How to set a tiered cancellation policy for room or hall hire

A plain guide to full, part and no refund windows for room and hall hire, with hour-based examples and the exact fields to set on your Alion Booking form.

A customer books your hall for Saturday night, then cancels on Saturday morning. The room sits empty, you turned away other enquiries, and now you have to decide what to refund. Most owners make that call under pressure, case by case. A tiered policy settles it in advance, so you aren't deciding it on the day.

This article covers how to build one that is simple enough to explain in a sentence, and how to set it up on your Alion Booking form.

What a tiered policy looks like

The idea is that the earlier someone cancels, the more they get back. You need three outcomes:

  • Full refund when there is plenty of time to re-let the space.
  • Part refund when it is getting tight.
  • No refund when it is too late to fill the slot.

Alion Booking measures all of this in hours before the booking starts. That suits room and hall hire well, because you can see exactly where a cancellation falls.

How Alion Booking works out the refund

Open your form and go to the Cancellation tab (Dashboard › Booking Forms › open a form › Cancellation tab). There are four settings.

Allow cancellations turns customer cancellation on or off. If it is off, customers can't cancel themselves. They have to contact you, and you handle it from the booking detail screen. If it is on, the refund windows become available.

When cancellations are allowed, these fields decide the refund:

  • Full Refund Before (hours): cancellations made at least this many hours before the start get a full refund.
  • Partial Refund Before (hours): cancellations made at least this many hours before the start, but inside the full-refund cutoff, get the partial refund.
  • Partial Refund Percent: the percentage refunded in the partial window, from 0 to 100.

Read the windows backwards from the start time. Keep Full Refund Before a larger number than Partial Refund Before, so the full-refund cutoff sits further from the booking than the partial one.

Check the blank-field trap

Leave Full Refund Before (hours) blank and every cancellation is refunded in full, however late. A blank field does not mean "no full refund". If you want a strict policy, fill it in. Check this on every form before you publish.

Worked examples

These are examples only. Your numbers should come from your own costs and how quickly you can re-let a slot.

Example 1: a meeting room

Meeting rooms are often booked at short notice and re-let easily. A short policy can work:

  • Full Refund Before (hours): 24
  • Partial Refund Before (hours): 4
  • Partial Refund Percent: 50

A customer cancelling two days ahead gets everything back. Cancelling 10 hours ahead gets 50%. Cancelling 2 hours ahead gets nothing.

Example 2: a community hall for events

Events take more preparation, and weekend dates are hard to re-sell at short notice. A longer policy fits:

  • Full Refund Before (hours): 168 (seven days)
  • Partial Refund Before (hours): 48
  • Partial Refund Percent: 50

Cancel eight days out, full refund. Cancel four days out, half back. Cancel the day before, nothing.

Example 3: the help centre's own example

The help centre uses 48 hours for the full refund, 24 hours for the partial window and 50 percent. More than 48 hours ahead is a full refund, between 24 and 48 hours is 50%, and under 24 hours is no refund. It is a reasonable starting point if you aren't sure.

Is one partial tier enough?

The form has one full-refund window and one partial-refund window, with one percentage. If you want more steps than that, for example 75% then 25%, the form's fields don't offer it. Pick the single partial percentage that best reflects your costs. If you need to make an exception for a customer, you can enter a specific amount when you cancel (see below).

Setting it up, step by step

  1. Go to Dashboard › Booking Forms and open the form for your room or hall.
  2. Open the Cancellation tab.
  3. Switch Allow cancellations on.
  4. Enter Full Refund Before (hours).
  5. Enter Partial Refund Before (hours), a smaller number than the first.
  6. Enter Partial Refund Percent.
  7. Save.

Then run a test booking. Check that the confirmation screen, the emails and the cancellation flow show the policy you expect. If your policy involves refunds, make sure your payment provider is set up to process them.

If you run several rooms, each form has its own Cancellation tab. A boardroom and a function hall can have different windows.

When you cancel for the customer

The rules above apply to cancellations the customer makes. As an admin you can always manage bookings from the booking detail screen, using your own judgement.

To cancel a booking there:

  1. Open the booking and click Cancel Booking. This works on Confirmed or Pending payment bookings.
  2. If the appointment belongs to a run, choose Just this appointment, This one and the ones after it, or The whole run.
  3. Optionally add a Cancellation reason. It is stored on the booking for your records.
  4. Leave Refund amount override blank to apply the automatic refund from your form's rules, or enter a specific amount.
  5. Click Confirm Cancel.

Cancelling releases the slot, so it is available to book again.

If you use Xero

When a late cancellation falls in the partial window, the refunded part is credited and the rest stays as income. For a $240 booking with a 50% partial refund, the credit note is for $120 and the other $120 stays as income. That retained half is your cancellation fee. The credit note is only ever for the refundable part.

Keeping the legal side sensible

A cancellation policy is a commercial decision, but it also sits inside Australian consumer law. This article is general information, not legal advice. Keep the policy easy to read and make sure customers see it before they pay. For anything about what you are allowed to keep, such as whether a retained amount is reasonable, check the guidance from the ACCC or your state's fair trading body, or ask a lawyer. Be aware that some of the terms you might want, such as "no refunds under any circumstances", may not hold up in every situation.

A practical way to choose your numbers

  • Work out how long it usually takes you to re-let a slot. Your full-refund cutoff should be at least that long.
  • Think about what you spend on preparation, such as set-up, staffing or cleaning. Your partial percentage can reflect it.
  • Keep it to numbers you can say aloud: "free cancellation up to 48 hours, half back up to 24, nothing after that."

Once your policy is saved, make a test booking and cancel it, so you see what your customers will see.

More on this: https://alion.com.au/help/booking-forms/cancellation-rules