When you book a tour with SeyBooking.com, you are not booking a stranger off the internet. You are booking through a local team on Mahé who knows every guide, skipper and driver personally, answers your messages at any hour, and stays responsible for your day from the first message to the last wave goodbye. This page explains, in plain words, how that works and what happens with your money.
Every clause starts with a plain sentence that says what it means in practice, followed by the formal term that binds. There are no hidden charges in here, and no charge we have not named.
Never a stranger
Every guide, boat crew and driver who hosts our tours is someone we know by name and work with every week. They are our friends and our family, in many cases our own cousins, and we trust them with the people we love. Booking someone at random is a gamble. Booking with us is not.
Your person on the island
You get a confirmed representative on Mahé, not a call centre abroad. One team that is responsible for your booking, your price and the quality of your day.
Answered at 2 am
Most of our guests write to us late at night from home. Your WhatsApp message and your email are always answered, never left unread, whatever the hour.
Your money stays on the island
You are not paying a large overseas company that never sets foot here. Your booking supports Seychellois guides, crews, drivers and their families, and the island they look after.
This policy applies to every tour, excursion and activity booked directly with SeyBooking.com and hosted by our local guides, boat crews and drivers, such as our kayak, 4×4 and hiking tours on Mahé and the island trips on our tours page. It sits alongside our Customer Agreement, Cancellation and Refund Policy and Privacy Policy. Where those documents and this page differ on a tour booked directly with us, this page governs. A tour you book and pay for through a partner’s online checkout follows the terms shown at that checkout.
The short version
- Guides we know personally, a local team that answers at any hour. We are responsible for your booking and the quality of your day.
- Most tours need no prepayment. You book on WhatsApp or by email and pay on the day.
- Private tours, groups and busy dates take a booking payment. It secures your guide, the equipment and your date, and it is part of your tour price, never an extra.
- The balance is paid on the day, to your guide, in rupees or euros.
- Cancel more than 72 hours before the tour and the booking payment comes back in full. Within 72 hours, or on a no-show, it is kept.
- Fewer people on the day? The booking payment stays the same, and the balance drops to the price for the group that joins.
- Bad weather is on us. If the guide says it is not safe, you choose another date or get your booking payment back in full.
- If we cannot run your tour, you get the booking payment back in full.
1. Who you are booking with
You book with SeyBooking.com, a Seychellois company on Mahé. We are your friend on the island: we arrange the day, we stand behind it, and we are the people you call if anything is not right.
SeyBooking.com takes your booking, agrees a fair local price before you travel, confirms your guide and stays responsible for the arrangement and its quality. Our tours are hosted by local guides, boat crews and drivers we know personally and contract to run them on our behalf. They are our friends and our family, in many cases our own cousins. We choose them for their safety, their care and their knowledge of the island, and we stand behind every one of them, because their name is our name.
If anything goes wrong, you contact us and we put it right. You never have to chase someone you have not met, search for a number, or argue on the day. That is the point of booking with us: the stress is ours, the day is yours.
Confirmed means confirmed
Once your booking is confirmed in writing, the guide, the equipment and your date are held for you. We would rather say no at the start than let you down on the day.
Always there, day and night
The same team from your first message to the end of the tour, on WhatsApp and by email, evenings, Sundays and the middle of the night. No message is ever left unanswered.
We do this because we love this country and its people. We respect every visitor who chooses Seychelles, and we want you to go home with a day you talk about for years, arranged by people who care how it goes.
2. How you book and pay
Most tours: ask on WhatsApp or by email and pay on the day. Private tours, groups and busy dates: a small booking payment secures your place, and the rest is paid on the day.
Pay on the day
Send us your tour, date and group size on WhatsApp or by email. We reply with your price, and the booking is confirmed when we confirm it in writing. You pay the whole price on the day and no card is needed.
With a booking payment
For private tours, larger groups and busy dates, we send you a secure link to pay a booking payment by card or PayPal. Your guide, equipment and date are locked the moment it goes through, and your confirmation arrives by email.
