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All CollectionsDirect Booking Booking Engine (Sync)
Set up cancellation and penalty policies
Set up cancellation and penalty policies

Set up your cancellation policies and penalties for reservations made through your booking engine.

Updated over 4 months ago

Property policies

Provide clear and easy to find policies for your guests. These policies will be displayed on your booking engine and confirmation pages and emails. Your policies will also be shared with channels that have content sync such as Airbnb.

  1. Go to My apps > Front Desk > Setup > Property & Room Settings > Property Details > Policies

  2. Update your policies then Save

Terms and Conditions: outline rules and restrictions and must be accepted by the guest during the booking process

Payment Policy: specifies accepted payment methods and surcharges

Cancellation Policy: set clear cancellation terms (e.g., free cancellation, non-refundable, partially refundable or one-night penalty)

Location Instructions: detailed location instructions such as transport, airport directions, and nearby sights


Advanced cancellation settings

Update your advanced cancellation settings for the booking engine in Direct Booking after modifying policies in Front Desk.

Cancellation settings

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


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

  1. Go to My apps > Direct Booking > Setup > Cancellations

  2. 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.).

  3. Room Rates

    • Select Room Rate: choose the specific room rate you want to set a policy for.

    • Policy & Penalties: set policy and penalties similar to property level settings, but 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:

  • You can set "Free cancellation" by leaving penalties empty.

  • Remember to customise translations for cancellation policies in different languages.

  • Guests can only cancel/modify online if both property and room rate levels allow it.

  • Penalty messages displayed to guests depend on your settings.


Cancellation penalty messages

Different cancellation penalty rules trigger different messages for your guests.

  • 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.

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