About Cancellation Policies and Fees
You can set up Cancellation Policies to define the rules surrounding when and how you collect cancellation fees from customers. Cancellation policy rules determine both the date after which a cancellation fee will apply and the amount of the cancellation fee associated with it.
You can set up automated cancellation fees (requires Inntopia staff assistance) OR you can manually enter and apply cancellation fees.
- If you elect to set up automated fees, you do not need to enter/apply manual fees.
- If you elect to manually enter/apply fees, you do not need to set up automated fees.
About Cancellation Policy Levels
You can set cancellation policies at different levels, and some levels take precedence over others.
For example, you can set up a policy that applies to a specific supplier and all the items they sell. This means that every time a product in that supplier’s inventory is purchased by a customer and subsequently cancelled, the customer must pay a cancellation fee according to the rules defined.
However, if a separate cancellation policy for a specific product within a supplier’s inventory exists, that cancellation policy for the specific product takes precedence over the policy set for the entire supplier only when that specific product is booked.
In addition, if that same product is included in a promotion or package which also has a separate cancellation policy, the cancellation policy set for the promotion or package takes precedence over both the product-specific and supplier policies.
Cancellation Policies can be set in the Inntopia system at the following levels:
- CRS: Sales Channel – apply to a specific sales channel
- CRS: Supplier Override – apply to a specific supplier which overrides a sales-channel-specific schedule
- CRS: Package (Promotion) – apply to an individual package (promotion)
- RMS: Company (Supplier) – apply to a single supplier and their entire inventory
- RMS: Reseller Override – apply to a specific reseller which overrides a company- (supplier-) specific schedule
- RMS: Product – apply to an individual product
- RMS: Promotion – apply to an individual promotion
| Order of Application with Supplier Precedence | Order of Application with Reseller Precedence | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cancellation Policy | Order of Precedence |
|
Cancellation Policy | Order of Precedence |
| Package (Promotion) Specific | 1 | Package (Promotion) Specific | 1 | |
| Product Specific | 2 | Product Specific | 2 | |
| Supplier/Reseller Specific | 3 | Supplier/Reseller Specific | 3 | |
| Supplier Default | 4 | Reseller Default | 4 | |
| Reseller Default | 5 | Supplier Default | 5 | |
About Automated Cancellation Fees
When an itinerary item is cancelled, the item status becomes “Cancelled” and all related notifications are sent to customers and suppliers. The itinerary shows a credit for the cancelled item plus a new charge called Cancellation Fee.
If a non-refundable deposit applies to the cancelled item and the cancellation policy states that the non-refundable deposit applies, the deposit, or a portion thereof, is used to automatically pay the cancellation fee.
Note: The automated cancellation fee feature must be activated by Inntopia staff. To request that this feature be activated in your system, contact Inntopia Partner Services. If you choose to set up automated fees, you do not need to enter/apply manual cancellation fees.
Reseller Collect
If the cost of a cancelled item has been collected by the reseller, the customer’s account is credited for the amount due on the item and charged back for the cancellation fee associated with the item. At the same time, the payable account for the supplier of the item is charged back for the net price due on the cancelled item and an invoice is recorded for its portion of the cancellation fee.
Reseller Direct Bill
The supplier is credited for the commission on the price of the cancelled item based on the commission billing rules in effect for the reseller. The commission rate used to calculate the commission due is based on the supplier commission settings in effect.
About Automated Cancellation Fees and Non-Refundable Deposits
Because the system permits BOTH non-refundable deposits and cancellation fees to apply to an individual itinerary item, there are two ways the two “fees” can interact. The method used depends on the Non-refundable Deposit Applies setting associated with a cancellation fee:
- Yes – the total cancellation charge-back to the customer is the GREATER of either the amount of the non-refundable deposit or the cancellation fee, but not both.
- No – the total cancellation charge-back to the customer is the SUM of the non-refundable deposit and the cancellation fee.
Examples
|
Non-refundable Deposit Applies Setting |
Cancellation Fee | Non-refundable deposit | Customer Charge |
|---|---|---|---|
| Yes | $50.00 | $100.00 |
$100.00 non-refundable deposit No cancellation charge |
| Yes | $150.00 | $100.00 |
$100.00 non-refundable deposit $50.00 cancellation fee in excess of non-refundable deposit Total = $150.00 |
| No | $25.00 | $100.00 |
$100.00 non-refundable deposit $25.00 cancellation fee Total = $125.00. |
About Manual Cancellation Fees
If you do not use the automated cancellation feature, you can manually enter a cancellation fee in Inntopia CRS on the Customer Account Receivable tab of the Itinerary History.
- From the Itinerary History screen, click the Customer Accounts Receivable tab.
- In the Itinerary Information section, select the cancellation fee for which you want to enter a fee amount from the drop-down list.
- In the Price column, enter the price of the item being cancelled.
- In the Fee field, enter the amount you want to charge for the cancellation. Any fee amount entered here is a sum of all fee types and all fees are treated as a single type. Fees are potentially subject to tax (tax calculated on the price plus the fee).
- If a tax applies to the cancellation fee, enter that amount in the Tax field. However, if the supplier has set up default supplier tax rate tables in Inntopia RMS, they are used to calculate the tax and any entry made in this field is ignored.
- Click Add. The cancellation fee, and tax if applicable, are calculated and the amount appears in the Taxes and Fees column in the Total field.
Note: Cancellation policies previously used on any reservation CANNOT be modified or deleted. Any attempt to modify or delete an “in-use” cancellation policy results in an error message. To update an "in-use" policy, create a new policy with a similar date range (for example, starting a day later) to the "in-use" policy.
