With a ziyarah booked by a relative, the booking lives in the relative’s account and the emails go to the relative’s inbox, but the person standing in the hotel lobby in Makkah is the traveller. The traveller needs five things before the day: the confirmed pickup time in Saudi local time, the pickup place and stops as booked, the driver and vehicle details once assigned, a phone that works in Saudi Arabia, and a way to reach the relative who holds the booking.
This guide is for two people at once. It is for the son, daughter or cousin booking a Makkah (Mecca) visit for parents or other relatives, often from the UK or elsewhere, and for the traveller who will actually ride in the car. It explains what the checkout asks for when you book for someone else, who receives which emails, what the traveller should carry, who can change or cancel, how separately bought site tickets fit in, and what goes wrong most often between the booker and the traveller.
How a ziyarah booked by a relative works
Every Makkah Cabs booking belongs to the account that made it. That account holder sees the bookings, the status timeline, the payment, any cash due to the driver and, once assigned, the driver’s name. The emails the system sends go to that account’s email address.
So when a daughter in Birmingham books a Makkah ziyarah for her parents, she is the one who receives the payment receipt, the booking confirmation, and the driver-assigned email with the vehicle registration and meeting instructions. Her parents receive none of it unless she forwards it.
That is not a flaw. It keeps one person responsible for the booking. It does mean the booker has to pass the right details on, and the traveller has to know that the booking is not theirs to manage.
The traveller details the checkout asks for
The checkout always asks for a mobile number for the customer, which is the booker. When the booking is for someone else, three more fields are required:
- The traveller’s name
- The traveller’s phone number
- An emergency contact
There is also an optional field for a group leader’s phone, useful when the traveller is part of an organised group with its own leader.
These fields are how the booking connects to the person in Makkah. Get them right and the booking team and the transport partner know who they are looking for. Get them wrong and the booking still exists, but nobody on the ground can easily reach the person it is for.
Traveller details for someone else’s booking: getting them right
Most problems with a booking made for someone else start with these three fields. Take a few minutes over each, and ask the traveller to read them back to you before you pay. Traveller details for someone else’s booking are only useful if the traveller agrees they are correct: the right spelling, the right number and a contact they trust. If the party is travelling with an organised group, add the group leader’s phone in the optional field as well, so there is a second route to the traveller on the day.
The traveller’s name
Use the name the traveller will answer to and recognise, written as they would write it. If your father is known to everyone as Haji Rashid but his passport says Abdul Rashid Khan, use a form that he, and the hotel desk, will recognise. You can add the other form in the notes.
The traveller’s phone
This must be a number that will ring and receive messages in Saudi Arabia on the day. A UK number may work, but roaming depends on the network and the traveller’s plan. Ofcom’s guidance on using your mobile abroad advises contacting your provider before travel about roaming charges and packages, and mentions a local SIM or eSIM as an alternative. If your parents are buying a Saudi SIM on arrival, you may not have the number when you book. In that case, give a number that works now and tell the booking team once the new one is known.
The emergency contact
This should be someone other than the traveller, who will answer their phone, and who knows the plan. Often that is the booker. If the booker will be asleep in a different time zone during the pickup, choose someone who will not be: a sibling travelling with the parents, or a relative in Saudi Arabia.
Booking a Makkah visit for your parents from abroad
Booking a Makkah visit for your parents from another country adds three practical wrinkles.
Saudi local time. Every pickup time on the planner is in Saudi local time, which is three hours ahead of UTC. Enter the time your parents will experience in Makkah, not the time on your laptop. When you pass the time on, say “Saudi time” every time you write it.
The 48-hour rule. Online bookings need at least 48 hours’ notice before pickup. If you are organising from home while your parents are already in Makkah, the plan has to be settled at least two days ahead.
Payment and confirmation. Makkah Cabs takes full payment online. Payment secures a provisional request, and the booking team updates the status within 1 to 12 hours. The journey is booked only when the status reads Confirmed. Do not tell your parents it is booked until you see that word in the account.
