1. How a booking is confirmed
Karura Bikes is an online booking platform. We do not own the bikes. A booking is confirmed only after successful payment through Pesapal, or after our team confirms an assisted booking in writing by email.
You must provide accurate rider counts (male, female and child bikes), a reachable phone, date and start time. The confirmation names the date, the time, and the bike types. A partner supplies those bikes.
2. What you are buying
You are buying a booking for bike hire inside Karura Forest, on the designated places in the forest, at the price shown before you pay. That price is the hire price. We do not add a transaction charge on top of it at checkout.
Kenya Forest Service entrance is not included and is not sold on the booking form. You can still hire a bike from someone at the forest without using this platform. See the Karura Forest entrance fee page and About Karura Bikes.
3. When the booked bike cannot be supplied
A partner may be unable to supply the booked bike. The forest may also be closed or restricted because of bad weather, maintenance, or an instruction from Kenya Forest Service or Kenya Wildlife Service.
In those cases we will offer another date when a partner has a bike. If that cannot be arranged, the amount you paid is refunded under section 5.
4. Your cancellation
Send the request in writing to bookings@karurabikes.co.ke, with your booking reference.
- At least 24 hours before the booked start: you may cancel for any reason. The refund is the amount we received, less 5%, as set out in section 5. You may ask for a different date instead, if a partner has a bike for that date.
- Less than 24 hours before the booked start, including on the day of the ride: the payment is forfeited. We do not refund it.
- No-show: if you do not arrive for the booked start, the payment is forfeited.
5. Refunds
A refund is the amount we received for the booking, less 5%. That 5% is the average online transaction cost. You bear it. We deduct it from the amount we received, and we send the balance. If a bank or payment service deducts a further charge after we send the refund, that further charge is yours.
The price on the platform stays the hire price. On a payment of KES 650, 5% is KES 32.50. The refund we send is KES 618, rounded to the nearest shilling. We do not add that 5% to the checkout total.
Approved refunds go back through the original payment method where possible, for example M-Pesa or card via Pesapal. The payment provider and the bank set how many days that takes after we approve the refund.
Forest entrance paid at the gate is not a Karura Bikes charge, and we do not refund it.
6. Late return, damage and loss
The partner provides the bike. Returning it after the booked end time, damaging it during the hire, or losing it during the hire is a matter between you and that partner. The Karura Forest bike hire rules and your confirmation state what applies. A fault in the bike itself, present when it was handed over, sits with the partner. Karura Bikes does not take the operator’s place in that dispute.
7. Liability
Karura Bikes is not the operator of the bikes. We are not associated with Kenya Forest Service, Kenya Wildlife Service, or any government body. We are not a licensing body, and we are not an official community of Karura Forest. We enroll a bike provider when they have bikes and we agree to work with them. That check is to the best of our knowledge. It is not a certificate that a bike is good.
Cycling on forest trails involves uneven ground, other path users and changing weather. You ride by choice.
To the fullest extent permitted by Kenyan law, Karura Bikes is not liable for:
- the condition of a bike supplied by a partner, or a dispute about how that partner handed it over;
- loss or damage to personal belongings;
- injury from failing to follow instructions, or from riding beyond your ability;
- a forest closure, weather, or a direction from Kenya Forest Service or Kenya Wildlife Service, beyond the refund in section 5;
- indirect losses such as a missed appointment or extra transport.
Our liability for a booking is limited to the amount you paid us for that booking, except where Kenyan law does not allow that limit. Nothing in this policy removes a liability that Kenyan law does not allow us to remove.
8. Contact
Questions about bookings or refunds: bookings@karurabikes.co.ke · karurabikes.co.ke