The short answer
What to know first.
Collect gorilla-permit funds from your client before asking Sail to commit the permit. The Uganda Wildlife Authority no longer allows unpaid holds, so a permit exists only when it is paid in full and receipted; the 50 per cent journey deposit confirms the wider trip but does not purchase the gorilla morning. Rwanda's RDB likewise secures the date through payment. This is a timing note, not a price list — tariffs are confirmed at booking.
At a glance
The planning brief.
Full-pay UWA
A Uganda permit is confirmed when it is paid and receipted. There is no unpaid reservation window.
Collect before Sail commits
Sail pays as licensed operator once permit funds have moved; we do not carry a speculative name.
NETT is not a delay switch
Partner terms describe what you pay Sail for the journey. They create no hold inside UWA or RDB.
Camps wait; permits do not
Lock the permit date first and let request-status savannah camps flex around a paid date.
01
What changed when unpaid holds ended
Operators used to be able to reserve a Uganda gorilla permit for a short window without paying. That window has been suspended: full payment to UWA is what secures the slot, with no soft hold and no informal extension. The Rwanda Development Board has long treated payment as the act that secures the Volcanoes date.
The practical consequence for a four-country desk is the same in both channels: the authority is paid, or the date is open to someone else.
02
How this sits beside Sail's published booking terms
Sail's journey standard describes the relationship with the person confirming the safari. Gorilla permits are a supplier condition of a different kind: UWA and RDB require the permit to be paid in full to the authority for it to exist, so the journey deposit, by itself, does not buy a gorilla morning. Tell the client that distinction early — it prevents the awkward week in which the rest of East Africa is on a familiar deposit rhythm while the forest chapter is still imaginary.
Deposit
Once a proposal is accepted in writing, a 50 per cent deposit within seven days confirms the trip.
Balance
The final balance is due no later than 60 days before departure.
Inside 60 days
A booking confirmed within 60 days of travel requires full payment at confirmation.
The permit line
If the file includes gorilla trekking, the permit portion is collected and passed so Sail can pay the authority at the moment of commitment.
03
Collect before the name is asked for
The working sequence on a Sail trade file: you brief dates, party, fitness, lodge taste and whether the gorilla chapter is Uganda or Rwanda; Sail checks live availability, with nothing held unpaid; you collect permit funds from the client; you release Sail to pay, and Sail pays UWA or RDB as licensed operator, holds the official receipt and sends you proof of names, date and sector; only then is the gorilla lodge confirmed against that sector.
You cannot hold a gorilla name while a Mara camp sits on request — reverse that instinct if you come from a Kenya- or Tanzania-first desk. NETT terms describe what you pay Sail for the journey; they do not mean Sail pre-finances an authority permit against a verbal yes.
04
What collect means, practically
Collect means the money is in your control, or already on its way with a timeline that does not assume UWA will wait. International transfers into East Africa are not instantaneous; build that delay into the client conversation, not into a fictional hold.
Collect also means the passport names are stable, minimum age has been checked and fitness has been discussed, because a paid permit for a traveller who cannot trek is not a refundable souvenir. If the client is not ready to fund the permit, they are not ready to lock the forest chapter. And collect for a named date and a named sector, then match the stay — funding a gorilla lodge without a sector is how you buy the wrong morning.
05
Camps wait; permits do not
For a combined gorilla and migration file, lock the permit date first and let the Mara or Serengeti layer flex around a date that is already paid, unless a camp's own release terms force an earlier decision. Do not let a request-status tent set the forest date.
The lodge remains bound to the permit sector throughout, and the advisor relationship remains protected on the terms of the trade desk.
Questions travellers ask
Useful answers, before you decide.
Can Sail hold a Uganda permit for a few days while the client wires us?
No. Unpaid UWA holds are gone. Collect first; then we pay the authority and hold the receipt.
Does the 50 per cent journey deposit cover the permit?
No. The deposit confirms the Sail journey under published terms. The permit is an authority product that must be paid in full to UWA or RDB to exist, and journey-specific supplier conditions are flagged before you commit.
What about Rwanda?
RDB also secures the date through payment. Treat collection timing the same way, then let Sail pay the live channel.
When should savannah camps be confirmed?
After the gorilla date is paid, unless a camp's own release terms force an earlier decision. A request-status tent should never set the forest date.