Refund policy

Everything a rider buys from us. Sections 2 to 8 cover bookings — a permit, and any wild camping or accommodation added to it. Section 9 covers route guides, which are free.

Farmer payouts and the referral fee are governed by their own agreements.

Refunds are paid by Routekeepers (Pty) Ltd, registration number 2026/707131/07.

48+ hours before your window: full refund. 24–48 hours before: 50%. Inside 24 hours, or after the window starts: no refund.

If the farmer cancels, for any reason, you receive a 100% refund. We’ll try to rebook you on a similar nearby farm where one is available.

If the Platform cancels, you receive a 100% refund.

Each rider books and pays for their own permit, so each person’s refund follows section 2 on their own share. One rider dropping out doesn’t affect the rest of the group.

Organiser free permit: when a group reaches six riders (including the organiser), the organiser’s permit is free. Once it has been claimed it stays free even if a rider later cancels and the group drops below six — there’s nothing to refund on a free permit. Any wild camping or accommodation the organiser added is charged separately and refunded per section 2.

Refunds are issued through Paystack, back to the card or account you paid with. We don’t ask you for bank details to refund you, and we never need them.

Once a refund is agreed, we submit it within 2 business days. Paystack, our payment provider, then returns it to your card or account within 3–12 business days. We’ll email you the moment a refund is submitted — if it hasn’t reached you within 12 business days of that email, reply to it and we’ll chase it.

A refund cancels the booking it pays back from the moment we submit it, so its permit no longer gives access to the farm.

Your bank or card statement shows payments to us as PAYSTACK ROUTEKEEPE VERMONT ZA.

Refunds go back to your original payment method, always. We won’t pay a refund to a different account or by a different method without identity re-verification — that’s a fraud-prevention rule, and it also means nobody who gets into your email can redirect your money.

If you have a refund question, contact us first at payments@routekeepers.co.za — we’ll respond within 2 business days.

If you start a chargeback through your bank without contacting us first, we may suspend your account pending resolution, recover the chargeback fee from any refund owed to you, and decline future bookings until the dispute is resolved.

Didn’t show up and didn’t cancel: no refund.

Arrived after your window closed: no refund. You can ask the farmer about a same-day rebook, but they aren’t obliged to accommodate it.

Your bike broke down before you reached the gate: no refund.

Force majeure (a national disaster or government closure): we’ll consider a refund case by case. Not guaranteed.

Provisions (firewood, ice, fuel and the like): we don’t sell these and we never charge you for them. You arrange them with the farm and pay the farm directly, so there is nothing for us to refund.

Route guides are free, so there is nothing to refund. You sign in, you download one, and no money changes hands — not ours, and not the author’s.

What a guide has instead is a correction mechanism. Every guide shows the date it was last confirmed, every guide carries a report link, and a report takes it down while we look at it. If a guide is wrong, reporting it is what fixes it — for you and for the next rider.

If a guide turns out to be wrong in a way that matters — a road that had already closed, or notes that describe somewhere else — write to booking@routekeepers.co.za and tell us. We will take it up with the author and take it down if we need to.

A download is permanent and includes every future update to that guide, including corrections made after you took it. If a guide is suspended you keep the copy you have, with a warning shown on it.

This policy does not override your rights under the South African Consumer Protection Act, including the right to cancel an advance reservation (with a reasonable cancellation fee). Where the CPA is more generous than this policy, the CPA applies.

Material changes take effect for bookings made after the change date; existing bookings keep the policy in force when they were made. Questions: payments@routekeepers.co.za.