Refunds & cancellations

Customers cancel. Sessions get rescheduled. Cards get refunded. Here's how to do all of it cleanly in Kowbi.

When a customer cancels themselves

Customers can cancel via the link in their confirmation email up until your cancellation window. After that, the link tells them to contact you directly.

What happens automatically:

• If they cancel inside the free window → deposit released back to their card (5–10 days)
• If they cancel after the free window → deposit kept; you get an admin notification

You can override this per-booking — see "Manual refund" below.

When you cancel a booking

Admin → Bookings → [booking] → Cancel. Choose:

• Cancel + full refund — refund everything including deposit
• Cancel + partial refund — refund a specified amount
• Cancel + no refund — for late cancellations or no-shows

The customer gets a cancellation email automatically. They can rebook through your normal booking page.

Manual refund (without cancelling)

For damage charges, overtime credits, or just being nice:

Admin → Bookings → [booking] → Refund. Enter the amount. Refunds can be less than or equal to the captured amount — partial refunds are fine.

You can only refund what's been captured. If a booking is still in "authorized" status (pre-session), you don't refund — you release the auth instead. Kowbi handles this automatically when you cancel.

Rescheduling

Admin → Bookings → [booking] → Reschedule. Pick the new time and Kowbi:

• Updates the booking
• Sends the customer a rescheduled-confirmation email
• Re-triggers the 48-hour auth based on the new date
• Updates connected calendars

Available on Pro and Business plans.

No-shows

Admin → Bookings → [booking] → Mark No-Show. The deposit is captured as forfeit. Customer gets a brief notification (configurable).

We recommend a same-day no-show window — if they don't show within the first 30 minutes, mark it. No-show patterns also feed your reactivation campaign (they'll get a "we missed you" email a few days later).

Refund timeline

• Issued instantly in Kowbi and Stripe
• Visible on the customer's bank statement in 5–10 business days (Stripe's clock, not ours)
• You can't take a refund back once issued — double-check the amount before clicking

Common mistakes

• Refunding before capturing — for not-yet-started bookings, cancel instead of refund. Same outcome, cleaner record.
• Forgetting to release a card auth — if you delete a booking without cancelling, Stripe holds the auth for up to 7 days. Always cancel through the UI.