A cancellation policy is a set of rules that decide what fee applies when a stay, ticket, or booking is cancelled, by how close to the start the cancellation happens. You create policies under Settings → Policies, attach them to accommodations, events, and services, and set one as the default per category. The policy is copied onto each booking the moment it is made, so changing a policy later never touches existing bookings.
Creating a policy
Press Add. The "Details" step takes a "Name" ("Flexible", "Strict"), an optional "Description", and the "Fee tax group", the tax group applied to cancellation fees. The "Rules" step is where the terms live. Press Add Rule for each band:
- "Fee type": "Percentage fee" of the booking value, or "Fixed amount fee".
- "Percentage" or "Amount".
- "Applies if cancelled within": a number and a unit ("Hours", "Days", "Weeks", "Months") before the start. Leave it blank for a rule that always applies.
When a cancellation happens, the narrowest rule that covers it wins. So "always, no fee", "within 7 days, 50%", "within 24 hours, 100%" reads the way you'd expect: free until a week out, half until the day before, then the full amount. A policy with no rules means cancellations are always free.
Press Create Policy. The list shows each policy with the number of rules; hover the count to read the terms in plain English.
Defaults
Set as default on a policy opens "Change defaults" with three checkboxes: "Stays", "Tickets", "Bookings". Ticking one makes this policy the default for that category and unticks it on whichever policy had it. An accommodation, event, or service with no policy of its own uses the default for its category; one with a policy set in its editor uses that instead.
How a policy attaches to a booking
The policy is frozen onto the stay, ticket, or booking when it is created. Editing the rules, switching the accommodation to another policy, changing the default, or deleting the policy afterwards leaves existing bookings on the terms they were booked under. New bookings pick up the current policy.
When staff cancel, the cancel dialog quotes the fee ("A cancellation fee of … will be applied.") with a Cancel without applying fees checkbox. If the fee stands, a "Cancellation fee" line is added to the order, taxed with the policy's fee tax group. Refunds are a separate step on the order.
Bookings from booking sites are exempt. The channel owns their terms, so SERVOS never adds its own fee on an OTA cancellation.
What guests see
Guests see the terms in plain English on their booking in the guest portal, generated from the rules and counted down to the right moment: "before check-in" for stays, "before the event" for tickets, "before your booking" for bookings. For example: "More than 7 days before check-in, no fee applies. Between 24 hours and 7 days before check-in, a 50% fee applies. Within 24 hours of check-in, the full amount is charged."
Common questions
We changed our policy. Does it apply to existing bookings? No. Each booking keeps the policy it was made under. Only new bookings get the new terms.
Can a policy have different terms for different room types? Make two policies and attach one to each accommodation in its editor. The default covers the ones you don't set.
Why did a cancellation charge no fee? Either the booking's policy had no rule covering that moment, staff ticked "Cancel without applying fees", or it was an OTA booking.
The rule editor says "before check-in" but this is for events. The wording in the editor is the same for every policy; the rule still counts from the event's start or the booking's time, and guests see the right words.
