Handling cancellation fees and commission
We charge commission on confirmed stays, non-refundable and partially refundable bookings, regardless of whether the guest stayed at your property or not. But there are some situations when you don’t need to pay commission. We’ve also built a tool to help you automatically accept free cancellation requests that guests make within a timeframe of your choice.
What’s in this article
Commission and cancelled bookings
We charge commission on confirmed stays, regardless of whether the guest stayed at your property or not.
You also pay commission when:
- You charge guests for non-refundable or partially refundable no-shows or cancellations
- You charge guests who cancel after the free cancellation period has ended
You don’t have to pay commission when:
- You choose to waive the cancellation fee for non-refundable or partially refundable bookings
- A guest doesn’t arrive for their booking, you choose to waive the fee and you mark the guest as a no-show either in the extranet or on the Pulse app
- You mark a credit card as invalid because you couldn’t charge the guest
How the Cancellation Fee Exceptions tool works
Even if a guest has booked a non-refundable rate, they can ask to cancel this free of charge. Our research shows that guests are most likely to cancel accidental bookings within 24 hours. In fact, 25% of all cancellation requests are made within this period.
It’s always your choice whether you accept these requests, but you can use the Cancellation Fee Exceptions tool to automate the process.
The tool allows you to automatically allow free cancellation if the guest requests it during a certain period, such as within 24 hours of making the reservation. When you use the Cancellation Fee Exception tool, your calendar will update immediately and the cancelled rooms or units will become available for bookings again straight away.
If you haven’t set up this tool, or if a guest asks us to cancel their reservation after your chosen time period has expired, we’ll contact you to see if you agree to waive the fee.
Even though we always explain the booking conditions to guests, waiving fees is a friendly gesture that may help prevent complaints and encourage satisfied guests to book with you again in the future. Of course, it’s always completely up to you whether you use the Cancellation Fee Exceptions tool and waive cancellation fees.
How to use the Cancellation Fee Exceptions tool
- Log in to the extranet
- Click on Property and then click on Policies
- Under Cancellations and prepayment policies, click on Edit under the policy you want to make an exception to
- Under Is there a period when the guest can cancel free of charge?, tick Yes
- Specify the conditions that you want to set for the exception
- Click on Save
To find out more about when you can cancel a reservation, take a look at this article.
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Your reservations
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- Smart Flex reservations: FAQs
- Managing guest reservations
- Can I reject a reservation?
- What to know about our free taxi promotion
- Updating reservations and useful phone numbers for French partners
- Managing booking requests with Request to Book and Instant booking
- Non-discrimination guidelines when accepting or declining a booking request
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- Setting guest requirements for bookings
- How can I set up a ‘minimum advance reservation' and ‘maximum advance reservation’?
- How can I stop guests from booking and arriving on the same day?
- How can I set up a minimum or maximum length of stay restriction?
- What kind of reservation restrictions can I set up?
- How do I set up minimum and maximum advance reservations?
- How can I stop guests from booking reservations and arriving on the same day?
- Setting up length of stay and advance reservation restrictions
- Setting reservation restrictions for your property