Booking Terms & Conditions

SeeMadinah.com is operated by SIMAK LABS LTD ("SeeMadinah", "we", "us", or "the Company").

• Company name: SIMAK LABS LTD
• Company registration number: 17449816 (registered in England and Wales)
• Registered office address: 71-75 Shelton Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2H 9JQ, United Kingdom
• Contact email: support@seemadinah.com

In accordance with Section 82 of the UK Companies Act 2006 and Regulation 6 of the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002, our company details and registered office address are provided above.

SeeMadinah sells pre-booked private chauffeured journeys in Madinah: fixed itineraries, one-way journeys and chauffeur hire by the hour, each with an optional guide where offered.

When you book and pay on SeeMadinah.com, your contract is with SIMAK LABS LTD as the Merchant of Record. We take your payment, confirm your booking, and handle any change, refund or complaint.

Each journey is carried out for us by an independent transport company in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (a "Fleet Partner"), which supplies the vehicle, the chauffeur and, if you added one, the guide. Every Fleet Partner we work with:

• Holds an active Commercial Registration authorising commercial passenger transport.
• Operates licensed commercial vehicles with professional chauffeurs.
• Insures its vehicles for passenger liability as local law requires.

Your payment to SIMAK LABS LTD is the full price of the journey. Fleet Partners, drivers and guides may not ask you for any payment on the day.

Bookings must be submitted at least 3 hours and no more than 14 days before the scheduled pickup time in Madinah. The notice is counted in our working hours only, 07:00 to 23:00 Madinah time, so a booking made outside them is for the next working day at the earliest. The booking form offers only pickup times that can be booked.

Upon completing payment at checkout, you will receive an immediate electronic booking confirmation via WhatsApp and email displaying your unique booking reference (e.g. SM-XXXXXX).

At the point of checkout, your booking is accepted and confirmed by SIMAK LABS LTD as Merchant of Record. Prior to your pickup time, the specific assigned vehicle model, registration number plate, and chauffeur contact details are communicated directly to you via WhatsApp.

All prices shown on SeeMadinah.com are per vehicle for your entire private group, not per person. Prices include the private vehicle, the driver, fuel, waiting time at scheduled stops, entry tickets for any ticketed stop on a fixed itinerary, and all applicable taxes. If you add a guide, the guide fee shown at booking is included in the same price.

Payments are charged online in your chosen currency (GBP, USD, EUR or SAR) by debit or credit card through our payment provider, Stripe.

Nothing is payable on the day: The price paid online is the entire price. Drivers and guides may not ask for cash, fuel or luggage charges, or peak-season supplements. Tipping is entirely at your own discretion.

Free Self-Service Cancellation (Up to 48 Hours Before Pickup):

You may cancel your booking self-service at any time up to 48 hours before the scheduled Madinah pickup time via our Manage booking page using your booking reference and checkout email. A booking cancelled at least 48 hours before pickup is refunded in full, automatically, to the card you paid with. Most refunds clear within 5 to 10 working days.

Changing Your Booking (Up to 24 Hours Before Pickup):

You may move a booking to another date, time or pickup address in Madinah, free of charge, from the same Manage booking page, at any time up to 24 hours before the scheduled Madinah pickup time. The journey, the vehicle class, any guide and the price stay as booked, so there is nothing further to pay and nothing is refunded. A new pickup time must meet the same notice and advance-booking limits as a new booking, in Section 3 above. A booking may be moved once through the website; after that, message us on WhatsApp and we will arrange it with you.

Cancellations Inside 48 Hours:

Within 48 hours of pickup, the vehicle, driver and any guide are committed, and free cancellation no longer applies. You can still move the booking to another date or time until 24 hours before pickup, as described above. If you need to cancel inside this window, contact us on WhatsApp straight away and we will do what we can with the Fleet Partner.

If We Cannot Fulfil Your Booking:

Vehicles are limited, above all in Ramadan and the Hajj season. If we are unable to arrange your journey, we tell you on WhatsApp and by email as soon as we know: at the latest 24 hours before pickup or, for a booking made at shorter notice than that, within two working hours of your booking. We then cancel the booking and refund it in full, automatically, to the card you paid with. This refund is your remedy for a booking cancelled under this paragraph.

Our Punctuality Guarantee (The 60-Minute No-Show Rule):

If the assigned driver has not arrived at the agreed pickup address or hotel lobby within 60 minutes of the scheduled pickup time (Madinah local time), without a delay agreed with you in advance, the journey counts as a no-show. Message us on WhatsApp and SIMAK LABS LTD refunds the booking in full to the card you paid with and, where possible, arranges another vehicle.

If You Are Not There (Missed Pickups):

Your driver waits at the agreed pickup address or hotel lobby for 60 minutes after the scheduled pickup time. On an airport or station transfer, the waiting times in Section 7 apply instead: 60 minutes after the scheduled landing at Madinah airport and 30 minutes at the Haramain station. If you are running late, message your driver on the number sent to you before pickup, or message us on WhatsApp, and we will do what we can. If nobody travels and we have not heard from you by the end of that waiting time, the booking counts as a missed pickup: the vehicle, driver and any guide were reserved and paid for, the booking is treated as performed, and it is not refunded. This does not affect the free cancellation and free change windows above, which remain open until their own deadlines.

