Cancellation and refunds, read from abroad

A traveller who books weeks ahead is right to want the cancellation rule clear before paying anything. It is a scale with three steps, set by the notice you give, and it never reaches beyond the deposit. Cancelling never makes a guest liable for damages.

The three steps

• Cancelled more than twenty-four hours before the booked time: nothing has been earned, and the whole deposit is returned.
• Cancelled inside the final twenty-four hours, while she has not yet set out: half the deposit is kept as fee already earned, and the other half is returned.
• Cancelled once she is on her way: the whole deposit is kept as fee already earned.

The twenty-four hours are counted back from the booked hour in Amsterdam time, which is worth working out on the actual date when you are in another time zone.

Two ways the kept share shrinks

If the hour you released is taken by another guest, the deposit is returned in full, because the evening was not lost after all. And if you can show that the loss to the house was smaller than the part it kept, only that smaller amount is kept.

A booking with no deposit behind it

A returning guest's same-day hour or two at a city address carries no deposit. Called off before she has set out, it costs nothing. Called off after she has set out, it costs the share of the fee her journey represents, and nothing beyond that.

What is not a refund

A session ended early by the guest, or ended by her because a limit she named was pressed on, stays payable for the time reserved, and nothing beyond that is asked. A delayed flight is a cancellation or a move on the guest's side, read on the scale. Events outside both sides' control turn the deposit into credit; if the house cannot perform the booking, the guest chooses between the deposit back in full and credit. The booking terms page sets out each case with worked figures.