A cancellation policy sets what a guest pays when they cancel: a percentage of the booking, by how many hours before the dive or course they cancel. It applies when a guest cancels, never when the dive centre cancels. Guests see it before they book.
Set the tiers
Open Settings, then Deposits & cancellations. The Cancellation policy card holds one row per tier, up to 8: from how many hours before the start, up to 720, and the fee as a percentage from 0 to 100. The row with the most hours that the cancellation still reaches applies, and a row from 0 hours covers anything later; without one, cancelling later than the lowest row is free. Without rows, cancelling is free.
Under the rows, Course booked, student not yet enrolled sets what a guest pays who cancels a course booking before the student is enrolled. Charge the fee on the course price (the default) applies the tiers to the course price from the moment it is booked. No fee until the student is enrolled lets such a guest cancel free of charge; the fee then applies to a withdrawal once the student is enrolled. A booking that already has an enrollment is never charged on the booking: the enrollment carries the fee. With No fee until the student is enrolled, a guest booking a course also reads that no fee applies until they are enrolled.
For example, with rows from 48 hours at 0 %, from 24 hours at 50 % and from 0 hours at 100 %, a guest who cancels 72 hours before pays nothing, 30 hours before half, and 3 hours before everything.
Next to the rows (under them on a phone), the card shows the policy as guests read it, in the language you pick. Changing it needs the permission Cancellation policy, and each change is in the Activity log.
Guests read the policy in their language on your booking page before they book, in the confirmation email and on their My bill page.
Cancel a booking
Cancel on the booking page, or on its row in the list, opens the dialog:
- Who cancelled: The guest applies your policy; The dive centre charges no fee.
- The preview shows how many hours before the start it is, the fee in percent and as an amount, what goes back to the card and what stays on the bill as credit.
- Refund to the card sends what the guest paid online for the booking, its deposit and payments from their bill page, back to their card, less the fee; it needs the permission Refund. Keep as credit leaves it on the bill.
- Waive the cancellation fee, with a reason, cancels without the fee; it needs the permission Void and correct charges.
- When the guest pays online, or the booking is confirmed, while the dialog is open, the cancel is refused with "This booking changed while the dialog was open" and the figures update: look at them again, then cancel.
- When a fee applies, the dialog also shows how much of it what the guest already paid covers and what is still to pay on the bill; the guest's email says the same, with a link to their bill page.
How it is worked out:
- The hours count from now to the start, in your dive centre's time zone: a fun dive's departure time, or the start of the day when the trip has none; a course's start date at the start of the day. Part hours are dropped.
- The fee is a percentage of the booking's dives, nitrox, automatic extras and included gear, or, for a course booking, of the course price and its course extras. A booking that was never confirmed counts what it would carry once confirmed. Extras charged per stay and discounts are not part of it.
- The fee is a line Cancellation fee on the bill, taxed as the dive or the course it stands for. Its percentage and hours are kept on the booking when you cancel, so a later change of your tiers never moves it.
- The refund to the card is what was paid online for the booking minus the fee: its online deposit and the online payments of the bill that holds its lines, never more than the credit the bill holds after the cancellation. A deposit another booking paid onto the same bill, such as a course deposit waiting for its enrolment, stays with that booking: it is never refunded or counted here. A disputed payment, or one on a closed bill, cannot go back this way and stays as credit. The refund shows as "Refund pending" until Stripe confirms, see Online refunds and disputes.
- When the booking's lines are already on an invoice, they stay on it and the reduction waits as "To be credited" until the next invoice or Settle & close, which issues the credit note. The fee is a new line for the next invoice. The dialog says so.
A cancelled booking shows the reason, when it was cancelled, by whom, and the fee. Cancelling needs the permission to cancel bookings, as before.
Waive the fee later
On a cancelled booking with a fee, Waive cancellation fee asks for a reason and takes the fee off the bill. It needs the permissions Void and correct charges, to view bookings and to see the bill.
Restore
Restore takes away the reason, the fee and any waiver, and the fee line leaves the bill. Money already refunded stays refunded. A deposit that was refunded to the card, or whose deadline has passed unpaid, is no longer asked for. See Cancel or restore a booking.
Bookings made together
Cancel all on the Booked together card opens the same dialog and applies it to each booking, each with its own hours and fee. Its figures are worked out for the whole group at once, so when the booker's bill holds everyone's lines, the deposits less the fees go back to the booker's card. See Bookings made together.
Withdraw a student
Withdraw student on the course asks Whose decision (The student or The dive centre) and shows the same preview. The hours count to the course's start date at the start of the day, and the fee is a percentage of the course and its course extras.
What is not a cancellation
- Deleting a trip or cancelling a course: the bookings go back to Reserved, without a fee, and paid deposits stay as credit.
- A no-show: the no-show fee applies, see No-shows.
- A deposit not paid in time: DivePilot cancels without a fee, see Deposits for online bookings.
To turn down a request whose deposit is already paid, cancel it with The dive centre under Who cancelled and Refund to the card.
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