Before you cancel a reservation
Only manual reservations (created in Front Desk or via Direct Booking) can be edited in Little Hotelier Front Desk.
Reservations made via OTAs (channels) must be modified or cancelled by the guest via the channel they used to book.
Direct Booking reservations need to be cancelled in My apps > Direct Booking > Reservations page. Cancelling a Direct Booking reservation in Front Desk will not update Direct Booking.
Only Confirmed reservations can be cancelled.
Reservations that are checked-in or checked-out need to have their status changed before they can be cancelled.
A cancellation is permanent and cannot be undone.
The details of a cancelled reservation can still be found in Reservations
Check your cancellation policies to determine if any penalties apply before cancelling a reservation.
Cancellations for Direct Bookings
When a guest cancels a Direct Booking via the cancellation link in their confirmation email, the cancellation is automatically reflected in both Front Desk and Direct Booking.
However, if a reservation is cancelled directly in Front Desk, the cancellation is not sent back to Direct Booking.
Note: For Demand Plus reservations, you will need to manually mark the reservation as cancelled or as a no show within Demand Plus. To do this, go to: Direct Booking > Setup > Integrations > Demand Plus > Review and reconcile Demand Plus reservations. Doing this ensures your property won't be charged commission for the reservation.
If you believe you have been invoiced incorrectly for a cancelled reservation commission, please contact our support team.
How to cancel a reservation in Front Desk
Check if this is a channel (OTA) reservation. If yes, do not cancel it in Front Desk. Instead, ask the guest/booker to cancel directly via the channel.
Find the reservation on the Calendar or in Reservations
Open the reservation
Click Cancel Booking on the Details tab
Confirm cancellation by clicking Yes, Im sure
What happens after a reservation is cancelled?
The reservation will disappear from your Calendar, making the room available for new bookings. Availability for the room type/rate is updated automatically. Note: You do not need to enable the auto-replenishment setting in Channel Manager as this feature is automatic. Auto-replenishment cannot be disabled.
You can still access the details of the cancelled reservation in Reservations.
How do I cancel one room in a reservation with multiple rooms?
If a reservation includes two or more rooms and you want to cancel just one of them, you can remove that room without cancelling the whole reservation.
To cancel one room in a reservation with multiple rooms:
Open the reservation from Front Desk > Calendar or Front Desk > Reservations.
Go to the Details tab.
Find the room you want to cancel (for example, Room 101).
Hover over that room line and click the red "X" on the right-hand side to remove it.
Click Save to apply the changes.
Note (refunds):
If your property uses Little Hotelier Pay, open the reservation, go to the Payments tab, click Process refund, and follow the prompts to confirm and complete the refund.
If your property uses a third-party payment system, issue the refund directly in that system, then Record refund for the reservation
Cancelling reservations made through channels
Reservations made through a channel (OTA) cannot be cancelled or modified in Front Desk. The guest or booker must make the change directly on the channel they used to book, and that change flows into Little Hotelier automatically.
For any cancellation or modification, the guest or booker must make the change on the channel they booked through. Those changes will flow into Little Hotelier when sent by the channel.
You should only manually cancel reservations that were made through your booking engine or were created in your Calendar.
For reservations made on a booking channel, the guest must cancel the reservation directly on the website they used to book. This will automatically update your inventory in Little Hotelier.
Any guest modifications made through the channel will also be automatically reflected in Little Hotelier.
It's important to ensure your channel connections are active, as disabled connections may prevent cancellations or modifications from being sent to Little Hotelier.
If a booking channel doesn't send automatic updates, you will receive an email notification with cancellation or modification details and will need to manually update the reservation in Little Hotelier.
💡 If a channel reservation shows as "Cancelled" in Front Desk but is still active on the channel, it was likely cancelled manually in Front Desk. Check Channel Manager: if the reservation shows as Booked there, this confirms it was not cancelled by the channel directly.
Can I delete a reservation?
Reservations cannot be deleted, only cancelled, for record-keeping purposes.