This is our posted policy:
Cancellations
Our policy is intended to be fair to our guests, yet prevent the loss of income to our business. Due to our small size, cancellations do affect us significantly. Once we reserve a guest cottage for you, we remove it from the market, refusing all other requests. Below, we have listed our cancellation refund/fee schedule.
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14-Days or more of the scheduled arrival[/td]
Full refund of deposit.[/td]
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7-14 Days of the scheduled arrival[/td]
$35 Cancellation Fee.[/td]
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Less than 7 Days of the scheduled arrival[/td]
Forfeit full deposit.[/td]
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Less than 24 hrs notice or No Show[/td]
Forfeit full reservation charge.[/td]
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In the case of a cancellation given less than 24 hours of the scheduled check-in or a "no-show", the customer's credit card will be charged the full amount due for all nights booked and any pre-ordered special packages. Special Packages must be paid in advance and are non-refundable.
Changing Your Reservation
Changes to a reservation 14 days or more from the scheduled date may be made without additional charge with full transfer of deposit. Changes made less than 14 days before the scheduled date are subject to the above-listed rules of cancellation. Cancellation of the revised reservation at anytime will result in the forfeiture of your full deposit. .
Interesting policy. I like the part about canceling the revised date. Problem I see with that is if they still go ahead and 'revise' then you have very unhappy guests who have now paid an extra night.
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The problem we've had is people cancelling...then rebooking. So we've ended up paying cc fees for the original deposit (which we charge at booking), the refund, and the new charge. Which stinks. At first I figured, eh, cost of doing business. But it's happened more times that I'm willing to "eat."
I have tried, when someone would call to cancel, to covinvce them if there was any way to wait until just before the 14 day window. That has not been successful.
We are considering, though, changing our refund policy to a choice: guests calling to cancel can receive their refund by check via the postal service, OR they can have their refund credited back to their card less a fee (that will cover all the cc charges).
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