Cancellation policies

The ability to create and update cancellation policies is disabled by default. If you want to manage cancellation policies directly in your Dashboard, contact FareHarbor Support and we’ll enable this permission for the users you choose.

Once enabled, you can create and manage policies from the Cancellation Policies tab under Settings > Info & Policies.

1. Go to Settings > Info & Policies.
2. Click the Cancellation Policies tab.
3. Click New cancellation policy.
4. Enter a name (required) and a description (optional).
5. Click Create.

Next, add cancellation rules to determine the timeframe and refund rules for the cancellation policy. Without rules, any bookings made with the policy will be non-cancellable.

Adding cancellation rules

1. Click Edit next to the policy you’re adding rules for.
2. Click New cancellation rule.
3. Set the timeframe (this can be any time, a number of hours before the availability start time, or a number of hours before midnight on the day of the availability).
4. Select whether or not to allow cancellation during this timeframe.
5. If cancellation is allowed, enter the percentage that should be refunded to the customer, and whether payments collected by affiliates should be refunded.
6. Click Save.

Notes about cancellation rules

• You can add multiple cancellation rules. This is useful if you want to apply different cancellation or refund rules based on when the booking is being cancelled (for example: earlier than 24 hours, earlier than 48 hours, etc.).

• For a given booking, the first matching rule (starting at the top of the list) will be enforced. Reorder rules by clicking and dragging the icon.

• Payments collected by affiliates cannot be partially refunded.

Editing a cancellation policy

1. Go to Settings > Info & Policies.
2. Click the Cancellation Policies tab.
3. Click Edit next to the cancellation policy you want to update.
4. Review the existing cancellation rules and click Edit next to the rule you want to update.
5. After making your changes, click Save.

Reordering cancellation policies

When viewing your cancellation policies, the policy at the top of the list will be the primary policy. This means it will be used for all items and affiliates by default, unless another policy is applied manually.

Click and drag the icon to reorder your policies.

Applying a cancellation policy to an item

All items will use the primary cancellation policy unless another policy is applied manually. If you want to use a different cancellation policy for a specific item, follow the steps below.

1. Go to Items and select the item to update.
2. Go to Settings > Info & Policies > Notes & Policies.
3. Under Item Cancellation Policy, choose from the list of existing policies.
4. Click Save changes.

This policy will be used for all bookings made for that item, unless the booking is made by an affiliate that has its own cancellation policy. In that case, the affiliate policy will override the item policy.

Applying a cancellation policy to an affiliate

All affiliates will use the primary cancellation policy unless another policy is applied manually. To apply a cancellation policy to an affiliate:

1. Go to Settings > Affiliates.
2. Click Edit next to the affiliate you want to update.
3. Under Cancellation policy, choose from the list of existing policies.
4. Click Save.

When a booking is made by an affiliate for an item that has its own cancellation policy, the affiliate policy will always override the item policy.

Permissions

To fine-tune how your staff and affiliates can cancel bookings, there are two permissions that can be granted:

• Cancel or rebook bookings eligible by cancellation policy: Users with only this permission can cancel, rebook, and refund bookings according to the cancellation rules in place, but cannot override the cancellation rules applied to a booking.

• Cancel or rebook bookings at any time: Users that also have this permission enabled can override the cancellation rules on any booking, including the refund amount.

  Note: This permission is not available for affiliate permission groups.

How to view and edit permission groups.

5 minute grace period

Users with the permission Cancel or rebook bookings eligible by cancellation policy will always have a 5 minute “grace period” after creating a booking to cancel or refund that booking, if needed. For example, if an affiliate accidentally books the wrong date for a customer, they will be able to cancel, rebook, or refund the booking without having to contact you to make the change.

How can I see what cancellation policy applies to a booking?

If the booking was made by an affiliate, go to Settings > Affiliates and click Edit next to the affiliate name to see the cancellation policy tied to that affiliate.

If the booking was not made by an affiliate, or there is no affiliate policy specified, go to the settings for the item that was booked and select Info & Policies > Notes & Policies to see the cancellation policy assigned to that item.

If there is no policy specified at the item level, then the primary cancellation policy was used. To view the specific rules for a cancellation policy, go to Settings > Info & Policies > Cancellation Policies.

If I change my cancellation policy, will existing bookings be affected?

Yes. Whenever a change is made to a cancellation policy (whether it’s your primary policy or an item- or affiliate-specific policy), the updated rules will be enforced on any existing bookings that use that cancellation policy.

Similarly, if you create a new cancellation policy (for example, if you add a cancellation policy for a specific affiliate), then all existing bookings made by that affiliate will now use the new cancellation policy.

How do cancellation policies interact with cancellation notes?

Cancellation policies do not currently interact with cancellation notes. Cancellation notes are simply a written summary of your policy, which are included in all emails sent to your customers. Learn how to update your cancellation notes.