Introduction
A cancellation fee band says how much a customer pays when they call a booking off, based on how close to pickup they cancel. Each band covers a range of hours before the pickup time and carries a percentage: cancel between 25 and 72 hours before pickup, pay 50% of the booking. You set the bands once per price list, and the app picks the right one by itself every time someone cancels.
You set them up on the screen headed Cancellation rules, which you reach from a price list's Cancellation fees tile. The screen is one table with a New Cancellation rule button above it and a Back link at the top. Its columns are Hours from, Hours to and Cancellation fee percentage, and the last column holds a pencil and a bin icon on every row.
You come here when:
- your company introduces cancellation fees for the first time
- the terms and conditions change, say from "free until 48 hours" to "free until 72 hours"
- a customer who cancelled late was charged nothing, and you want to see why
- a corporate customer has their own price list and their own cancellation terms
- you just want to check what the current bands are before quoting them to a customer
Terms used on this screen
| The screen says | It means |
|---|---|
| Cancellation rule | One fee band: a range of hours and a percentage |
| Hours from / Hours to | The start and end of the band, in hours before the pickup time on the contract |
| Cancellation fee percentage | The share of the booking total the customer pays |
| Pricelist | Price list — the app writes it as one word |
This page covers setting the bands up. What happens at the desk when a booking is cancelled — the buttons, the email, the invoice summary, and how the hours are counted — is on Cancel a booking.
How to use
Configuration
Bands only charge a booking that carries the extra set up as the cancellation fee. That extra is an ordinary extra whose Option special box is set to Cancellation, linked to the vehicle classes it applies to and priced in the price list's Option pricing tile. Without it on the booking, the bands are never looked at. Setting that extra up is described in Special add-on types and The three kinds of add-on.
Before you start: the Cancellation fees tile and the screens behind it need the Company admin role. Other staff accounts cannot open them. The bands belong to one price list; a second price list, such as one you made for a corporate customer, has its own bands and starts with none — creating a price list does not copy them across.
Using the Cancellation rules screen
From the main menu open Admin, then Pricing. On the Pricelist overview, open the price list — double-click its row or click the eye icon at the end of the row. On the price list's screen of tiles, click Cancellation fees.
1. Add a band. Click New Cancellation rule above the table. A small window headed Edit Cancellation Rule opens:
| Field | Starts as | What it does | What it accepts |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours from | 1 | The fewest hours before pickup this band covers | Whole numbers only |
| Hours to | 2 | The most hours before pickup this band covers | Whole numbers only |
| Cancellation fee percentage | 100 | The share of the booking total charged | 0 to 100; decimals such as 12.5 are fine |
Hours from and Hours to sit side by side at the top, the percentage below them. Change all three — the starting values make a one-hour band that is almost never what you want — and click Save. Cancel closes the window and nothing is added.
2. Repeat for every band until the whole period you charge for is covered, from 0 hours up to the point after which cancelling is free.
3. Change a band. Click the pencil icon on its row. The same window opens; change the numbers and click Save.
4. Delete a band. Click the bin icon on its row. The band is gone; to get it back, add it again with New Cancellation rule.
5. Find a band in a long table. Each column heading has a number box under it. Type a number to show only the rows with exactly that value, and click a heading to sort by it.
When it worked, the new band is a row in the table. It applies to every cancellation made from then on, on any booking priced from this price list.
Key details
How the bands are read. When a booking is cancelled, the app counts the hours from that moment to the contract pickup time, including part hours, and charges the band where that count is at least Hours from and at most Hours to. Once pickup time has passed, the count is 0. The percentage is taken of the booking total before VAT (value-added tax); VAT is then added at the cancellation extra's rate. Everything else on the booking — the rental, insurance, other extras — drops off. The full rules, with a worked table, are under How the hours are counted on Cancel a booking.
Build the bands so they meet. The app does not check your bands against each other, so it is up to you to leave no gaps and no overlaps:
| Your bands | What goes wrong |
|---|---|
| 0–24 and 25–72 | Cancelling 24 and a half hours before pickup matches neither band, so nothing is charged |
| 0–48 and 24–72 | Cancelling 30 hours before pickup matches both, so the fee is charged twice |
| 0–24 and 24–72 | Correct. Only a cancellation at exactly 24 hours to the minute and second matches both |
Because the count includes part hours, let each band start on the same number the band below it ends on.
Start the lowest band at 0. A band from 0 covers cancellations made after the pickup time has already passed. Without it, a customer who cancels at 10:15 for a 10:00 pickup pays nothing.
Leave out the free period. You do not need a 0% band for "more than 72 hours before pickup". A cancellation that matches no band pays nothing anyway.
Which bands a booking uses. The bands of the booking's own price list — the customer's price list if they have one on their record, otherwise the default. If that list has no bands at all, the customer is charged the cancellation extra's own price instead, as set under Option pricing. A booking with cancellation cover on it is not charged by the bands at all: it pays only the price of that cover — see Cancel a booking.
What a change does to bookings already cancelled. Nothing. They keep the fee they were charged. New or changed bands only count for cancellations made after you save.
A worked example. Van den Berg Verhuur charges nothing up to 3 days before pickup, half between 1 and 3 days, and the full amount in the last day. On the default price list they add two bands:
| Hours from | Hours to | Cancellation fee percentage |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | 24 | 100 |
| 24 | 72 | 50 |
A customer books a van for a week, €450 before VAT, pickup Friday 09:00, with the cancellation extra on the booking. They cancel on Wednesday at 15:00: that is 42 hours before pickup, so the 24–72 band matches, and they are charged 50% of €450 = €225, plus 21% VAT = €272.25. Had they cancelled on Monday at 09:00, 96 hours before pickup, no band matches and they pay nothing.
What to do next. Check that the cancellation extra is linked to your vehicle classes and priced — see Special add-on types. Then cancel a test booking as described in Cancel a booking and check the fee on its Invoice summary.
Q&A
A customer cancelled the day before pickup and was charged nothing. Why? One of three things. The booking does not carry the cancellation extra; the hours fell in a gap between two bands, such as 24.5 hours with bands of 0–24 and 25–72; or the booking is priced from a customer's own price list, which has its own bands. Open the booking's price list and check its Cancellation fees tile, and see Special add-on types for the extra.
Why was the cancellation fee charged twice? Two bands matched the same number of hours, because they overlap. Open Cancellation fees and change one band's Hours from or Hours to so they only share their end number.
Why was a customer charged a fixed amount instead of a percentage? The booking's price list has no bands, so the app charged the cancellation extra's own price. Add bands to that price list, or check you are looking at the right list — customers with their own price list use that list's bands.
Why does saving show "Should be between 0 and 100"? Cancellation fee percentage is more than 100 or less than 0. Enter a percentage, such as 50 for half, not an amount in euros.
I typed 1.5 in Hours to and it will not save. Why? Hours are whole numbers only. Round to the nearest hour — with part hours counted, a band of 0–2 covers everything up to two hours before pickup.
I cannot see the Cancellation fees tile, or it does nothing. Why? Your account does not have the Company admin role. Ask a colleague who has it, or your administrator.
Can I set a fixed fee, such as €50, rather than a percentage? Not with bands; they only take a percentage. For a fixed fee, leave the price list without bands and give the cancellation extra a fixed price under Option pricing.
Related pages:
- Cancel a booking — cancelling at the desk and how the fee shows up
- Set up a price list — where the Cancellation fees tile lives
- Special add-on types — the cancellation extra, and cancellation cover