Beware of travel groups who hold your refund for 30-45 days. Regrettably I booked a tour with OAT and a week later learned about a family wedding. When I called to cancel because I was within the window of time that I could cancel (10 days, very fortunate) the person I spoke with told me that it would be 30 days before I would receive the refund. She proceeded to tell me it’s better than it was previously.
Posted by
L'Occitanie, France
11300 posts
Most of them are like that: quick to take your deposit, slow to return it. At least with OAT you will get your deposit back.
Posted by
SE Pennsylvania
3045 posts
There are worse things.
I paid a $350 deposit for a tour with G adventures in 2022. My deposit was not returned after THEY cancelled the tour. They feel that holding on to my deposit to use for a future tour is fair. I disagree.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
16012 posts
Depending on where the company is headquartered the number of days they have to refund can vary. I wasn't aware of this but during Covid when there were tour cancellations, I'm pretty sure Rick Steves Europe had to refund within 2 weeks which is why they went to a rotation of cancellations. They are of course headquartered in WA. Road Scholar which is located in MA also had to refund within 2 weeks due to MA laws.
I see OAT is located in MA so it might be worth looking into to see if my remembered information is correct about MA!
Posted by
Folsom
2790 posts
I don’t know MA law. But we were close to booking with OAT after attending one of their “road shows” at a local hotel. Then COVID came along and many people had trouble getting their money back. You can Google this, there was even a NYT article. I’m sure they are in better financial shape now, but we decided not to book with them.
Posted by
45 posts
FYI - I had to cancel a Sept OAT Tanzania trip on 8/15/25 due to family medical emergency and submitted my claim to Trip Mate, the insurance you can buy thru OAT. OAT covered the remaining $900 due back to me and it was posted to my bank today, Sept 9. I am still waiting for Trip Mate to review the claim.