Cancellation Policy

Section 01Customer Cancellations

If you (the Customer) cancel a confirmed booking, refunds of amounts paid to Sendoff Ventures follow the schedule below. The schedule is based on the number of days between the date Sendoff Ventures receives your written cancellation notice and the start date of your event.

How refunds are calculated

"Vendor-specific non-refundable amounts" are amounts that Sendoff Ventures has already paid to a Vendor on your behalf, where that Vendor's own terms make those funds non-refundable. We will identify these amounts in your booking proposal so you can see what's at risk before you commit.

Our coordination fee (the 10% planning fee for custom bookings, or the included portion of package bookings) is refundable on the same schedule as the deposit. Once we're inside 30 days, we have substantially performed the planning work and the planning fee is earned.

How to cancel

Send written notice to hello@sendoffventures.com with your booking name, group leader name, and event date. We will acknowledge receipt within one business day. The effective cancellation date is the date we receive your notice, not the date we acknowledge it.

Verbal cancellations — by phone or text — do not count as written notice. We do this on purpose to protect you: it ensures there's a paper trail if you tell us to cancel and we somehow miss it.

Reducing group size vs. cancellation

If your group shrinks but the event still goes forward, that's a modification, not a cancellation. Modifications follow Vendor-specific terms. Most Vendors charge based on capacity reserved, not capacity used, so a smaller group usually pays the same price for the same booking — unless the booking is downsized to a smaller equivalent (e.g., switching from a 60-ft yacht to a 40-ft yacht), which may carry change fees from the Vendor.

Section 02Vendor Cancellations

If a Vendor cancels a confirmed booking through no fault of yours, Sendoff Ventures will:

1. Source a replacement Vendor of equivalent or better quality and capacity, at no additional cost to you. This is our default response and resolves most Vendor cancellations.
2. If a comparable replacement cannot be sourced, refund 100% of the amount paid for that specific Vendor's service, including any non-refundable deposits we paid to the Vendor. We pursue the Vendor for those amounts under our Vendor Terms; that's our problem, not yours.
3. If the cancellation is part of a multi-Vendor weekend (e.g., the yacht cancels but the hotel and golf are unaffected), the rest of the booking proceeds as planned. Our coordination fee for the rest of the weekend remains earned.

Vendor cancellation penalties

Vendors are subject to liquidated damages for non-force-majeure cancellations under our Vendor Terms, Section 5. Those penalties are paid to Sendoff Ventures, and portions may be passed through to the affected Customer at our discretion as goodwill credit or partial refund.

Section 03Force Majeure

Some cancellations are nobody's fault. When a booking is cancelled because of circumstances beyond reasonable control of either Customer, Vendor, or Sendoff Ventures, the following applies.

What counts as force majeure

• Severe weather warnings issued by NOAA, the U.S. Coast Guard, or local authorities (small-craft advisory, gale warning, etc.) that make a planned activity unsafe;
• Government orders, including public health orders, that prohibit gatherings or the underlying activity;
• Natural disasters (earthquake, wildfire evacuation, tsunami warning);
• Acts of war or terrorism;
• Vendor mechanical failure that cannot be remedied through commercially reasonable means and where no equivalent replacement is available;
• Pandemic-related cancellations under active government order.

What we do

For force majeure cancellations of bay charters, golf, outdoor venues, and similar weather-dependent activities, our default first response is reschedule, not refund. Vendors typically extend a free reschedule within 12 months. We will work with you to find a date that works.

If a reschedule isn't workable for your group (most often: out-of-state travelers who can't reasonably return within the rebook window), refunds follow this schedule:

• Amounts not yet paid to Vendors: 100% refunded.
• Amounts already paid to Vendors: We pass through whatever refund the Vendor extends. Most Vendors will refund or credit the full amount for a documented force majeure event. Some retain a percentage (typically 10–25%) to cover fixed costs already incurred.
• Sendoff Ventures' coordination fee: 50% refunded for force majeure events affecting the entire weekend.

"What if it just rains?" Rain alone is not force majeure. San Diego rain is usually light and brief, and most experiences continue through it. Vessels may delay departure 30–60 minutes to let weather clear. A formal small-craft advisory or thunderstorm warning is force majeure; a 30% chance of showers in the forecast is not.

Section 04Modifications & Changes

Modifications to a confirmed booking — changing the date, adding or removing services, changing the group size enough to require a different boat or vehicle — are handled case by case. As a general rule:

• Modifications requested more than 30 days out are usually accommodated free of charge, subject to Vendor availability.
• Modifications inside 30 days may incur change fees, especially where Vendors have firm commitments (boat slips reserved, crew scheduled, food ordered).
• Modifications inside 7 days are case-by-case and usually carry Vendor change fees.

Sendoff Ventures does not charge a modification fee for routine changes. We charge for our actual rework only if a modification requires us to re-source major Vendors after the original plan was confirmed.

Section 05When Refunds Are Paid

Approved refunds are processed back to the original payment method within 10 business days of approval. Card refunds typically post within 5–7 business days after we issue them; ACH refunds within 7–10 business days. We do not refund by check or wire unless the original payment was made by check or wire.

If your group split the payment across multiple cards (Splitwise-style), refunds go back to the cards on file in proportion to the amount each contributed. We do not redistribute refunds among group members; that's the Group Leader's responsibility.

Section 06Travel Insurance

For bookings exceeding $5,000 total value, made more than 90 days in advance, or where group members are traveling from out of state, we strongly recommend purchasing third-party travel insurance with trip cancellation coverage. Travel insurance can refund amounts that are non-refundable under this Policy — including covered reasons like family medical emergency, jury duty, or a participant's job loss.

Sendoff Ventures does not sell, broker, or recommend any specific insurance product. We are not a licensed insurance producer. Common, reputable consumer travel insurance providers include Allianz, Travel Guard (AIG), and Travelex. Read each policy carefully — particularly the list of covered reasons, the elimination period, and what counts as "cancel for any reason" coverage versus standard coverage.

Section 07Disputes & Chargebacks

If you believe a refund has been processed incorrectly, or that a cancellation has been mishandled, contact us at hello@sendoffventures.com within 30 days of the event date or the date of cancellation, whichever is later. We will review and respond within 10 business days.

Initiating a chargeback with your card issuer before contacting us directly almost always results in a worse outcome than just talking to us. We have records, we have receipts, we have Vendor confirmations, and we win the vast majority of chargebacks where the Customer hasn't first tried to resolve through us. More importantly: most disputes are resolvable. Just email us.

Section 08Changes to This Policy

We may update this Cancellation Policy from time to time. Changes are effective immediately on posting, but they do not retroactively change the terms applicable to bookings already confirmed. The version of this Policy in effect at the time of your booking continues to govern that booking through its completion.

For material changes, we will post a notice on our homepage and on this page.

Section 09Contact