Cancel and refund on your terms

Why cancelling and refunding are separate steps

A cancellation policy usually depends on timing. Cancel 60 days out and you may refund everything except the deposit; cancel a week out and you may refund nothing. If cancelling a booking refunded it automatically, you would be refunding the wrong amount most of the time.

So Tourtify treats them as two decisions. Cancelling frees the seats straight away and sends the Booking cancelled email. Refunding moves money, in an amount you choose, up to what was paid. Tourtify does not enforce a policy for you; it gives you a suggested amount and the tools to apply your own rules.

Worked example: applying a tiered policy

Your Good to know section says: the 20% deposit is non-refundable; cancel more than 30 days before departure and the balance is refunded in full; cancel within 30 days and nothing is refunded.

Two travellers book a 1,450 trek, a total of 2,900. They pay a 580 deposit at checkout and the 2,320 balance later. They cancel 45 days before departure. You open the booking, choose More actions › Cancel booking…, and the two seats go back on sale. Then you choose Refund…. Because your deposits are set as non-refundable, the suggested amount keeps the 580 deposit. You check it against your policy, enter the reason Cancelled 45 days before departure, and choose Send refund for 2,320.

Had they cancelled 20 days out, you would cancel and not refund at all. The decision stays with you, and the reason you enter is kept in the booking's history.

How a refund is split across payments

A booking often has more than one payment: a deposit at checkout and a balance later, sometimes through different providers. A refund is spread over the booking's payments newest first, and never takes more from a payment than that payment can give back. Each part goes back to the method it was paid with, through that provider.

For most providers, including Stripe and PayPal, Tourtify sends the refund for you. For Khalti, eSewa and Fonepay, you make the refund in the provider's portal and record it in Tourtify, so your records match.

Following a refund to the end

The booking's activity shows Refund sent to the payment provider while the provider confirms, then Refund completed, when the traveller receives the Refund sent email. If the provider refuses, the entry reads Refund failed and the dashboard shows refund failed: finish it.

If you refunded the traveller directly in your provider's dashboard, use I refunded it in the provider's dashboard: record it on the refund request. Without that, Tourtify still thinks the money is with you, and your reports will not match your bank.

Keeping your figures in step

Refunds flow through to the rest of the console. Money collected in Reports is shown net of refunds, every refund appears in the booking's Payments section with its method and provider, and the dashboard flags any refund that failed and still needs finishing.

That is why it matters to record refunds you make outside Tourtify. A refund made only in the provider's dashboard leaves the booking showing money you no longer hold, and the difference turns up later as a puzzle in your accounts.

Common mistakes to avoid

Cancelling when the traveller only wants a different date: a cancelled booking cannot be reopened, so you would have to create a new booking. Where your process allows it, change the booking's date or travellers instead, which sends the Booking changed email with the new details and any balance or credit.

Refunding without cancelling, which returns the money but leaves the seats sold. And keeping your policy only in your head: write it in each tour's Good to know section and on a policies page so travellers have read it before they book.