How refunds work
You pay Hume when you book, and Hume refunds you. No chasing an Experience Creator for your money, and no awkward conversation about it — that's the whole reason payments run through us.
- Refunds go back to the card you paid with. We can't send them anywhere else.
- We start the refund within 2 business days of approving it. Your bank then takes its own time — usually 5 to 10 business days — and that part isn't ours to speed up.
- Hume's service fee is refunded whenever the Experience price is refunded in full.
- A refund that's owed is never conditional on leaving a review, staying quiet, or taking a credit instead.
If you cancel
Unless an Experience page clearly says otherwise before you book:
- More than 48 hours before the start Full refund.
- 24 to 48 hours before 50% refund.
- Less than 24 hours before, or you don't turn up No refund.
A small number of Experiences carry a different policy — usually ones where the Experience Creator pays for something in advance, like tickets or ingredients. Where that's the case, it's stated on the Experience page before you pay, along with the reason, and it's the policy that applies.
Cancel early even when you're past the refund window. It lets the Creator fill the spot, and it's the difference between a change of plan and a no-show.
If the Experience Creator cancels
- You get a full refund automatically — always, at any notice, for any reason, including Hume's service fee. You don't have to ask.
- We'll help you find something else if you want, but we can't promise an equivalent Experience on the same date.
- Creators cancel sometimes, for real reasons. Cancelling repeatedly, at short notice, without one is a reason we stop working with a Creator.
If the Experience changes
An Experience Creator has to tell you before you arrive if any of this changes: the date, the start time, the meeting point or neighbourhood, the core activity, the length, the group size, or anything essential that was included.
- You can accept the change, or decline it and take a full refund — whenever you're told, including on the day.
- An Experience moving to a private residence that wasn't disclosed when you booked is always a material change. Take the refund, and tell us.
- Small, sensible adjustments — a different café on the same route, a fifteen-minute shift — aren't material changes.
Weather and things nobody controls
- Outdoor Experiences must say on the page what weather they run in and what the backup is.
- If conditions make it unsafe or impractical, the Creator should reschedule or cancel — and if they cancel, you get a full refund.
- If the Experience goes ahead safely and you'd rather not come, the normal windows above apply.
- Illness, a transit failure, a family emergency — talk to us. We'd rather be fair than rigid. The windows exist to protect Creators from casual no-shows, not to punish people for things outside their control.
If something went wrong
Tell us within 48 hours of when the Experience was meant to end if:
- It didn't happen, or the Experience Creator didn't show.
- It was materially different from the Experience page.
- Something unsafe happened, or someone behaved in a way the Community Guidelines don't allow.
Email withhume@gmail.com with what happened and when. We'll ask the Experience Creator for their side, and we'll decide — a full refund, a partial one, or neither, with the reason. Where we owe you one we issue it ourselves; we don't need the Creator's agreement, and we may hold their payout while we look. Safety problems are handled on the Safety page and never depend on whether you want money back.
A bad fit is not a failed Experience. If it ran as described and you didn't click with it, tell us anyway — that's feedback we want — but it isn't a refund.
How to cancel or ask for a refund
Cancel through Hume. If you can't, email withhume@gmail.com with the Experience, the date, and the name you booked under — the time we receive that email is the time we use to work out your refund. Don't cancel by going quiet; an unanswered message is a no-show to the person waiting for you.
For a refund that isn't automatic — a material change, weather, or something that went wrong — email us with "Booking" in the subject and tell us what happened. We'll normally decide within 2 business days, and we'll give you the reason either way.
Repeat cancellations and no-shows
We look at patterns, not one bad week. Repeated late cancellations or no-shows — roughly, three inside two months — will cost you access to bookings, as set out in the Community Guidelines. The same standard applies to Experience Creators who cancel on Explorers.
Chargebacks and your rights
Email us before you contact your bank. We can usually sort a problem out in a day; a chargeback takes weeks, freezes the Experience Creator's payout while it runs, and gives a stranger at a bank the job of deciding what happened. We'd rather just fix it.
If you do dispute a charge, we'll give your bank the evidence it asks for, from both sides. Disputing a booking that was delivered as described, or one you've already been refunded for, may cost you access to Hume.
Nothing on this page takes away rights you have under Ontario consumer legislation — currently the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 (or its successor, the Consumer Protection Act, 2023) — or any other law that can't be contracted out of. Where this policy and that law disagree, the law wins.