, so every person who paid gets their share back rather than the first payer being made whole and the rest getting nothing.
We start the refund as soon as the cancellation is confirmed. How long it then takes to appear on your statement is set by your bank, usually a few working days.
The operator's cancellation fee
The share of the price we retain under the windows above is not kept by us. Part of it goes to the operator who was holding the date for you, as a cancellation fee calculated on the deposit:
- 14 days or more before departure: no fee.
- 7 to 13 days before departure: 50% of the deposit.
- Less than 7 days before departure: 100% of the deposit.
Your refund is worked out and sent first, and the fee is paid only out of money that has not gone back to you — it is capped at what remains, so it can never reduce your refund. If a cancellation returns everything you paid, no fee is payable. The operator's side of this is in the Operator Terms.
Changes and operator cancellations
If you need to change a trip, ask from your trip page as early as possible. The operator prices the change, and it only takes effect once you have seen and accepted any price difference. If an operator cancels on you, we will help you find an alternative or arrange an appropriate refund of what you have paid, and no cancellation fee is payable to an operator for a booking they cancelled. The windows above apply to cancellations by you, not by the operator.
How to cancel
Cancel from your trip page or email [email protected]. The page shows what you will get back before you confirm, and we email the same figure to you once the cancellation is done.
Nothing in this policy limits your rights under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL), including remedies where a service is not delivered with due care or as agreed.
This policy is operated by Hire A Bus AU Pty Ltd, forms part of our Terms of Service, and is the policy referred to there.