South African National Parks (SANParks) says they are aware of the recent surge of payment failures that have occurred when booking accommodation on their website.
‘An investigation into the matter has revealed that the latest version of the Chrome browser contains a malfunction that causes loss of important information – resulting in the authorisation of the funds without finalization of the reservation,’ SANParks said in a statement.
SANParks says they are aware of technical difficulties some online bookers have experienced.
‘In cases where no booking confirmation is received within a few minutes, please refer to the email that is sent automatically, and follow the instruction to click on the link provided. This final step assists with the settlement of the payment and secures the reservation. Please note that at no stage is personal information displayed, exchanged or required,’ the statement concluded.
SANParks Chief Executive Officer Fundisile Mketeni said, as the national parks welcome inter-provincial travellers, ‘a Risk-Adjusted Strategy has been at the core of every sector or industry planning in an effort to save lives.’
‘In dealing with the expected accommodation bookings influx, SANParks has aligned itself with a similar strategy for overnight bookings particularly for inter-provincial travellers to national parks,’ Mketeni added.
According to Mketeni, in instances where a paid forward booking has to be cancelled due to capacity restrictions in line with Level 2 regulations, SANParks will apply a transparent and fair process of LIFO (last-in-first-out) principle, ‘implying that the person that booked earlier will receive preference over someone that booked later’.
Affected guests will be contacted and offered alternative facilities or alternative dates and no guests will be charged cancellation fees if an eventual cancellation occurs and is due to COVID-19 related circumstances.
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