The last-minute cancellation in a West Wales holiday let

A couple from the Midlands booked a week in a cottage above New Quay in February. Ten days before they were due, one of them breaks a leg. The cancellation arrives on a Tuesday morning and the week that was full is suddenly empty.

The owner now has a refund question to settle. The terms say one thing, the guest asks for another, and a deposit sits in the middle of it. The week also needs to go back out, which means a re-letting message that does not sound desperate. And the people who were expecting a changeover need telling, including the cleaner and whoever holds the key safe code.

The same scene plays out in Aberaeron, in Tenby, in Saundersfoot and in Newport. The dates are in the calendar and the refund terms are written down somewhere. The re-letting message gets composed from scratch each time, usually late at night. That is the loop: the late cancellation and the empty week.

The maths (a sketch, not a client figure)

The refund you agree and the week you lose are separate numbers. This sketch counts only the admin around them, because that is the part a system can take off your desk. Every figure below is an assumption.

• × 3 hours per cancellation on the refund reply, the re-letting note and the calls = the time cost
• × £30 an hour, assumed = £90 per cancellation
• × 12 late cancellations a year, assumed = £1,080 a year

With a draft step, the dates and the wording are prepared for you. A person reads and approves in minutes rather than writing from a blank page.

Score it: the three checks

• Hours. A late cancellation costs an evening: reading the terms, drafting the reply, rewriting the listing message, ringing the cleaner. Two to three hours is normal, and it lands on top of the week you already had.
• Repeat. The order is the same every time. Check the terms, settle the refund, write the re-letting note, tell the people affected. If that order fits on one page, it can be prepared for you.
• Risk-if-wrong. A re-letting message with the wrong dates or an old price is a real problem. So is a reply that promises a refund you have not agreed. That is why the drafts wait for a person, and why the refund amount is never invented.

Try one thing this week (free)

Write your cancellation page. One sheet holding what your terms say, the refund options you would accept, the exact wording you would send to re-offer the week, and the list of people to tell. Judge it on Friday by whether you could hand it to someone else and they could run a cancellation without ringing you.

Where a person stays

Software can watch the dates and hold your wording. It can spot that a booking has been cancelled, pull the terms you already wrote, and prepare a refund reply and a re-letting message for you. It can prepare the notes to the cleaner and the key holder at the same time. What it must not do is decide the refund. That decision stays with a named person, because it carries your judgement and your relationship with the guest. Nothing invents a policy that does not exist or promises money you have not agreed, and nothing sends until a person approves it. Financial and legal matters stay approval-only, always.

FAQ