Cancel a confirmed reservation when necessary—for example, due to maintenance issues, overbooking, or other unforeseen circumstances.
Both guests and hosts can cancel reservations.
When you cancel a reservation, the dates become available on all booking channels. Any associated automated messages are automatically canceled.
Learn about all available reservation changes and updates you can make.
Limitations
- To sync a cancellation between Guesty and the booking channel, the listing must have a “Connected” status in the booking channel’s integration page in Guesty.
- For disconnected listings, cancel the reservation in both Guesty and the booking channel separately. For Airbnb disconnected listings, follow the specific steps below.
- You can't delete reservations, and canceled reservations can't be restored or edited. If needed, create the reservation again manually.
Understand Guesty's auto-decline feature
Use Guesty's auto-decline feature to protect your response rate, which helps maintain your host status (for example, Airbnb’s Superhost or Vrbo’s Premium Host).
Request to Book reservations receive a "Reserved" status and must be approved or declined within the following timeframe:
- Users who have a limited sync connection type: Under “quote and hold”, you have 24 hours to accept or decline a reservation. After 24 hours, the reservation is canceled automatically. Set your booking policy directly in Vrbo.
- Users who have a full sync connection type: Under “quote and hold”, you have 42 hours to accept or decline a reservation. After 42 hours, the reservation is canceled automatically. Follow the instructions below.
If no action is taken, Guesty automatically declines the reservation, changes its status to "Expired," and the guest gets notified.
Learn more about reservation statuses.
Note:
Guesty is currently rolling out the capability to customize the time frame for Quote and Hold/Request to Book reservations. Contact us to test this feature.
Guest-initiated cancellations
Guests can cancel their reservation at any time—even after check-in, as long as the check-out date is in the future. When a guest cancels, here’s what happens:
- Automatic sync: The cancellation syncs to Guesty, usually within one to 24 hours.
- Notification sent: You receive a cancellation notification in your Guesty Inbox.
- Reservation status change: The reservation status in Guesty changes from "Reserved" to "Closed."
- Refund processing: Process any refunds according to your cancellation policy.
- Ranking metrics: Guest-initiated cancellations don't impact your search ranking on the booking channel.
Host-initiated cancellations
When you, as the host, cancel a reservation, expect the following:
- Recorded in channel: A manual cancellation in Guesty is recorded as "canceled by host" in the booking channel. For Booking.com, see more below.
- Affect on host status: A host-initiated cancellation may negatively impact your status on the booking channel.
- Cancellation rate: This cancellation will affect your cancellation rate.
- Listing suspension: Some booking channels suspend listings with high cancellation rates.
Refunds and charges
Fees manually added to a reservation remain as non-canceled invoice items if the reservation is canceled. You can add a guest’s cancellation fee to the invoice according to your cancellation policy. You must manually issue refunds—they aren't processed automatically.
If a Request to Book or inquiry isn't approved, neither you nor the guest is charged. However, you may be charged a cancellation fee by the channel and/or by Guesty.
If the listing has a cancellation policy and you mark a reservation as canceled by the guest, Guesty automatically calculates and shows the cancellation fee in the invoice. View it in the "Guest invoice" section of the "Balance due / Payout" page.
Which reservations can I cancel?
You can only cancel confirmed reservations. If a guest uses an invalid payment method, the reservation is not canceled automatically. Set a notification for failed payments, then charge the guest again, collect a new payment method, or manually cancel the reservation.
Where should I cancel a reservation?
Check the reservation's source and take action based on the channel. When you cancel via the channel, Guesty usually syncs the status update unless otherwise specified. Follow the instructions below to cancel the reservation in Guesty.
Reservations with check-ins in the next 24 hours
Contact Airbnb to cancel the reservation. Learn more about Airbnb’s cancellation penalties in the Airbnb Host Cancellation Policy.
Reservations with check-ins in more than 24 hours
When you cancel an Airbnb reservation via Guesty, Airbnb must approve the request. This may take a few days. To remove a block from your calendar sooner, contact us, but note this can lead to discrepancies between Guesty and Airbnb.
Ask the guest to cancel the reservation using their confirmation email link or in their Booking.com account when possible.
For host-initiated cancellations:
- Cancel via Guesty: If Guesty is the listing's connectivity provider, and the guest is a no-show or has used an invalid credit card.
