Appearance
Cancellation Policies
WebEvery booking activity has a cancellation policy that determines how much of the booking cost is refunded when a booking is cancelled. You can choose from three built-in policies or create a custom policy with your own refund tiers.
Built-In Policies
Flexible
A customer-friendly policy with a generous refund window.
| When the cancellation is made | Refund |
|---|---|
| More than 24 hours before the booking | Full refund |
| 2–24 hours before the booking | 50% refund |
| Less than 2 hours before the booking | No refund |
Moderate
A balanced policy with a longer notice window.
| When the cancellation is made | Refund |
|---|---|
| More than 5 days before the booking | Full refund |
| 1–5 days before the booking | 50% refund |
| Less than 24 hours before the booking | No refund |
Strict
A policy that favors the business, with limited refund opportunities.
| When the cancellation is made | Refund |
|---|---|
| More than 7 days before the booking | 50% refund |
| Less than 7 days before the booking | No refund |
Custom Policies
If none of the built-in policies fit your business, create a custom policy with your own refund tiers. Custom policies let you define exactly how much is refunded based on how far in advance the cancellation is made.
Setting Up Custom Rules
Navigate to your activity's settings and select the Custom cancellation policy type. Then add one or more cancellation rules, each with:
- Hours Before Start — The threshold in hours before the booking's scheduled start time.
- Refund Percentage — The percentage of the booking cost to refund (0–100%).
Rules are evaluated from most generous to least. The system applies the first rule whose threshold has not yet passed.
Example: Custom Three-Tier Policy
| Hours before start | Refund |
|---|---|
| 72 hours or more | 100% (full refund) |
| 24–72 hours | 50% refund |
| Less than 24 hours | No refund |
Example: Sliding Scale
| Hours before start | Refund |
|---|---|
| 7 days (168 hours) or more | 100% |
| 3 days (72 hours) | 75% |
| 1 day (24 hours) | 50% |
| 12 hours | 25% |
| Less than 12 hours | 0% |
How Refunds Are Calculated
When a booking is cancelled, the system:
- Determines how many hours remain before the booking was scheduled to start.
- Applies the cancellation policy rules to determine the refund percentage.
- Calculates the refund amount based on the percentage and the cost of the booked items.
Staff can preview the refund amount before confirming the cancellation, so they can communicate the amount to the customer.
Rescheduling vs. Cancelling
Rescheduling a booking to a different time is not the same as cancelling. When a booking is rescheduled, the original booking is replaced by a new one — no cancellation policy is applied. If your business charges a rescheduling fee, you would handle that as a separate line item on the transaction.
Online Cancellation
You can control whether customers are able to cancel their own bookings through the online booking portal. This is set per activity:
- Allow Online Cancellation — When enabled, customers can cancel their own bookings online. The same cancellation policy applies — they will see the refund amount before confirming.
- Online Cancellation Cutoff — Optionally set a time window before the booking start when online cancellation is blocked. For example, "24 hours" means customers cannot cancel online when the booking is less than 24 hours away. Can be set in minutes, hours, or days.
- Allow Online Reschedule — When enabled, customers can move their booking to a different available time slot online.
- Online Reschedule Cutoff — Same as the cancellation cutoff but for rescheduling.
If these options are disabled, customers must contact your staff to cancel or reschedule. Cutoffs only affect online self-service — staff can always cancel or reschedule regardless of the cutoff. See Online Booking for more on customer-facing settings.
TIP
Consider your no-show policy alongside your cancellation policy. A strict cancellation policy with no refunds may discourage cancellations, but it can also lead to more no-shows. A moderate policy that offers partial refunds for timely cancellation can actually reduce no-shows by encouraging customers to cancel when they know they cannot make it.