NEW POLICY: COVID-19 LIVEABOARD BOOKING ASSURANCE

[EVMarketing]

June 2020.

It’s difficult to quantify the changes which the global travel industry is facing as countries worldwide begin to reopen their borders, but we’ve been working hard to update our operational and sales procedures in order to provide the most stress-free diving vacation that we can. From your initial reservation through to your eventual departure after the trip, we’ll be here and ready to make the entire process an enjoyable memory. We’re proud of our 33-year history in introducing our guests to our underwater backyard; we and our partners entered 2020 in a strong position and look forward to many more years of operation.

We’d like to assure all of our guests that, if any of the following conditions apply within 2 weeks of departure and you are not able to join your scheduled trip, we will provide you with a 100% credit of the amount paid in order to reschedule your trip aboard another departure on the same vessel/itinerary within the next 24 months:

1. A flight ban or travel ban preventing travel from your country of origin to the destination
2. “Shelter in place” notice or government quarantine order, either at your location or ours
3. Your exhibition of symptoms consistent with or diagnosis of COVID-19 (a doctor’s note will be required), or close proximity within 15 days of departure to someone diagnosed by a medical professional with COVID-19
4. Inability to join your scheduled departure due to a positive COVID-19 test result or screening failure either en route or upon arrival
5. You are a front-line (ER/ICU/COVID Unit) health care worker unable to take time off work

Please contact us for specific rebooking options.

Because travel insurance companies are rarely covering these issues, we will not require proof of declination of coverage. However, if you would like your other costs – air ticket costs or price changes, change fees, hotel costs etc. – to be covered, we still highly recommend that you research your travel insurance purchase thoroughly to be sure that they are.

Please note that this offer is not transferable to any other party and cannot be combined with any other offers. If you are unwilling to travel due to fear of the outbreak, we understand and sympathize, but normal cancellation fees would apply.

As always, we can’t wait to start DIVING with you again!

Contact Us:
Email: info@explorerventures.com
Phone Enquiries: 1-307-235-0683

 

[tursiops]

This is a positive and encouraging policy.

 

[Cert1967]

@EVRachel

We’d like to assure all of our guests that, if any of the following conditions apply within 2 weeks of departure and you are not able to join your scheduled trip, we will provide you with a 100% credit of the amount paid in order to reschedule your trip aboard another departure on the same vessel/itinerary within the next 24 months:

​

The devil is in the details, as it always is.

My understanding is that EV owns the Caribbean boats - TC2 and CE2?

Am I correct that the other boats that your firm markets are not owned by EV and are marketing partners of some sort?

What happens if one of the non-owned EV boats goes bust? Some boats and companies surely will go belly-up in the current LAB business environment. The business and financial arrangments with marketing partners are often opaque as to the LAB customer and thus hard to determine accountability.

Will EV stand behind the bookings made in this or similar circumstances - guaranteeing customers' outlays? Credit or refund?

Let's say that one of the non-owned EV partners substitutes a boat, which may not be to the satisfaction of your customer? What then?

For example, your 10-day Blue Manta trip, leaving Sep 10, is priced at $6k/pp. Operated by a marketing partner? Twelve thousand for two divers, that's a lot of money. Another $2-4k for transportation and hotels. EV would have $12k in the bank - that's a lot of money for you to hold for up to two years. Heck, I'd say 3 or 5 years to use the money. Why the rush, you've got the cash interest free. Some divers will never travel - their money 100% lost.

Looking at EV's next available web advertised INDO trip.

• White Manta and Blue Manta have trips sailing on June 13 (your website) - five days from the present. Red Sea LAB - sailing on June 11
  • Sailing from Berau and Labuan Bajo - time to head for the airport
• IATA list Indonesian air travel as, "Passengers are not allowed to transit or enter Indonesia".
• IATA list Egypt as, "suspended".

Inability to join the trip due to a diver's health. That is a risk for the diver to take. Nothing new here.

The country closed, airports closed, home country stay at home order - divers can't go. And I suspect that folks in this group, handing over $10k+ to a LAB company, will be disappointed with a credit.

If a company in your industry gives divers a stronger guarantee than you trumpeted, IMO they will do quite well. Probably making many life long customers. Holding cold-hard-cash of customers for several years - maybe not so much.

 

[Ministryofgiraffes]

Others may disagree with me, but if it does not translate to a directly correlating future trip, in essence this is:

if we do not sail due to a quarantine order in our location preventing us from sailing:

1)we will not refund your money
2) we will hold your money in essence as an ‘interest free loan’
3) you may apply that amount to a trip in the future and will be required to pay the balance if the same trip has become more expensive.

my personal belief in a ‘We are all in this together’ mantra is a fair offer would be to not refund due to situations beyond the diver/operators control, but also offer a comparable trip within a certain timeframe with no upcharge.

I do not believe an operator should be responsible for anything other than the cost of the trip (embarkation on the boat to disembarkation)

 

[EVMarketing]

@Ministryofgiraffes

Many thanks for taking the time to read our Booking Assurance and commenting! Some clarification might be helpful here- where we haven’t been able to run a trip because government restrictions in the vessel’s destination haven’t yet loosened to the point that charters or flights may resume, we have offered guests the opportunity to rebook the same vessel/trip length/itinerary for travel within a year of the original trip date for the same price as they planned to pay for their original trip. For another year after that, any discounts or incentives from the original reservation carry over, but it’s based on the published rate for the new date. Also, instead of full payment for the trips, it’s generally only the deposits that are held with the reservation. We’ve allowed anyone on a trip (where we’re not yet certain of the reopening date) to delay making final payment until we can confirm that the charter will operate. For example, if a guest moves to 2021 or 2022, no further payment will be due until shortly before the new trip date. As you said, we believe wholeheartedly in being “in this together” and we’re doing our best to treat guests as we would hope to be treated.

 

[TabeaK]

I'd like to add to this - we have just come back from our first liveaboard trip since the pandemic began (and many disrupted travel plans in between). We were on the TCI Explorer. One of the main reasons of booking this trip was the COVID booking guarantee. I have spend weeks in April trying to rescue and reschedule a very expensive trip to a Raja liveaboard (another provider) that got curtailed and it has not been straightforward or easy...

The booking guarantee gave us peace of mind and is what ultimately made us commit and book (about 2 months out). I have yet to find a similar program... We are also multiple repeat Explorer Venturers customers, with many great prior travel experiences - this one was no different, thankfully our trip went smoothly - in the end no need to take advantage of the policy. Diving was wonderful and the crew and their COVID protocols spectacular. We are even considering jumping on another Explorer trip in the short term based on this experience...

 

[EVMarketing]

The booking guarantee gave us peace of mind and is what ultimately made us commit and book (about 2 months out). I have yet to find a similar program... We are also multiple repeat Explorer Venturers customers, with many great prior travel experiences - this one was no different, thankfully our trip went smoothly - in the end no need to take advantage of the policy. Diving was wonderful and the crew and their COVID protocols spectacular. We are even considering jumping on another Explorer trip in the short term based on this experience...

A heartfelt thank you for taking the time to share this wonderful review and going the extra mile to support us. Feedback from every happy guest reminds office staff and crew alike why we do what we do. We hope to see you on board in the very near future! Until then, happy diving!