If a brother or sister wants to check the plan before you pay, the basket can email a secure review link to them, so they can see the same details you are about to pay for.
What the traveller should hold before the day
The simplest way to hand over is a short list, in writing, on the traveller’s phone and on paper. Here is what it should contain, and who normally has each piece.
| Detail | Where it comes from | Why the traveller needs it |
|---|---|---|
| Booking reference | Booker’s confirmation email | Anyone helping can find the booking |
| Status: Confirmed | Booker’s account | So nobody waits for a car that is not booked |
| Pickup date and time, Saudi time | Booker’s account | The time the car is expected |
| Pickup place and meeting point | Booking and notes | Where to be standing |
| Stops and final destination | Route summary | So the traveller knows the plan |
| Driver’s name and vehicle registration | Driver-assigned email, account | To find the right car |
| Booker’s phone and hours they are awake | The booker | To reach the person who can change things |
| Emergency contact | Checkout details | For anything urgent |
The driver-assigned email also includes a secure link to view the vehicle photo in the account. The traveller cannot open that link without the booker’s account, so a simple description, the registration and the vehicle class are more useful to forward.
Who can change or cancel the booking
Only the account holder can make requests on a booking. In practice that means the traveller in Makkah must go through the booker for any change.
From the account, a paid booking can carry two kinds of request before the pickup time:
- “Request a new pickup time”, with a future time and an optional note. If approved, a £5 rescheduling fee, converted into the booking currency, is added to the cash paid to the driver at pickup. The booking team may waive it, and a rejected request costs nothing.
- “Request cancellation or refund”, with a reason. Bookings are subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept) if the customer cancels. A full refund for the affected journey applies if we or the transport partner cancel or cannot supply the journey and no suitable alternative is accepted. The cancellation and refund policy has the detail.
Only one open request of each type is allowed per booking, and each stays pending until the booking team approves it.
Only the time can be changed online. The pickup place, destination, number of passengers and vehicle cannot. If your mother decides not to go, or an uncle wants to join, that is for the booking team. Our article on counting passengers for a Makkah taxi explains why the passenger count matters so much.
Agree in advance how the traveller asks for a change. A short message such as “Please ask for pickup at 16:00 Saudi time instead of 15:00, same place” gives the booker everything they need.
Choosing the meeting point when you are not there
A relative booking from abroad rarely knows what the hotel entrance looks like. The traveller does. So ask before you book, not after.
Useful questions to put to the traveller, or to whoever is with them:
- Which entrance of the hotel do you normally use?
- Is there a lobby or a named door where you can wait out of the sun?
- Can you walk to the road from there without stairs?
- Is anyone in the party slow on their feet or using a wheelchair?
Put the answers into the booking notes in plain words, together with the hotel’s name exactly as it appears on the hotel booking. We cannot promise where a vehicle may stop at any hotel frontage; that is managed on the day, which is why a named meeting point and a live location on the day matter. Our guide to choosing a Makkah hotel pickup point or an agreed meeting place explains the choice in more detail.
For the return from a site, the same thinking applies. The traveller will be the one walking out of an exhibition looking for the car, so agree where, in words they can follow. Our article on agreeing the return pickup for a Makkah ziyarah covers the return journey.
Tickets booked by one person, transport booked by another
Families often split the jobs. One relative buys tickets for Hira Cultural District; another books the car. That can work well, provided the two confirmations match.
Hira Cultural District sells tickets for its exhibitions and museums through the “Book now” links on its official experiences page, and lists the district and the path to the cave as open 24 hours, with the museums and exhibitions on hours that vary by day. The ticket and the taxi are separate purchases with separate terms. Changing one does not change the other.
Before either is paid for, check that the date, the time and the number of people agree. Then decide who carries the ticket confirmation on the day. It is usually the traveller, which means it must be on their phone, not only in the booker’s inbox. Our guide to holding the Hira Cultural District ticket and the taxi confirmation together goes through this field by field.
On the day: the traveller’s side
On the day of the ziyarah, the traveller does the practical part.
- Phone charged and on, with the booker’s and emergency contact’s numbers saved.
