Your cancellation policy is two answers in Settings → Renting → Cancellations: how long before pick-up a renter can cancel for free, and how many days' hire is kept after that - or when they do not turn up. Fleetola puts it into one sentence, and that same sentence is what your booking page, the signing page, the renter's portal and the cancellation email show.
Tip: A booking keeps the policy it was signed under. Changing the policy in Settings changes it for bookings signed from then on, never for one already signed. The agreement PDF does not print it; the renter sees it before they sign.
Cancel a booking
- Open the contract and choose Cancel booking from More. It is offered until the car is picked up; a hire already on the road is ended instead.
- The dialog shows what was paid, what the policy keeps and what goes back. You can change the amount kept.
- Card payments are refunded to the card. Money taken another way is paid back by you - tick that you have before it is recorded.
- Confirm. A bond held on a card is released, a charged bond refunded, the car is free again on the calendar and the booking page, reminders stop, and the renter gets the Booking cancelled email saying what was refunded and what was kept.
A cancelled booking cannot be reopened - its money has been settled. Make a new booking instead. The Booking cancelled email has its own Sending / Paused switch in Settings → Messages.
When the renter asks to cancel
A renter can tap Cancel booking in their portal. That sends you a request, not a cancellation: it shows under Needs attention and on the contract, and Review opens the same dialog with the policy's figures. You stay in control of the money.
Awaiting pick-up and no-shows
A day hire with a return date does not start by itself on its pick-up day - a date is not a pick-up. From that day it shows Awaiting pick-up until you answer it: Picked up starts the hire (recording the opening odometer does the same), and No-show keeps the policy's days and refunds the rest. While it waits, its payment is not chased as overdue. Weekly and open-ended hires start on their date as they always have.
Shorter or moved dates
Before pick-up, change a paid booking's dates on the contract like any other edit - the pencil, Amend this contract, has the pick-up date and time as well as the return. Moving the pick-up moves the return with it, so the booking keeps its length. A moved booking keeps what was paid and follows the new dates, if the car is free. A shorter one refunds the difference to the card. Inside the fee window, the days taken off carry a Change fee of the booking's day rate, up to the policy's days in total however many times the dates change - never more than cancelling would keep - and lengthening the booking again gives it back. Where the money changes, the renter signs the update.