Where you cancel depends on where the booking came from. Direct bookings and bookings from your own website are cancelled in Smoobu. For a booking from a channel, cancelling in Smoobu only clears your Smoobu calendar; the official cancellation happens on the channel itself. Airbnb is the one channel you can also cancel officially from inside Smoobu.
If the guest cancelled on the channel, you're done
When a guest cancels on Booking.com, Airbnb, or another channel, the cancellation syncs into Smoobu automatically within minutes. The booking moves to Cancelled, and the dates open up on your other channels. You don't have to do anything.
Cancel a direct or website booking
- Open Bookings and click View more on the booking's row.
- Click Cancel at the top of the booking's detail page.
- Confirm the cancellation.
The booking moves to Cancelled and keeps all its data for your records. The dates open up again on all connected channels.
Cancel an Airbnb booking
When you cancel an Airbnb booking in Smoobu before the stay has started, Smoobu asks how far the cancellation should go, with two choices:
- Cancel only in Smoobu (confirm with Yes). The booking disappears from your Smoobu calendar, and the dates open on all channels except Airbnb. On Airbnb the booking stays confirmed, and the guest is not notified. Choose this when you want to free the dates in Smoobu without triggering an Airbnb cancellation.
- Cancel on Airbnb. Smoobu requests the official cancellation on Airbnb. The guest is notified, the dates open on all channels including Airbnb, and Airbnb's cancellation penalties can apply, depending on your policy and timing.
If you want the guest's booking actually cancelled, choose Cancel on Airbnb. You can also cancel directly on Airbnb instead; Smoobu then syncs the cancellation in automatically.
Cancel a Booking.com or other channel booking
For every channel other than Airbnb, cancelling in Smoobu only removes the booking from your Smoobu calendar. The channel still has the booking, and the guest still has their confirmation. To fully cancel, cancel the booking on the channel itself; for Booking.com that means in your Booking.com Extranet. Smoobu imports the channel's cancellation automatically, so once it's cancelled there, it's cancelled everywhere.
Mark a Booking.com no-show instead
A guest who never arrived is a no-show, not a cancellation. For Booking.com bookings you can report it without leaving Smoobu:
- Open the booking's detail page.
- Click Report no-show to booking.com (it only appears on Booking.com bookings).
- Confirm.
Smoobu pushes the no-show to Booking.com. Booking.com may then waive its commission on the booking and, depending on your cancellation policy, charge the guest a no-show fee. Other channels have no in-Smoobu no-show action; mark those no-shows in the channel's own system.
Check it worked
The booking's detail page shows the booking as cancelled, and the Cancel button is gone. On the Calendar, the dates are open again (no booking bar), and the Activity feed on your Home page records the cancellation.
Common problems
I can't find a booking I cancelled
Cancelled bookings are hidden from the Bookings list by default. Open Filters, then Status, and enable Cancelled.
Does cancelling refund the guest?
No. Smoobu records the cancellation and opens the dates; the money moves wherever the payment was taken, for example Stripe, PayPal, or the channel. If you already created an invoice for the booking, you can issue a credit note against it. A credit note documents the correction; it does not itself refund any money.
I want the cancelled booking removed from Smoobu completely
Cancelled bookings stay on record. Cancelling is how you void a booking in Smoobu: the entry keeps its place in your booking list with the status Cancelled.
Related articles
Still stuck?
If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:
- Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
- The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
- The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
- The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
- A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
- Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
- Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.
Comments
2 comments
Can a customer cancel their booking or do they need to contact the host to cancel the booking?
Hi Farbo
Thank you for your comment, please note this Resource/Help centre cannot provide 1-to-1 support in the comments section. In the future we recommend you to please open a ticket from your Smoobu session "Help" for quick assistance from the Smoobu team.
Customer can cancel their bookings on the various different platforms. For more information please contact us.
Kind regards
Caitriona from Smoobu
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