What are booking policies?
Booking policies are the policies that apply to reservation cancellations for reservations booked on your different platforms.
Booking policies control the cancellation policies on your booking platforms.
Booking policies can, therefore, also be understood as "cancellation policies".
These policies are broken down by platforms, giving you the ability to set different policies for different platforms.
Note: Hospitable does not have the ability to set a booking policy for Vrbo!
How booking policies are pulled in from platforms and managed on Hospitable
When you connect a new listing to Hospitable, we pull in the booking policy set on that listing's booking platform and set that as the booking policy on Hospitable.
For example: If you connect a new Airbnb listing to Hospitable, we pull in the booking policy from Airbnb. You will then be able to see that booking policy on the property's Booking Policy page on Hospitable.
What happens if I edit the booking policy on the booking platform?
If you make changes to the booking policy on Airbnb (for example), without having made changes to it on Hospitable, then we will pull in the updated policy from Airbnb and display it on Hospitable.
Until you make a manual edit to the booking policy on Hospitable, Hospitable will keep pulling in updates made to the booking policy on the booking platform.
What happens if I edit the booking policy on Hospitable?
If you edit the booking policy on Hospitable for a particular booking platform, then Hospitable will become the source of truth for that listing. Updates made directly on the booking platform, after making an edit on Hospitable, will be overwritten by Hospitable on the next sync with that listing.
For example: You connect a Booking.com listing to Hospitable. We pull in the booking policy from Booking.com. You can continue to edit the booking policy in Booking.com, and Hospitable will continue to pull in those updates from Booking.com and display them on Hospitable.
If you then go to the Booking Policies page on your property on Hospitable and make an edit to the Booking.com booking policy, we will become the source of truth for the booking policy for Booking.com on that property. We will then override the policy you have set on Booking.com.
If you later make an edit on Booking.com, we will override that edit on our next sync with your Booking.com listing.
How to set a booking policy on Hospitable
To add or edit a booking policy for a listing:
Go to Properties in Hospitable.
Select the property you want to edit.
Click Booking Policies in the left-hand menu.
Find the cancellation policy for the listing you want to edit and click Configure.
In Select cancellation policy, choose one of the recommended preset policies or select Custom policy to configure your own cancellation rules.
If you choose Custom policy, follow the Configure a custom cancellation policy section below, then continue to the review step.
(Optional) Under Non-refundable option, enable the toggle to let guests choose between your standard policy or a non-refundable rate at a discount, and enter a Discount percentage.
Click Continue through any remaining steps until you reach the review screen.
On Review your policy, check your selections and click Apply Policy.
About the No‑show fee step
Hospitable only asks about no‑show fees when the choice affects what the guest pays. See No‑show fee below for when the step appears.
Configure a custom cancellation policy
When you select Custom policy, Hospitable guides you through these settings:
Cancellation refund policy
Free cancellation window
Cancellation penalty
No-show fee, when applicable
Non-refundable option
Review your policy
Click Continue after configuring each setting. On Review your policy, check your selections and click Apply Policy.
No-show fee
When the No‑show fee step appears, Hospitable asks: "What fee is charged if the guest doesn't show up?"
You can select:
Same as cancellation policy (penalty)
Total price (100%)
When the step appears
The No‑show fee step is shown when your cancellation penalty is less than 100%, and your free cancellation window is not set to Anytime. It's skipped in all of these cases:
You are creating a new listing. Hospitable sets the no‑show behavior for you.
Your cancellation penalty is 100%, so the guest is already charged the full stay.
Your free cancellation window is set to Anytime.
Prompts to add a non-refundable rate
For existing live listings, Hospitable may show an opportunity to add a non-refundable rate. Your existing cancellation policy is not changed automatically.
You may see either of these prompts:
On the property page, Add Non-Refundable Policy with a Set up button. Clicking Set up opens an educational modal about the non-refundable option.
On the host dashboard, Increase bookings with a non-refundable rate with an Enable button. Clicking Enable takes you to the property's cancellation policy configuration. For a recommended policy, the Select cancellation policy step opens, where the non-refundable option is available. For a custom policy, the Non-refundable option step opens directly.
Note: Your existing policy remains in place unless you configure the policy and click Apply Policy.
Are booking policies set on a per-property basis, or globally?
Booking policies are set on a per-property basis.
Making edits to the booking policy for a Booking.com listing on one property does not change the booking policy for your Booking.com listing on a different Hospitable property.
More on Direct booking policies
You can read more about booking policies specific to Direct bookings here.