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Common Questions
Rental rates are determined by calendar day. Once an item has been pulled out of inventory it is guaranteed to be yours until 6pm on the ending date of your trip. A single night on the river is two calendar days, i.e. starting Saturday and finishing Sunday, even if you’re going to finish early Sunday morning.
On some peak weekends we reserve all of our canoes for overnight trips. About one or two weeks out we’ll open up the remaining inventory of canoes for day trip reservations. There are two main reasons we do this – day trippers tend to be a bit more picky about the weather (understandably) and are more likely to cancel trips based on weather forecasts. Requiring day trips to wait until a forecast exists helps tremendously. This also goes hand in hand with the second reason – day trips take away boats from overnight groups that we otherwise have to turn away. We have a very short season so every day we’re able to get the boats on the water helps.
Yes, by default our system stops accepting reservations at midnight two days before a scheduled departure. Occasionally this deadline will adjust based on demand and the complexity of logistics for that particular day (i.e. we’ll likely stop accepting reservations/changes for a fully booked Saturday in July on Wednesday night in order to properly plan out our trailers, staff, and reserve extra buses for Saturday). If we’ve got a really simple day it’s possible you may be able to book up until midnight the night before.
Yes, we require full payment at the time of reservation in order to minimize paperwork and wait times on the day of your arrival. If you’re not ready to commit to a trip now, that’s okay! We take reservations up until 48 hours before trip departure. If you’re worried about availability, our inventory above is updated in real time so you can always check back to see if we’re running low on boats.
Our reservation system uses a pricing mechanism that raises rates when inventory numbers fall below a certain threshold, typically 20 or so boats). Things start to get a bit chaotic when we’re close to sold out so this demand based pricing does two things – 1) Encourages people to look at alternative dates and 2) makes it more likely that if you’re absolutely desperate for a canoe, there are more likely to be at least one or two left. This matching of supply and demand is what happens when you let an economics major run a canoe company.
It’s a personal preference for the group. We’re happy to take reservations from individuals but the group rates won’t kick in. If one person is managing the reservations for the entire group our system applies automatic discounts since we’re only handling a single point of contact/transaction/etc. It’s about 50/50 of group organizers choosing to avoid the hassle of collecting money and getting reimbursed vs paying a little more to have everyone book their own trip. If you do book as a single group, I’d strongly recommend collecting money upfront before booking someone’s canoe in order to avoid the possibility of that person dropping out last minute leaving you with an unused canoe beyond the refund deadline (speaking from personal experience here!). Again, either option is perfectly fine by us (and priced accordingly).
There are often weekdays that have been pretty slow in the past so we opt to close them down to give some of our staff a little break. That said, if you’re looking to rent 4 or more boats, get in touch with us and it’s likely we’ll be able to open up that day for you.
We don’t keep a waitlist or but our inventory is updated in real time. It’s not uncommon to have a few boats come available a day or two before the trip date. Keep an eye on this page and you may be able to snag one if something opens up. Unfortunately, if something opens up we don’t have a way to send automatic notifications at this time.
Initial reservations can be canceled without penalty if done within 24 hours of making the reservation. Full refunds are issued for any reason (minus a $10 admin fee per canceled boat) until 7 days before your scheduled departure. If a trip is canceled within 7 days, a gift certificate will be issued. This certificate expires one year from the date of issue. No refunds or credits are allowed within 24 hours of departure or after check-in (this includes ending your trip early for any reason). We strongly recommend holding off on a reservation until your group is 100% ready or purchasing travel insurance.
Our system automatically applies discounts based on number of boats rented, trip date, and trip length. You can see how much you might save by adjusting those parameters above. These are the only discounts we offer.
Full refunds are offered for day trips if a severe weather watch or warning is issued by the National Weather Service and is scheduled to occur anytime between 8am and 3pm on the day of your trip (this is not an automatic cancellation, we’ll still put you out if the weather doesn’t concern you).
Overnight groups are not eligible for weather related full refunds as this is a wilderness environment and campers are expected to always be prepared for inclement weather while camping on the river (summer storm development can often be unpredictable – there is more information on what to do in an emergency on our trip planning section).
In cases of high water (>4′ deep), all overnight and day trips will be cancelled automatically due to a lack of sandbars. Full refunds will be issued on original form of payment.
Refunds are not based on weather forecasts and will only be issued on the day of the trip. We do not cancel for small storms and rain! If you’re afraid of less than ideal weather, do not make a reservation until you have a reliable forecast. In all seriousness, we do not take kindly to people that call because their weather app says it’s gonna storm in three days.
If high water or severe weather is predicted during your trip, we’ll keep you updated via email and SMS in addition to regularly updating the front page of our website.
We’ve got a lot more frequently asked questions on our FAQ page: http://thebestcanoecompanyever.com/faq/
Send us an email or a text message! [email protected] or 608-432-5058