This functionality is available subject to your GuestStay plan.
The online cancellation functionality allows guests to cancel a booking online if they booked directly, regardless of whether they used DBM or any other direct method -OTAs and other IBEs are not supported.
Online cancellations are available to GuestStay and DBM customers.
Activation
To activate or deactivate this feature, follow the steps below:
Within Rezlynx PMS, select Menu.
Select GuestStay, then under Configuration select Functionality.
Scroll down to Configure your GuestStay experience.
Slide the toggle next to cancellations to activate or deactivate as required.
Navigate to Rezlynx PMS, System, Rates, Rate Plans and check each rate plan to ensure that all rate plans are assigned to the correct cancellation policy as this will affect whether some modifications can be made.
🤓Tip: Cancellation policies can be created and managed in the PMS under System, Rates, Cancellation Policies.
Request a Self-service cancellation
A booking can only be cancelled if it meets the following cancellation criteria:
The rate booked has a cancellation policy
The policy allows cancellation at the time the guest is try to cancel
The person, either lead guest or booker, accessing the Guest Portal has a profile attached and an email address
If any of the cancellation criteria are not met, then the cancel button will not show up.
Once guests have accessed the Guest Portal and selected Manage Reservation, if the booking has met the above cancellation criteria then they will have a Cancel option available. Once selected and confirmed, the guest and hotel receive an email confirmation of the cancellation.
Monitor Self-service Cancellations
You are notified about self-service cancellations via:
If the cancellation is successful an email will be sent to the guest and to the property, as seen below:
Guests Self-Service page
You can also navigate to Rezlynx, Guest Journey, Reservations, Guests Self-Service page which shows the status of all bookings that have been requested to be cancelled. In case of any issues, this page shows actions to be taken to complete the cancellation, including where refunds are required which are marked as deposit handling required. To do so, navigate to the reservation and refund the deposit as required. Once completed, the reservation will no longer be marked as Deposit handling required, and will show as Completed.
Notification icon in Rezlynx
Real-time in-tool notification in the top right of Rezlynx indicates cancellations that require action, as shown below:
Troubleshooting
Cancellation button not showing for the booking: A booking can only be cancelled if it meets the following criteria: the rate booked has a cancellation policy, the policy allows cancellation at the time the guest attempts to cancel, and the person accessing the Guest Portal (either the lead guest or booker) has a profile attached with an email address; otherwise, the cancel button will not be displayed.
Why can't OTA bookings cancel online? Each OTA has different policies and cancellations and modifications need to be performed from their portals. However, and in order to make the experience better, we do show a message indicating those guests to go to the place the initially booked. For major OTAs, such as Booking.com and Expedia, we also include a direct link to their websites.
Cannot access Guests Self-service page: This page will not show if the feature has not been activated, or if you do not have user permissions to access this. If you do not have the correct permissions this will need to be updated by an ADMIN user on site, as Guestline cannot alter user permissions.
Cancellation missing from Guest Self-service page: Any cancellations performed as self-service will be removed from the page 30 days after the planned departure date for the specific booking.
Self-cancelled reservations is marked as Deposit handling required: You will see this if the guest has cancelled following the cancellation policies but there's a deposit that needs to be refunded. In order to do so, you need to go to the reservation page and refund. As soon as it is done, the reservation will no longer be marked as Deposit handling required but Completed.