We tell you before you say yes whether your booking takes a booking payment, and how much it is. Demand for guides, boats and kayaks is high in season, and a few late cancellations leave a guide with a turned-away day and no work. The booking payment is what makes holding your date fair.
3. The booking payment
The booking payment is part of your tour price. It comes off your total, it is not added to it. It is not an extra fee and it is not a security deposit.
The amount is shown on your booking before you pay, and it cannot change. On a tour priced at SCR 7,500, a booking payment of SCR 1,500 leaves SCR 6,000 to pay on the day. We absorb the card fee, so the booking payment is the amount you see.
It locks your guide
Your guide is committed to your group and your date from the moment payment succeeds.
It locks your price
The price on your confirmation is the price you pay, whatever happens to prices later.
It protects the guide
A held day that nobody turns up for is a day of work the guide has lost.
The formal position. The booking payment is part of the tour price, retained by SeyBooking.com, which secures the guide, the equipment and the date for the tour booked. It is deducted from the tour price, and the balance is payable on the day. It is refundable in full on cancellation more than 72 hours before the tour start time (clause 4), where the tour cannot run for weather or safety and no other date suits you (clause 6), and where we cannot provide the tour you booked (clause 8). Before paying, you are asked to confirm that you accept this policy, and we record the time, the policy version and the device of that acceptance with your booking.
4. Cancellation
Cancel more than 72 hours before the tour and you get your booking payment back in full. Within 72 hours it is kept, and you owe nothing more.
| When you cancel | What happens |
|---|---|
| More than 72 hours before the tour start time | Your booking payment is refunded in full. |
| Within 72 hours of the tour start time | The booking payment is kept. The balance is never charged, so nothing else is owed. |
| No-show on the day | The booking payment is kept. Nothing else is owed. |
| A booking with no booking payment | Free. Nothing was charged. Please tell us as early as you can. |
Please cancel on WhatsApp or by replying to your confirmation email, as early as you can, so your guide can take other work. The 72 hours are counted back from the tour start time shown on your confirmation.
The formal position. A booking is a no-show when you are not at the agreed meeting point or pick-up at the agreed time, you cannot be reached on the phone or WhatsApp number you gave us, and you have not told us of a change. A delay you tell us about is never a no-show, and we wait for you where the tour schedule allows.
5. Fewer people on the day
If fewer people join than you booked, the booking payment stays as it is, and the balance on the day drops to the price for the group that joins.
Tour prices are set per group size. If your group is smaller on the day, we work out the price for the group that actually joins, take away the booking payment already paid, and that is your balance. The booking payment itself is not reduced, because the guide and the equipment were held for the group you booked. More people than booked is welcome where there is space, at the price for the larger group.
6. Weather and safety
If the sea or the weather makes the tour unsafe, you never lose your money. You pick another date, or you get your booking payment back in full.
Weather in Seychelles can change quickly, and the safety call belongs to your guide. If the guide decides the tour cannot run safely, we offer you another date during your stay, and your booking payment moves with it. If no other date suits you, we refund your booking payment in full. A tour that runs in light rain, which is common and usually short, is not a weather cancellation.
7. Changing your date
Plans move. Tell us the new date as early as you can and we move your booking, free. Your booking payment moves with it.
Message us with the new date. We move your booking at no charge whenever a guide is free on the new date, and the booking payment stays with the booking. If no guide is free, we tell you straight away, and your original booking stands unless you cancel it under clause 4. A change asked for within 72 hours of the tour is treated as a cancellation under clause 4, unless we can still fit the new date.
8. If we cannot run your tour
If we let you down, you get every cent of your booking payment back.
If we cannot provide the tour you booked, or an equal or better one that you accept, we tell you as early as we possibly can and refund your booking payment in full to the card or PayPal account you paid with. A refund normally reaches you within 5 to 10 business days, depending on your bank.
9. Payment, receipts and card disputes
You get a confirmation and receipt by email the moment you pay. Your statement says SC GROUP, which is us. Please talk to us before you ever talk to your bank.
Booking payments are taken by card through Stripe or through PayPal. We never see or store your card number. Card payments appear on your statement as SC GROUP, the SeyBooking.com group of companies. Refunds go back to the same card or PayPal account. The balance is paid on the day in Seychelles rupees or euros and is never charged by us.
