Cancelling a booking

You can cancel a guest's booking yourself, from the Bookings dashboard. Pick a reason, confirm, and Hub takes care of the rest — the guest is notified and their refund is processed automatically. 

A few words you'll see

• Booking ID — the Headout reference for a single booking. You'll find it on the Bookings dashboard.
• Cancellation reason — why the booking is being cancelled. You choose from a fixed list, and it can't be changed afterwards.
• CANCELLING — the status a booking shows while your cancellation is being processed.

Before you start

• You need Manage access to Bookings. If you only have View access, the option won't appear — ask an Admin on your account to change your role.
• Cancelling can't be undone. Once you confirm, the guest is notified and the refund starts.
• Only bookings showing Success or Pending can be cancelled. Anything already cancelled, or already being cancelled, can't be.

Here's a quick walkthrough of how you can do it

Step 1 — Find the booking

Go to Bookings in the left-hand menu. Search by booking ID or guest name, or filter by date and experience to get to the right rows — see Using the bookings dashboard.

Step 2 — Open the cancellation form

• In the Actions column at the end of the row, click Manage.
• Choose Cancel booking.

If Manage is greyed out, that booking can't be cancelled — it's either already cancelled or a cancellation is already running on it.

Step 3 — Choose a reason and confirm

The form shows the booking ID and a warning that the action can't be undone. You'll be asked for:

• Cancellation reason — required. Pick the closest match from the list below.
• Additional notes — optional, but worth filling in. Anything you add here gives our team the context if the guest gets in touch.

Click Confirm cancellation. Use Go back if you want to check something first — nothing is submitted until you confirm.

The reasons, and what each one covers

• Capacity or inventory issue — overbooked, sold out, or double-booked.
• Operational failure — a staff, equipment or system issue on your end.
• Planned closure — known maintenance, renovation, or a private event at the venue.
• Sudden closure — an unexpected issue at the venue, like a power outage or an emergency.
• Major external event — area-wide disruption such as a disaster, strike, curfew or authority-ordered closure.
• Local disruption — weather, or a short-lived issue affecting this activity.
• Other — anything else. Use Additional notes to tell us what happened.

Tip: Pick the reason that describes what actually happened rather than the one that sounds least bad. These reasons feed how we handle the guest and how your account is assessed, and they can't be corrected once submitted.

Step 4 — Cancelling several bookings at once

If a closure or disruption affects a whole day, you don't need to work through the rows one at a time:

• Tick the bookings you want to cancel.
• Click Cancel bookings in the toolbar that appears.
• Choose one reason for the batch and confirm.

Two limits to know. You can cancel up to 500 bookings in one go, and bulk cancellation only works on the bookings selected on the page you're looking at — if you've used Select all bookings across every page, clear that first. Anything in the selection that's already cancelled is skipped rather than blocking the rest.

Step 5 — What happens next

• You'll see a confirmation that the cancellation has been submitted.
• The booking shows CANCELLING while it's processed, then moves to Cancelled. This takes up to 30 minutes, so the dashboard won't update instantly.
• The guest is notified and their refund is processed — you don't need to raise anything for the refund.

The summary cards above the table follow the same 30-minute delay, so don't be alarmed if Bookings cancelled hasn't moved yet.

Frequently asked questions

I can't see the option to cancel at all.
You have View access to Bookings but not Manage access. Ask an Admin on your account to update your role, and the Actions column will appear.

Manage is greyed out on the booking I want.
That booking is already cancelled, or a cancellation you submitted earlier is still processing. Give it up to 30 minutes and check the status again.

Can I undo a cancellation?
No. Once you confirm, the guest is notified and the refund starts. If you cancelled the wrong booking, raise a request straight away and our team will help you sort it out with the guest.

Do I need to raise a ticket for the refund?
No. A cancellation in Hub refunds the guest in full automatically. 

Why is the booking still showing as Success?
Cancellations take up to 30 minutes to appear. The status moves to CANCELLING first, then Cancelled. There's a note on the dashboard saying the same thing.

I picked the wrong reason.
Reasons can't be edited once submitted. Raise a request quoting the Booking ID and tell us what the reason should have been, and we'll correct our records.

Why can't I bulk cancel when I've selected everything?
Bulk cancellation works on the bookings loaded on the current page only. Clear Select all bookings, then tick the rows on the page you're on. Repeat page by page if you need more, up to 500 at a time.

The guest wants a new date or time instead.
Don't cancel — that's a reschedule, and cancelling would refund them in full. See Rescheduling a booking.

The guest never turned up.
Don't cancel it. Report it as a no-show so it's on record — see Reporting a customer no-show.

My venue is closed and every booking is affected.
Cancel the affected bookings in bulk using Planned closure or Sudden closure, then tell us about the closure so we can stop further bookings — see Reporting a venue closure.

Can I stop new bookings at the same time?
Cancelling existing bookings doesn't close the slots. To stop further bookings, close the slots or add a closure yourself — see Managing availability and inventory.