Cancellation & Refund Policy

Charter Bookings

Cancellation 2+ Weeks Before Your Trip

If you cancel your charter booking more than 14 days before the scheduled trip date, you will receive a full refund of all trip payments made back to your original payment method.

Cancellation Within 2 Weeks of Your Trip

If you cancel within 14 days of your scheduled trip, your deposit and any payments made are non-refundable and will be paid to your guide. Before you cancel, you have another option:

• Ask to move the trip: From your booking page, request a new date instead of cancelling — same trip, same party size. Your payment is held while your captain responds. If they accept, your original payment carries over to the new date (any payment-plan balance still owed is paid when you send the request, and refunded with everything else if the new date doesn't work out). If they can't accommodate you, or don't respond within 3 days, your full payment is refunded to your original payment method. If you end the request yourself, the rules below apply.
• Cancel outright: Cancelling directly (without first asking for a new date) is final — the guide keeps all payments made to date, with no grace window to request a new date afterward.

Rescheduling Rules

• Two suggestions each: you and your captain each get two date suggestions per request, taking turns. Every date either of you suggests must be a date the trip runs and has room for your party. If the date your captain offered passes before you answer, nothing changes — you still have until the 3-day deadline to suggest another date or decline.
• If your captain ends it: if your captain declines, or doesn't respond within 3 days, your full payment is refunded to your original payment method.
• If you end it: if you decline your captain's date, don't answer within 3 days of their reply, or withdraw your request, and you asked within 14 days of the trip, the payment is non-refundable and is paid to your guide after a 48-hour hold. If you asked more than 14 days before the trip, ending the request refunds you as a normal cancellation would.
• Ask for a review: if something serious happened, you can ask our team to review a non-refundable ending from your booking page. You have at least 48 hours, until the payment is released to your guide. One review request is allowed per booking, and a denied request can't be filed again.
• Moves and limits: you can move a booking up to three times if each request is made more than 14 days before the trip, with every new date within 9 months of your original trip date and no more than 6 months from the day you ask. A booking moved on a request made within 14 days of the trip can be moved only once. After the third move, or after a move requested within 14 days of the trip, cancelling is non-refundable. Moves your captain offers, including a reschedule offered because of weather or safety, don't count.
• Some captains don't take late requests: a captain can choose not to accept reschedule requests within 14 days of a trip. If your captain has, the Reschedule option isn't offered within 14 days, and the cancellation-policy note on the booking page says so. Your options are to keep the date or cancel, and a cancellation within 14 days is non-refundable (the weather and safety refunds above still apply).
• Minimum-guests trips: a trip that runs only once enough guests have booked can't be rescheduled at your request. You can keep the date or cancel under the rules above.

Inclement Weather

Fishing is weather-dependent. If unsafe weather or conditions make your charter impossible — at any point and regardless of the 2-week rule — you can request a full refund. Submit a refund request from your booking and add a note such as “inclement weather.” Our team reviews these requests promptly and, when conditions warrant, issues a refund of your trip payments to your original payment method. This applies whether you cancel before the trip or the guide cancels on the day for safety reasons.

After Your Trip

If you experience an issue with your charter, you can submit a refund request within 7 days of the trip's completion. Our team reviews every request individually. Full or partial refunds may be issued depending on the circumstances. Reviews of completed trips remain posted regardless of the refund outcome.

Minimum-Guests Trips

Some open boat trips only run once enough guests have booked. On these trips, your spot is an instant, $0 hold — nothing is charged when you book. You can cancel a hold at any time at no cost, since there's nothing to refund. If you reserve with your Guidecall balance, it's applied to your spot right away and returned to your balance in full if you cancel before it confirms or the trip is called off. The trip confirms automatically the moment enough guests have joined — but never earlier than 2 weeks before departure. If it's still short by its decision time (a set number of hours or days before departure), it's called off instead. The captain can also call it off sooner. Either way, you're never charged and there's nothing you need to do.

If the trip confirms, every held spot is charged in full at that moment. Confirmation always happens inside the 2-week window, so a confirmed spot is non-refundable if you cancel — the same rule as any charter booked inside 2 weeks. If your captain cancels (weather, mechanical), you're refunded in full.

Payment Plans

For charter bookings of $400 or more, scheduled 7 or more days in advance, you may choose to split your payment into three installments:

• 50% due at the time of booking
• 25% charged automatically at the midpoint between booking and trip
• 25% charged automatically 24 hours before your trip

Your card is saved securely at checkout. Remaining payments are charged automatically — no action needed on your part. Please ensure your card remains valid through your trip date.

Bookings within 7 days of the trip date require full payment at checkout.

Scheduled Calls

Scheduled call sessions are paid in full at the time of booking. Refund requests can be submitted within 7 days of the call. Payment plans are not available for call sessions.

Guide Payouts

Guides receive their payout after a hold period following session completion: 24 hours for calls and until the day after the trip date for charter trips. This window allows time for any issues to be raised and resolved before funds are released.

Refunds & Disputes

When a refund is approved, the guide's payout is automatically reversed or deducted from future earnings.

• Guide bears the cost when: guide no-show, substantiated quality complaint, or failure to deliver the agreed service.
• Platform absorbs the cost when: system errors, customer dissatisfaction where the guide performed as agreed, or goodwill decisions at Guidecall's discretion.

Guides have 7 days from the date of a refund decision to file a dispute from the session detail page. Disputes are reviewed by the Guidecall team and resolved within five (5) business days.

Questions?

If you have any questions about our cancellation or refund policy, reach out to us at admin@guidecall.app.