Cancellations and refunds

Cancel bookings, process refunds, and manage store credit for your customers.

When a customer needs to cancel a booking, Sailia gives you flexible options for handling the cancellation and issuing refunds. You can refund to the original payment method, issue store credit as a gift card, or record a cash refund.

Cancel a booking

To cancel a booking:

1. Open the booking

   Find the booking in your bookings dashboard using the search or date filters.

2. Select cancel

   Click Cancel on the booking details page.

3. Choose a refund option

   Decide whether to issue a full refund, partial refund, or no refund. See refund methods below.

4. Confirm the cancellation

   Confirm the cancellation. The booking status changes to cancelled and the session capacity is freed up immediately.

Cancelled bookings free up capacity instantly. If a waitlist exists for the session, the next customer is notified automatically.

Refund methods

When processing a refund, choose from three methods:

Method	How it works	Best for
Original payment method	Refunds the amount to the customer’s card via Stripe. Takes 5-10 business days to appear on the customer’s statement.	Standard cancellations where the customer wants their money back
Store credit	Creates a gift card for the refund amount and emails the code to the customer. Available immediately for future purchases.	Retaining revenue while giving the customer flexibility to rebook
Cash	Records the refund against the active till shift on the selected POS terminal.	Orders originally paid with cash at the point of sale

Issue a refund as store credit

To issue store credit instead of a card refund:

1. Open the booking and select Refund.
2. Enable the Issue as credit option.
3. Confirm the refund amount.
4. Sailia automatically creates a gift card for that amount and sends the code to the customer’s email.

The customer can redeem this credit on any future purchase — including activity bookings, shop products, and memberships.

Store credit is a good option when customers want to reschedule rather than cancel outright. They receive instant credit without waiting for a bank refund.

Partial refunds

You do not have to refund the full booking amount. When processing a refund:

• Select specific items or attendees to refund
• Enter a custom refund amount for partial refunds
• The remaining balance stays on the original booking

Partial refunds are useful when:

• One participant in a group booking cancels but others attend
• A customer downgrades to fewer sessions
• You want to apply a cancellation fee

Cancellation and waitlists

When you cancel a booking for a session that has a waitlist:

1. The cancelled spots are added back to the session’s available capacity.
2. Sailia automatically notifies the next customer on the waitlist via email.
3. The waitlisted customer receives a booking link with a deadline to claim the spot.
4. If they do not book in time, the spot is offered to the next person on the list.

Refunding shop products

When you refund a shop product that has stock tracking enabled, the refunded quantity is automatically restored to inventory. The stock movement is recorded with a “Returned” note linked to the original order, so you can trace it in your stock history.

You do not need to manually adjust stock after a refund. Sailia handles the inventory update automatically.

Cancelling instalment bookings

For bookings paid through an instalment plan, the refund wizard shows an extra option for each item that belongs to an active plan: Terminate instalment plan for this item.

When you enable this option and confirm the refund:

• The refund is processed for the amount you entered.
• The associated instalment plan is terminated and any outstanding future instalments are cancelled.
• The customer receives an automated email letting them know the plan has been cancelled.

If you process a refund without enabling Terminate instalment plan for this item, the instalment plan continues and remaining scheduled payments are still collected. You can still stop the plan afterwards from the financial dashboard.

Terminating an instalment plan is permanent. Once the plan is terminated, the remaining scheduled payments are stopped and cannot be restarted — the customer would need to be rebooked to resume collection.

If a customer stops paying and all retry attempts fail, Sailia terminates the plan automatically and marks it as abandoned. See Payment collection for details.

Customer-initiated cancellations

Customers cannot cancel bookings directly through the booking page. All cancellations must be processed by your team through the bookings dashboard or point of sale. This ensures you have control over refund amounts and methods.

Use automated workflows to set up a cancellation confirmation email that includes your cancellation policy and any next steps.

Tracking refunds

All refunds appear in your financial dashboard:

• Card refunds are deducted from your next Stripe payout
• Cash refunds appear in your till shift records
• Store credit (gift card) refunds are tracked under gift card balances

If you use Xero accounting sync, refunds are included in the payout invoice sent to Xero with the correct categorization.

Related guides

Cancellation policies

Set up and communicate your cancellation terms.

Managing bookings

Find and manage bookings across all channels.

Payments and Stripe

How Stripe handles refunds and payouts.