Let Customers Cancel a Booking Without Calling You
Rentals customers can now cancel their own bookings through a cancellation link, without phoning or emailing you. The slot is released immediately, with no approval step needed on your side. Refunds and security deposits stay entirely your decision, so nothing financial happens automatically.
How does the cancellation work for my customer?
The customer opens the cancellation link from their confirmation and cancels the booking themselves, any time before the booking starts. Once a booking is active or completed, self-service cancellation is no longer offered. They can optionally give a reason in their own words, which is saved to the booking so you have the context without chasing them for it.
For bookings that bundle more than one listing, the Booking details panel shows every listing with its own dates, and cancelling applies to the whole booking together.
How do I set it up?
The core cancellation flow needs no setup. It is live automatically on the confirmation and reminder notifications for every Rentals booking. The two steps below are optional, depending on how much control you want.
- To limit how late a customer can self-cancel, go to Rentals, then Global settings, then Booking settings, and turn on Set cancellation link expiry. Choose a cutoff in minutes, hours or days before the booking starts.
- To place the cancellation link in a notification template or confirmation page, insert the {{rentalBooking.cancellation_link}} custom value wherever you want the link to appear.
If you leave the expiry setting off, customers can cancel at any point up until the booking begins.
What happens to payments and deposits?
Security deposits and payments are left untouched when a customer cancels. Refund amounts remain a manual decision, so a person always reviews the money side before anything is returned. The cancellation only releases the booking.
What if a customer opens an old cancellation link?
A link that has already been used, or one that is no longer valid, shows a clear and friendly message rather than a technical error page. The customer understands what happened and how to get help, instead of assuming the system is broken.
You will find the expiry setting under Rentals, then Global settings, then Booking settings.