- Cancel via Booking.com: For all other cancellations, initiate a cancellation request in Booking.com’s Extranet. Submit cancellation requests up to 48 hours before check-in through the Extranet or Pulse app. If cancellation is needed less than 48 hours before check-in, ask the guest to contact Booking.com customer service. The reservation is canceled once the guest accepts the cancellation request.
- If Guesty isn't the listing’s connectivity provider, cancel the reservation in Guesty, as canceling the reservation via Booking.com won’t sync to Guesty.
Report fraudulent bookings directly to Booking.com.
Important:
This information is relevant only for the Vrbo full sync connection type. If you have a limited sync connection type, cancel reservations in Vrbo.
Guest-initiated cancellations
Guests can cancel a reservation in Vrbo, which syncs to Guesty. If a guest cancellation on Vrbo doesn't sync to Guesty, verify that you imported the reservation correctly. If the sync didn't occur due to an import issue, cancel it in Guesty manually.
Host-initiated cancellations
If you need to manually cancel a reservation, such as an owner/host reservation, due to payment-related issues or unexpected circumstances, follow the steps below to cancel in Guesty.
When you cancel a pre-existing reservation, Guesty records it as "canceled by host." This could impact your Premier Host status on Vrbo and may result in listing suspension. To avoid this, ask the guest to cancel the reservation themselves on Vrbo or contact Vrbo directly to handle the cancellation.
To maintain good standing with Vrbo and avoid penalties, submit a waiver request to Vrbo. For details, see the Vrbo Partner Cancellation Fee Policy.
For all channels not listed above, cancel the reservation in the relevant channel. The cancellation then syncs to Guesty.
Cancel in Guesty.
Cancel a reservation in Guesty
You can cancel a reservation in Guesty from three places:
- The reservation page
- The Multi-Calendar
- The Inbox widget
Follow the instructions below to cancel a reservation via the reservation page.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click More, then select Reservations.
- Click the relevant reservation.
- Next to "Summary", click
.
Airbnb: Clickand select Edit in Guesty. - Under "Status," change the menu selection to Canceled.
Airbnb: Clickand select Request cancellation. - Enter the cancellation details in the pop-up.
- For manual reservations, select who canceled the reservation, the cancellation reason, and any relevant notes. Once selected, the cancellation reason can't be changed. In the pop-up, click Cancel reservation. Next to "Summary", click Change to update the reservation.
- Airbnb: Select the cancellation reason, then click Confirm to send a cancellation request to Airbnb.
- Vrbo: Select who canceled the reservation, then click Yes, cancel it.
The reservation status will change to "Canceled".
Follow the instructions below to cancel a reservation via the Multi-calendar.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Calendar.
- Select the relevant reservation.
- On the right-side panel, click .
- Click Status & channel
- Under "Status", click the current reservation status and select Cancelled.
- In the pop-up, fill in the relevant information:
- Person cancelling (required): To ensure accurate reports and statements that are calculated based on your cancellation policies and rate plans.
- Cancellation reason (required)
- Notes (optional)
- In the pop-up, click Cancel reservation.
- In the bottom-right corner, click Save.
The reservation status will change to "Canceled".
Follow the instructions below to cancel a reservation via the Inbox.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Inbox.
- Click the relevant message thread.
- On the right-side panel, click .
- Click Status & channel
- Under "Status", click the current reservation status and select Cancelled.
- In the pop-up, fill in the relevant information:
- Person cancelling (required): To ensure accurate reports and statements that are calculated based on your cancellation policies and rate plans.
- Cancellation reason (required)
- Notes (optional)
- In the pop-up, click Cancel reservation.
- In the bottom-right corner, click Save.
The reservation status will change to "Canceled".
Airbnb: Cancel a disconnected listing's reservation
If a Guesty listing isn't connected to Airbnb, you can cancel related reservations directly in Guesty from the Multi-calendar and the reservation page.
Note:
This cancellation doesn't sync to Airbnb.
For disconnected listings, you can cancel. You'll see a banner on the reservation page and widget:
You can cancel a reservation in Guesty from two places:
- The reservation page
- The Multi-Calendar
Follow the instructions below to cancel a reservation via the reservation page.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click More, then select Reservations.
- Click the relevant reservation.
- In the banner under "Summary", click Cancel reservation.
- In the pop-up, click Cancel reservation.
Follow the instructions below to cancel a reservation via the Multi-calendar.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Calendar.
- Select the relevant reservation.
- In the banner, click Cancel reservation.
- In the pop-up, click Cancel reservation.
