Cancellation & Refund Policy
Last updated: 2026/10/18
This page explains what happens if you cancel a trip, or part of one, and what you get back. It is written in plain English. The binding version of these terms is the trip agreement you sign and our Booking Conditions — if you ever need to rely on the exact wording, read that.
The short version
- Whether you cancel the whole trip or one part of it, one table applies — the same one, below.
- More than 30 days before your services start, almost everything comes back free. The exceptions are flights (airlines charge their own refund fees at any point) and anything a supplier has already charged us for.
- In the final two weeks, charges begin: train, flight and ticket suppliers start charging their fees, attraction tickets become non-refundable 7 days out, your hotel moves to first-night-then-non-refundable, and guide and driver time is charged at 20%, 30% or 50% depending on how close to the start you cancel.
- Your 30% deposit counts as money already paid toward your guides, drivers and tickets, and it is refunded or deducted under the same table as everything else.
- Cancellation charges are deducted only from money you have already paid us — cancelling never adds to what you owe.
- Once a service has been delivered as agreed, its fee is not refundable.
- If something is cancelled by forces nobody controls — severe weather, a government restriction, sudden illness — we refund the part that did not happen.
- Whatever the reason, once we have agreed a refund with you, we process it within 7 working days.
How to cancel
Tell us in writing — email is fine, and so is a message on WhatsApp. Please include your name, your trip reference or the dates of your trip, and exactly what you want to cancel.
We reply to confirm we have your request, and before we process anything we tell you in writing what will be refunded and what will not, and why. You see the number before we act on it.
The date we receive your request is the date that decides where you sit in the tables below — not the date we finish processing it. If you are close to a deadline, send it as early as you can.
- Email: service@tripbook.online
- WhatsApp: +86 137 1782 1971
Cancelling your trip — one table for everything
Whether you cancel the whole trip or one part of it, the same table applies. Cancel the whole trip and it covers every item; cancel one item and it covers that item only.
| If you cancel | Hotels | High-speed trains | Flights | Attraction tickets | Guide & driver |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30 days or more | Free cancellation | Free cancellation | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Free cancellation | Free cancellation |
| 16 to 29 days | Free cancellation | Free cancellation | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Free cancellation | Free cancellation |
| 8 to 15 days | Free cancellation | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Supplier cancellation fees apply | 20% of this item deducted |
| 3 to 7 days | First night deducted, remainder refunded | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Non-refundable | 30% of this item deducted |
| Within 2 days | Non-refundable | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Supplier cancellation fees apply | Non-refundable | 50% of this item deducted |
| On the day of service | Non-refundable | Non-refundable | Non-refundable | Non-refundable | Non-refundable |
How the table works
- One table, whole or part. This is the only cancellation rule we apply — there is no separate rule for cancelling everything.
- Your deposit follows the same table. The 30% deposit you pay to confirm counts as money already paid toward your guides, drivers and entrance tickets, and it is refunded or deducted like everything else in the table.
- We only deduct from what you have already paid. Cancelling never adds to what you owe. If a charge is ever more than you have paid for that item, we set it off against any refund due on the other items in your booking.
- Supplier fees, at cost. "Supplier cancellation fees" are the fees charged by the hotel, railway, airline or ticket office. We pass on exactly what they charge us and nothing more — and we tell you the amount before you decide.
Once a service has been delivered as agreed, its fee is non-refundable. Once we have agreed a refund with you, we process it within 7 working days.
What you have paid by then
By the time your trip starts, you will normally have paid two kinds of money. The first is your 30% deposit, paid when you confirm, which goes toward your drivers, guides and entrance tickets. The second is the full price of your hotels, flights and high-speed train tickets, paid at the time of booking because suppliers require it to hold your rooms and seats.
The table above treats both the same way: it looks at each item, and at what you have already paid for it. Cancellation charges are deducted only from money you have already paid us — cancelling never adds to what you owe. Anything you have not paid yet is simply cancelled: nothing to refund, and nothing to pay.
If you change your plans instead of cancelling
Tell us as early as you can, in writing. We do not charge a fee for handling a change itself — we simply pass on what it costs:
- Drivers and guides: we rearrange the vehicle and the escort staff for your new route where we can. If the change adds hours, adds mileage, or takes you outside the original area, the extra cost (overtime, excess mileage, cross-zone dispatch) is payable by you.
- Attraction tickets and other third-party bookings: where a ticket cannot be changed or refunded, or the supplier charges a fee, that loss or fee is payable by you. Where it can be changed, we handle it and pass on the handling fee.
- Anything new that comes out of the change is added to your final settlement.
For reference, the standard day with a guide and driver runs 8 hours, overtime is RMB 100 per hour, and transfers between 22:00 and 06:00 carry a RMB 100 surcharge. We tell you before any of these start to apply.
When nobody is at fault — force majeure
Severe weather, natural disaster, government restriction, pandemic lockdown or sudden illness can put a service out of reach for both of us. In those cases:
- We refund whatever our suppliers return to us, less costs we have already paid and cannot recover. We show you the supplier’s charge before we deduct it.
- Where a specific service cannot be provided because of force majeure, we refund it within 7 working days.
- Costs we have already paid to suppliers and cannot recover are not refundable.
If your trip is disrupted, our team stays with you — we rebook, reroute and renegotiate on your behalf while you deal with the part that matters.
If we cancel
We plan carefully and cancellations by us are rare. If we have to cancel your trip for reasons within our control, you choose: a full refund of everything you have paid, or an alternative trip of comparable standard, with any difference in price settled between us.
Small adjustments — changing the order of sightseeing, or substituting a hotel of equal standard — are normal operational changes, not a cancellation, and are not refunded.
How you get your money back
- We agree the amount with you in writing first, then send it back the way it came — the same card, or the same bank account you paid from.
- Once we have agreed the refund with you, we process it within 7 working days. We tell you the moment we have sent it.
- Refunds are made in RMB. Any difference caused by the exchange rate between the day you paid and the day we refund, and any charges your own bank makes, are outside our control.
- After we send it, how long the money takes to land in your account depends on your bank or card issuer — usually a few working days.
If a refund is taking longer than it should, contact us and we will tell you exactly where it is.
What our travel insurance does and does not cover
Every trip we arrange includes travel insurance at no extra cost: RMB 300,000 (about USD 42,000) of accidental injury cover for each guest. We send you the policy details with your trip agreement.
That cover is for accidental injury during your trip. It is not cancellation cover, and it does not refund a trip you decide not to take — that is what this page is for.
If a refund is taking longer than it should, contact us and we will tell you exactly where it is.
Questions about a refund
Email service@tripbook.online or message us on WhatsApp +86 137 1782 1971. Day-to-day questions are answered 08:00–22:00 China time, every day. If you are already travelling and something is genuinely urgent, use the emergency contact in your trip confirmation — that line is open throughout your trip.
TripBook China is a travel brand of Quboke Travel Service Co., Limited (Hong Kong Company No. 80032144), the company that enters into your trip agreement and receives payment. Trips inside mainland China are operated by Hangzhou Quke International Travel Agency Co., Ltd. (travel agency licence L-ZJ33333).
