Cancellation Policies

A reusable set of terms — how late a guest can cancel free, what you keep if they cancel after that, and what happens if they never turn up. You write it once and attach it to as many rate plans as you like.

It matters for three reasons:

• Guests see it before they book. Clear terms reduce cancellations and the arguments that follow them.
• Your OTAs need it. Booking.com and Expedia publish your terms; vague ones cost you the booking.
• It decides when money moves. Some terms take payment now, others hold the card and only charge if the guest cancels late.

You reach them through the rate plan, inside Front Desk Settings → Rooms & Rate Plans.

Four starting points. Three are ready to use, the fourth is blank.

Most small hotels do well with two: Flexible 48h as the normal rate, and Non-refundable at a discount alongside it. Guests self-select, and you get paid up front on some of your rooms.

Seven settings, in the order you meet them.

1. Base rate is refundable? — The big switch. Off means non-refundable and nothing below about free cancellation applies.
2. Cancel free of charge — Whether there is a window where the guest pays nothing at all.
3. Free cancellation until (hours before check-in) — The size of that window, in hours. 48 for two days, 24 for one, 72 for three. Count backwards from check-in, not from the booking date.
4. No-show charge — What you keep if the guest never arrives and never cancels. Three choices, covered below.
5. Require prepayment? — Whether money moves before arrival at all.
6. When to collect prepayment — At booking, or at the cancellation deadline.
7. How to collect prepayment — Charge the card now, or hold it and charge only if needed.

Three options: The full price, The cost of the first night, or No charge.

• The cost of the first night is the industry norm and what guests expect. It covers the room you could not resell that night without feeling punitive.
• The full price belongs on non-refundable rates, where the guest already accepted that risk for a lower price.
• No charge is a goodwill position. Reasonable for repeat guests and local corporate accounts, expensive on a busy weekend.

Whatever you choose, it only works if you actually have a card on file. Rates that take no payment details give you nothing to charge.

That depends on How to collect prepayment, and Amiqa spells out both options in the form itself.

Hold the card, charge at the deadline — "Card vaulted at booking; charged automatically at the cancellation deadline." The card is stored securely at booking but not charged. If the guest cancels inside the free window, nothing happens. Once the deadline passes, the charge goes through by itself. This is the best of both worlds and what most hotels should use: no friction for the guest, no exposure for you.

Charge immediately — "Guest pays immediately at booking; no refunds." Money lands now. Use this on non-refundable rates, where taking payment up front is the whole point of the discount.

A single clear line at the point of choosing a rate: Free cancellation until followed by the actual date, or Non-refundable.

Not a policy number, not a paragraph of terms — the specific date this guest can cancel until, worked out from their arrival. That is deliberate. A guest comparing two of your rates can see instantly that one costs more and can be cancelled until the 14th, and the other is cheaper and final.

The same terms travel to your OTAs, so a guest sees consistent conditions wherever they find you.

No. The terms are copied onto each booking at the moment it is made, and that copy never changes. Edit a policy today and it applies to tomorrow's bookings only.

This is worth understanding properly, because it cuts both ways:

• You can change your terms freely without breaking promises to guests who already booked. No awkward emails.
• You cannot fix a mistake retroactively. If you published a policy with 480 hours instead of 48, every booking taken under it keeps the wrong window. Fix the policy for the future and handle the existing ones individually.

So when you open a booking, the cancellation terms you see are that guest's terms — not whatever the rate plan says today.

Open the rate plan and choose the policy there. One policy can serve as many rate plans as you like — that is the point of writing them separately.

A typical small hotel ends up with something like this:

• Flexible 48h on room-only refundable, and on bed & breakfast refundable
• Non-refundable on both non-refundable rates

Two policies, four rate plans. Change your mind about the free window and you edit one policy, not four rates.

Two policies, offered side by side, letting the guest choose between flexibility and price.

Your standard rate — Flexible 48h

• Refundable, free cancellation until 48 hours before arrival
• No-show charge: the cost of the first night
• Card held at booking, charged at the deadline if they cancel late

Your discounted rate — Non-refundable, priced maybe 10–15% lower

• Not refundable at any point
• No-show charge: the full price
• Charged immediately at booking

That pairing does real work. Guests who value flexibility pay for it. Guests chasing the lowest number pay you up front and cannot cancel. Your cash flow improves and your late cancellations drop.