Cancellation Policy & Refunds — Kumbh Ganga Retreat
Our Cancellation Policy
We try to be fair, and we try to be clear. The policy: cancellations made 45 or more days before your arrival date receive a full refund of any amount paid, minus a Rs 500 processing fee per booking. Cancellations made 15 to 44 days before arrival: 50% refund. Cancellations made 0 to 14 days before arrival: no refund. Instead, we offer a credit note for the full amount paid, valid for 24 months toward any future stay at Kumbh Ganga Retreat.
In practice, the credit note serves most guests who cancel late due to circumstances beyond their control (medical emergency, family event, travel disruption) better than a partial cash refund. The credit is for the full amount and can be used for any future visit — including a future Kumbh stay, a Mahashivaratri visit, or any other time during the 24 months.
Snan Date Shifts — Our Special Provision
The Kumbh is governed by the stars, and occasionally the temple trust revises the officially declared Snan dates after bookings have been made. This can happen when astronomical calculations are refined or when the administration revises the festival calendar for logistical reasons.
If an officially declared Shahi Snan date shifts by more than 2 days from your booked dates, we allow a no-charge date change — moving your booking to the revised date at no additional cost. If you cannot accommodate the revised date, a full refund is offered. This provision is specific to Snan-date bookings and is activated only when the official date shift is documented from the Trimbakeshwar temple trust.
Force Majeure
In the event of a government-declared emergency, natural disaster, pandemic, or Kumbh cancellation by the state government, all deposits and advance payments are returned in full within 14 working days. We will never hold deposits in situations where the Kumbh itself cannot proceed.
For guests who have purchased travel insurance: we provide a booking confirmation letter and, if required, a detailed statement of amounts paid and the reason for cancellation.
How We Handle Partial Group Cancellations
For group bookings where only some members need to cancel while the rest of the group proceeds, we apply the same tiered refund schedule to the specific cancelling individuals' portion of the booking, without disrupting the accommodation or programme arrangements for the remaining group members. Notify us of any partial change as early as possible, since room and tent allocation for the full group may need minor adjustment.
This flexibility is particularly relevant for multi-generational family bookings, where a health issue or unexpected circumstance affecting one family member shouldn't require the entire group's booking to be renegotiated from scratch.
Frequently Asked Questions About Refunds
Approved refunds are processed within 10 working days to the original payment method. If a flight cancellation prevents your check-in, this falls under our standard cancellation policy based on how far in advance you notify us, though we always work with genuinely unavoidable travel disruptions case by case.
Booking transfers to another individual are generally possible with advance notice and no penalty, provided the new guest's details are confirmed before arrival.
Why We Keep Our Policy Simple
Many hospitality providers bury cancellation terms in dense fine print that most guests never fully read until they need it. We've deliberately kept our policy to the handful of clear tiers described above, because a Kumbh trip already involves enough genuine complexity.
If anything is unclear before you book, ask us directly and we'll explain it in plain language.
Comparing Our Policy to Industry Norms
Compared to many hotel and travel booking platforms, our policy is genuinely more generous — many standard hotel bookings offer no refund at all inside 48 hours, whereas our 15-day threshold for the credit-note provision gives guests considerably more flexibility for a trip of this significance and cost. We built the policy this way deliberately, recognising that a Kumbh trip carries emotional and logistical weight that an ordinary hotel stay doesn't.
We encourage you to compare our terms directly against any other property you're considering — we're confident the comparison favours a policy built specifically around the realities of pilgrimage travel rather than a generic hospitality template.
Getting Help With a Cancellation
If you need to cancel or modify a booking, the fastest route is a direct call or WhatsApp message to our reservations team rather than email, particularly close to your travel dates when timing affects which refund tier applies. Our team can also talk through your specific situation and flag whether a date change might serve you better than a cancellation, depending on what's driving the change.
We'd always rather find a workable adjustment for a genuine guest than process a cancellation, and our team is authorised to use reasonable discretion for circumstances that don't fit neatly into the standard tiers.
Why We Publish This Policy in Full
We'd rather a guest read the complete policy before booking and decide it works for them, than discover a surprising clause only when they actually need to cancel. This is a deliberate choice about the kind of trust we want to build with pilgrims making a significant financial and emotional commitment to travel here.
If, having read this in full, you still have a question our policy doesn't clearly answer, that's a gap we want to know about — tell us, and we'll clarify it directly and consider whether the policy itself needs updating.
Experience Nashik Kumbh 2027 in comfort, safety and spiritual depth — Kumbh Ganga Retreat, 3 km from Trimbakeshwar Temple.
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