The formal position. By paying the booking payment you agree that it is governed by this policy, and that you will not raise a chargeback, payment dispute or claim with your card issuer or PayPal when the tour was provided as booked, or when the booking payment was kept under this policy. If you believe a charge is wrong, contact us first at [email protected] and we will answer within two business days. If a dispute is raised, we will respond to it with your booking record, including your acceptance of this policy.
10. On the day
Be ready at your pick-up or meeting point on time, bring what your confirmation lists, and tell your guide about anything that affects your safety.
Your confirmation gives the pick-up time or meeting point, what is included and what to bring. Please tell us when you book about any medical condition, pregnancy, or limited swimming ability that matters for the activity, and the ages of any children. Your guide may refuse or end the activity for anyone whose safety, or the safety of the group, is at risk, including anyone affected by alcohol. Where that happens because the safety instructions were not followed, the price is still due.
11. Liability
We take responsibility for what we arrange. We cannot take responsibility for the weather, the sea, or a road being closed.
SeyBooking.com is liable for the proper arrangement of the tour it confirms, and for the selection of guides and operators to provide it. Outdoor activities carry natural risks, and you take part at your own risk within the guide’s safety instructions. We are not liable for loss or damage arising from circumstances beyond our reasonable control, including adverse weather and sea conditions, flooding, landslip, road closure, industrial action, ferry or flight cancellation, or acts of government.
We are not liable for indirect or consequential loss, including missed flights or missed connections, save where such loss results directly from our own failure to perform. Nothing in this policy excludes or limits liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, for fraud, or any liability that cannot lawfully be excluded. Personal belongings you bring on a tour remain your responsibility, and we recommend travel insurance that covers outdoor activities.
12. Complaints, data and governing law
Any complaint should be raised with us as soon as possible, ideally while you are still on the island. Complaints may be sent to [email protected] and are acknowledged within two business days.
The details you give us to book, your name, phone, email, hotel and group size, are processed in accordance with our Privacy Policy and shared with your guide only to the extent needed to run the tour.
This policy is governed by the laws of the Republic of Seychelles, and the courts of Seychelles have jurisdiction. If any provision is found to be unenforceable, the remaining provisions continue in force. We may update this policy. The version that applies to your booking is the one you accepted when you booked, and changes are not applied retrospectively to a confirmed booking.
Tour policy: frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay in advance to book a tour in Seychelles?
Not for most tours. You book on WhatsApp or by email and pay on the day. Private tours, larger groups and busy dates take a booking payment, and we tell you the amount before you say yes.
Is the tour booking payment added to my price?
No. It is part of your tour price. On a tour priced at SCR 7,500, a booking payment of SCR 1,500 leaves SCR 6,000 to pay on the day.
Can I get my tour booking payment back if I cancel?
Yes, in full, if you cancel more than 72 hours before the tour start time. Within 72 hours, or on a no-show, it is kept and nothing more is owed.
What happens if the weather is bad on the day of my tour?
If your guide decides the tour cannot run safely, you choose another date and your booking payment moves with it. If no other date suits you, the booking payment is refunded in full.
What if fewer people join the tour than I booked?
The booking payment stays the same, and the balance on the day drops to the price for the group that joins.
Can I change the date of my tour?
Yes, free, whenever a guide is free on the new date, and your booking payment moves with the booking. A change asked for within 72 hours of the tour counts as a cancellation unless we can still fit the new date.
How do I pay the balance on the day?
In Seychelles rupees or euros, on the day of the tour. The balance is never charged to your card by us.
What will my card statement show for a SeyBooking.com tour booking payment?
SC GROUP, the SeyBooking.com group of companies. Your confirmation email carries the receipt for the booking payment.
Ready when you are
Guides we know by name, a fair local price, and your friend on the island answering at any hour. Worry-free from the first message to the last wave goodbye.
Related reading: Seychelles tours · Transfer Policy · Customer Agreement · Cancellation and Refund Policy · Privacy Policy