- At the meeting point agreed in the booking, a little before the pickup time.
- Live location ready to send if the driver cannot find them. We cannot promise where a car may stop outside a hotel; that is managed on the day.
- The handover note on paper as well as on the phone.
- Hotel reception can help an older traveller read the details or make a call. Our guide to asking your Makkah hotel reception to help with a booked pickup explains what the desk can and cannot do.
The booker’s job on the day is to be reachable. If you are several hours behind in the UK and the pickup is early, set an alarm or hand the role to someone awake.
Worked example: Sana books for Rashid and Parveen
Sana lives in Birmingham. Her parents, Rashid and Parveen, both in their seventies, are staying at a hotel near the Clock Royal Tower. They want a morning at Hira Cultural District and then back to the hotel.
Sana books two journeys four days ahead: hotel to Hira Cultural District, and Hira Cultural District back to the hotel. At checkout she enters her own mobile, her father’s name as he writes it, her mother’s Saudi SIM number, since her father’s UK phone is unreliable abroad, and her brother Imran, who is travelling with them, as the emergency contact. She puts Imran’s number in the group leader field too.
Before paying, she sends the secure review link to Imran. He points out that she has entered two passengers when he is going too. She corrects it to three.
Both journeys show Confirmed that evening. Sana sends one WhatsApp message to the family with the booking reference, “pickup 09:00 Saudi time”, the meeting point, the stops and her number. When the driver-assigned email arrives she forwards the driver’s name and vehicle registration, and prints nothing because Imran already has it.
On the morning, Imran sends the driver a live location from the hotel entrance. Sana is asleep in Birmingham, and nobody needs her.
Had Imran not checked the passenger count, the family would have had a booking for two with three people waiting.
If something changes while the traveller is in Makkah
Plans change most often on the ground, where the booker is not. Agree now what the traveller does in each case, so that a ziyarah booked by a relative does not stall because the booker cannot be reached.
The traveller wants a later start. They message the booker, who requests a new pickup time from the account before the original time. Until the request is approved, the original time stands.
The traveller is running a little late on the day. They phone or message the driver once the driver’s details are known, and send a live location. Included waiting varies by vehicle class and is not shown when you book, so ask the booking team to confirm any waiting in writing beforehand rather than assuming it.
The traveller is unwell and cannot go. The booker can submit a cancellation request, but a customer cancellation is subject to our cancellation terms (free cancellation with a full refund up to 48 hours before pickup; inside 48 hours the deposit element of the price is kept). Health comes first either way.
Another relative wants to join. The passenger count cannot be changed online. The booker contacts the booking team, and the vehicle may need to change.
Write these four answers into the handover note. When the booker is asleep, the traveller then knows which problems they can solve alone and which must wait.
Common gaps between the booker and the traveller
The same few mistakes appear again and again when someone else booked the ziyarah.
- The time is in the wrong zone. Always write “Saudi time”.
- The traveller’s phone is switched off, or roaming is disabled.
- The emergency contact is the traveller. It should be someone else.
- The traveller thinks a pending booking is confirmed. Only Confirmed means booked.
- The traveller asks the driver or the hotel to change the booking. Changes go through the account holder.
- The ticket and the car disagree on date or time.
- The booker is unreachable because of time difference or work.
A short call before the day fixes most of these, and it is the best habit for any ziyarah booked by a relative.
Checklist for a ziyarah booked for someone else
- Agree the plan with the traveller, including stops, date and time in Saudi time.
- Book at least 48 hours before pickup.
- Enter the traveller’s name as they will recognise it.
- Enter a traveller phone that works in Saudi Arabia.
- Choose an emergency contact who is not the traveller and will be awake.
- Send the secure review link to a second adult before paying.
- Wait for Confirmed.
- Send the traveller a written handover with the reference, time, place, stops and your number.
- Forward the driver’s name and vehicle registration once assigned.
- Agree how the traveller asks you for any change.
When you have the details from the family, open the Makkah Cabs planner, enter the journey in Saudi local time and fill in the traveller’s details carefully at checkout.