Choosing a cancellation policy

A cancellation policy is not about punishing anyone. It decides, in advance, who carries the cost of an empty slot nobody can refill. Choose it once, per studio, and it applies to every booking made afterwards.

The three policies, exactly

Flexible. Full refund if the guest cancels at least 24 hours before the start. Inside 24 hours, no refund.

Moderate. Full refund if the guest cancels at least 5 days before the start. Inside 5 days, half the total is refunded.

Strict. Half the total is refunded if the guest cancels at least 7 days before the start. Inside 7 days, no refund.

The boundaries are inclusive: cancelling exactly 24 hours out on Flexible is a full refund, not a near miss.

What happens when you cancel

All of the above describes a guest cancelling. If you cancel a confirmed session, the guest is refunded in full, whatever your policy says. Same if support cancels on your behalf.

This is the part that surprises people, so it is worth being blunt: the policy protects you from a guest changing their mind. It never protects you from yourself. A studio that double-books and cancels carries the whole cost, every time.

The policy is locked in at booking

The policy attached to a session is the one that was live when the booking was made. Changing your studio's policy today does not reach back and change the terms of a session somebody booked last week.

That works in both directions. You cannot tighten your way out of an existing booking, and a guest who booked under your old, looser policy keeps it. If you are moving from Flexible to Strict, the change applies to new bookings only, and the transition takes as long as your current bookings take to run out.

Which one to pick

Start by asking how realistically you can refill a cancelled slot at short notice.

If you are in a dense market with steady demand and a calendar that fills itself, Flexible costs you very little and it visibly lowers the barrier for a first-time guest who is not sure yet. It is the friendliest thing on your listing.

If your bookings tend to be planned weeks out and a gap stays a gap, Moderate is the honest middle. Five days is enough warning to actually do something about it.

Strict earns its keep when a session costs you something to prepare: an engineer booked, gear hired in, a day you turned other work down for. Be aware that it reads as unfriendly to a first-time booker, and it will cost you some bookings you never hear about.

Most rooms should start Moderate and only move if the cancellations tell them to.

Say it in your listing too

The policy is shown to guests before they book, but a line in your own words about why you chose it defuses most of the arguments before they start. "I hire in a second engineer for tracking days, so I need a week" lands very differently to a policy label on its own.

The full terms are in the Terms of Service.