Canceling a Booking in Hostelworld
All customers can cancel their bookings up to the date of arrival through their MyWorld account. If a customer cancels late, the system will notify them that a charge might occur. To see how customers can cancel their bookings via their Hostelworld account, please watch this short video:
In the case of a customer canceling a Non-refundable rate, the property is still entitled to charge the remaining balance as per the rate conditions.
If a customer contacts you directly to cancel a booking, we strongly advise that all cancellation requests are done via email. If a customer contacts you via phone asking for a cancellation, please request the cancellation via email or redirect them to this form.
Once you receive a cancellation email, please ensure that the email is from a registered email address (the same one used to make the booking). You can forward the request to our support email, and we will proceed with the cancellation.
Cancellation of Bookings via Hostelworld Inbox (property side):
Properties can cancel bookings under certain circumstances. Hostelworld provides options for cancellation based on specific scenarios.
Important - If you need to cancel a booking due to Payment Issues, the first step is to "Report Credit Card Issue" to the customer. This email will give them 24 hours to contact you to sort any outstanding payment, always following the conditions the customer agreed on while booking.
To cancel a booking on Hostelworld, follow these steps:
c. Select the appropriate cancellation reason from the drop-down menu, such as "Payment Issue", "The guest is requesting a cancellation," or "Issues during the stay."
d. Click on "Yes, cancel booking" to finalize the cancellation.
e. This is the email sent to the customer if the reason for cancellation selected is due to a "Payment Issue":
f. This is the email sent to the customer when the reason for cancellation is one of the following, "The guest is requesting a cancellation," or "Issues during the stay."
For Free Cancellation bookings, customers should cancel via their Hostelworld Account to avail of their deposit. Properties don't have the option to cancel Free Cancellation bookings while the Free Cancellation period is still in place. However, if a request has been sent to you via email, you can forward their request to us, and we will cancel from our side. Once the booking enters a late cancellation stage, you can cancel it in your inbox and charge the late cancellation fee as usual.
If a customer is a no-show, and you wish to resell their beds, you can find the booking on your Hostelworld Inbox and click on Resell Beds. This will cancel the booking and reopen your beds for sale.
Channel Manager :
When your Hostelworld Inbox is connected to a channel manager via API, it is no longer possible to cancel the booking in your Inbox. You must do this in your channel manager or property management system, which will either cancel the booking in your Inbox or just update your records in the property management system, leaving the booking as it is in your Inbox (depending on your channel manager, PMS, and the combination of the two).
For example, Myallocator channel manager is able to send cancellations to your Hostelworld Inbox via their system. This is done using a 'setcancellation' call.
The Hostelworld API can receive cancellations from your channel manager/property management system. Hostelworld provides this function to all channel managers, so please contact your channel manager to get this activated for you.
If your channel manager does not support Hostelworld cancellations, please inquire if this can be developed by them.
What about the Deposit customers paid?
If a customer cancels on time, we will treat the deposit according to the rate the customer booked.
For Standard Flexible Bookings, the deposit will be added as a voucher back to your Hostelworld account, which the customer can use towards a new booking deposit.
For Standard Non-Flexible Bookings, the deposit is non-refundable.
For Free Cancellation Bookings, Hostelworld will refund the deposit.
For Non-Refundable Bookings, there is no refund of the deposit, and you are entitled to charge the full amount of the booking.