Overview
Create cancellation policies and penalties for bookings made directly through your booking engine.
Settings: set policies for your entire property (default) and specific room rates (overrides).
Enable/Disable: control whether guests can cancel/modify online
Policy message: describe your policy clearly for guests
Penalties: set rules for when and how much guests pay to cancel
Penalty message: guests see messages based on your penalties
Cancellation settings
Property Level
A property level cancellation policy and penalties will apply to all room rates
Enable this setting so your guests can modify or cancel their reservation
Room Rates
Steps
Go to My apps > Direct Booking > Setup > Cancellations
Property Level
Enable/Disable: choose whether to allow online cancellations/modifications
Policy message: write your cancellation policy for guests to see
Penalties: set rules for cancellations based on timing and penalty (no penalty, full amount, percentage, etc.)
Room Rates
Select Room Rate: choose the specific room rate you want to set a policy for
Policy & Penalties: set policy and penalties for this specific room rate and date range
Date Range: define the dates when this room rate policy applies
Enable: activate the new policy for this room rate
Notes:
Guests can only cancel/modify online if both property and room rate levels allow it
Remember to customise translations for cancellation policies in different languages
You can set Free cancellation by leaving penalties empty
Penalty messages displayed to guests depend on your settings
Translate cancellation policies
If your direct booking engine is available in multiple languages, you also need to translate your cancellation policies so guests see them in their selected language.
Navigate to My Apps > Direct Booking.
Navigate to Configuration > Translations.
Select the language you want to translate.
Click the Policies tab.
Enter your translation for each Room cancellation policy.
Click Save changes.
How cancellation policies display on your booking engine
Your cancellation policies appear in:
The guest's booking confirmation page and e-mail
Room rate details on your booking engine
Your property cancellation policies also appear in your booking engine's Policies tab.
Guests will see one of these messages for each rate:
Non-refundable: guests will owe the full amount if they cancel anytime
Cancellation fee applies: guests will owe a partial amount
Free cancellation: guests can cancel anytime without penalty
Free cancellation before [date]: guests can cancel before [date] and avoid fees. After that, a fee applies.
Why is my cancellation policy not updating in other languages?
Updating your policy in Setup > Cancellations only changes your default language. If your direct booking engine is available in multiple languages, you must also update translations in Configuration > Translations > Policies, or guests will see the old policy. This does not apply if automatic translation is enabled.