Exemption from the UK Package Travel Regulations 2018:

Regulation 3(2)(a) of the UK Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018 provides that the Regulations do not apply to "packages and linked travel arrangements covering a period of less than 24 hours, unless overnight accommodation is included". Every journey and chauffeur hire sold on SeeMadinah.com, with or without a guide, lasts less than 24 hours and includes no accommodation, so the 2018 Regulations do not apply to it.

Statutory Cancellation Right:

The 14-day cancellation right in the UK Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 does not apply to passenger transport services (Regulation 27(2)(c)), nor to services related to leisure activities, such as a guided visit, where the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance (Regulation 28(1)(h)). Your cancellation rights are the ones in our 48-hour policy in Section 5 above.

Drivers are not guides: drivers are professional chauffeurs. They collect you from your lobby, drive you to each stop, wait during your visits and prayers, and return you to your hotel or drop-off point. On a booking without a guide they do not narrate the sites, and we never present a chauffeur as a guide.

Adding a guide: on journeys where it is offered, you can add a guide when you book and choose the language from those available. The guide is supplied by the Fleet Partner carrying out your journey. A guide who rides with your group takes one seat in the vehicle, so the passenger limit for that vehicle is one lower; where the guide drives the vehicle, every passenger seat is yours. The booking form shows the limit that applies to your choice, and we cannot carry more passengers than it shows. The guide fee is part of the price you pay at booking.

The historical notes and visitor guidance on SeeMadinah.com are written by SeeMadinah to help you understand what you are visiting.

Airport and station transfers: a transfer is one private drive between Madinah airport or the Haramain train station and an address in Madinah. For an arrival, the pickup time is the scheduled arrival you give us with your flight or train number; your driver waits up to 60 minutes after it at the airport and up to 30 minutes at the station at no charge. If you are delayed beyond that, message us on WhatsApp and we rearrange the pickup where a vehicle is available. For a departure, you choose the pickup time, and reaching the airport or station in time for your flight or train is your responsibility.

Closed stops: every stop on a fixed itinerary is visited in the listed order. If a stop is closed on the day, we visit its named substitute, or, where there is none, give the time to the other stops. We tell you as soon as we know. If a stop closes after you have booked, you may cancel that booking for a full refund, even within 48 hours of pickup.

Service Warranty: SIMAK LABS LTD warrants that your booked journey, including any guide you added, will be arranged, dispatched, and provided in accordance with our stated standards, the vehicle class selected, and our Punctuality Guarantee.

Operational Carriage & Mandatory Motor Insurance: In accordance with the transport and insurance laws of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, every commercial vehicle deployed by our Fleet Partners carries mandatory, comprehensive commercial third-party passenger liability insurance covering bodily injury, death, and medical expenses for all vehicle occupants. Operational liability for vehicular navigation, road safety, vehicle maintenance, and traffic compliance rests with the Fleet Partner performing the carriage.

Financial Cap: In the event that SIMAK LABS LTD is found liable to you for any breach of contract or service failure arising out of our ground transportation services, our aggregate financial liability shall be strictly limited to a full (100%) refund of the total amount paid by you for the specific booking, plus the reasonable, documented cost of obtaining local replacement transportation if required.

Nothing in these terms seeks to exclude or limit liability for death or personal injury caused by proven negligence, fraudulent misrepresentation, or any other statutory liability that cannot be excluded under applicable English consumer law.

By boarding a vehicle dispatched for your SeeMadinah booking, you agree to adhere to the following standard Vehicle Rules and Conditions of Carriage:

• Punctuality & Meeting: You must be present in the designated hotel lobby or pickup address at the confirmed pickup time. The driver will wait up to 20 minutes past the pickup time at the start of the trip before contacting dispatch.
• Haram Zone Access: Madinah municipal traffic regulations prohibit or restrict private vehicles from entering pedestrian and immediate perimeter zones surrounding Al-Masjid an-Nabawi during congregational prayer times. Where hotel doors are inside restricted security pedestrian zones, pickup or drop-off will take place at the nearest permitted vehicle access point designated by local police.
• Luggage & Capacity: Passenger count and luggage must not exceed the capacity of the vehicle booked (Sedan: 3 passengers; SUV or MPV: 6; Minivan: 11; one fewer when a guide is booked). Children count as passengers. Vehicles will not depart overloaded.
• Passenger Conduct & Public Decency: Passengers must adhere to Saudi public decency regulations, dress modestly, wear seatbelts at all times, and refrain from smoking or consuming food inside vehicles. Fleet Partners reserve the right to refuse carriage to any individual displaying abusive or disruptive behavior.
• Valuables & Personal Property: Passengers are solely responsible for their personal possessions, phones, and cash. Neither the Fleet Partner nor SeeMadinah is liable for items left behind in vehicles, although our support desk will actively assist in coordinating returns.

These Booking Terms and the transportation service contract between you and SIMAK LABS LTD are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. You agree that the courts of England and Wales have jurisdiction to settle any dispute or claim arising out of or in connection with our services.

Road traffic compliance, vehicular transit rules, municipal access regulations, and on-the-ground conduct within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are governed by the laws and transport regulations of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.