Why it matters

Sometimes a booking is not changing, it is going away entirely. The guest is not rebooking, the trip is not happening, and it needs to be cancelled cleanly. This lesson is specifically about cancelling one guest's booking or one activity at a time. Cancelling a whole timeslot or a whole day at once, such as for a weather closure, is a different tool with its own lesson, Bulk Actions from the Manifest, and it works differently on purpose.

What you'll learn

• Where cancelling actually lives: Cancel This Booking, from the activity's three-dot menu, once a trip is Reserved.
• Why Rebook's own Remove Activity option is not a cancel path -- it is gated only on the trip still being in Draft status, not on how many activities are on it.
• What Cancel This Booking actually does: releases seats, cancels queued reminders and follow-ups, reduces the trip total, and leaves the timeslot open for new bookings -- and that it always acts on every guest on the activity.
• The real, narrower single-guest removal action -- the Delete button on that guest's own booking row -- and why it only works before any payment touches that booking.
• Why cancellation is permission-gated and permanent.
• The single most important gotcha: cancelling never refunds money on its own.

Prerequisites

• A trip that has been Reserved, with at least one activity and guest on it.
• The booking-edit permission.

Making the change

1. Find the right cancel path for the trip's status. If the booking is still in Draft, Rebook has its own Remove Activity option -- a simple, one-click way to undo a booking that was just built, with no confirmation step needed since nothing has been confirmed yet. Once a trip is Reserved, Cancel This Booking, from the activity's three-dot menu, is the cancellation path. This is gated purely on trip status, not on how many activities or guests are on the booking.
2. Open Cancel This Booking and choose the two pre-confirm options. First, whether to let these guests rebook themselves to any activity in the catalog, instead of just the one they were on. Second, whether to notify the lead guest, with a message template and an optional personal note -- nothing goes out unless this is turned on.
3. Confirm. TripWorks cancels the activity for every guest on it: seats are released, queued reminders and follow-ups are cancelled, and the trip total drops by that activity's amount. The timeslot itself stays open for new bookings -- cancelling one activity does not close the whole slot. This needs the booking-edit permission, and once confirmed, it is permanent.
4. Removing just one guest instead of the whole activity. Cancel This Booking covers everyone on that activity together. To remove just one guest and leave the rest booked, use the Delete button right on that guest's own booking row -- available any time before a payment, gift card, or wholesale booking has been attached to it. Once that guest's spot is paid for, Delete steps aside and Cancel This Booking becomes the way to make a change there, for the whole group. If one paid guest is dropping out and the rest are staying, cancel the booking, then rebook the guests who are still coming as a fresh reservation.

The refund caveat

Cancelling a booking does not refund any money on its own. The seats come back, the trip total goes down, and the payment the guest already made stays right there on the trip as a credit -- ready to refund whenever that is the right next step. Refunding is its own deliberate action, covered in the next lesson.

Common mistakes

• Assuming Remove Activity is a cancel path once a trip is Reserved. It only exists for a Draft booking -- once Reserved, Cancel This Booking is the only path.
• Trying to remove a single paid guest with Delete. Delete only works before any payment touches that guest's booking; once paid, cancel the whole activity and rebook the remaining guests instead.
• Expecting a refund to happen automatically. Cancelling never refunds money -- the payment stays on the trip as a credit until a refund is issued deliberately.
• Cancelling one activity to close a whole timeslot. Cancel This Booking leaves the timeslot open for new bookings; use Bulk Actions from the Manifest for a timeslot or day-level closure.

Expected final result

The activity is cancelled cleanly for the right guests, seats and the trip total reflect the change immediately, and any payment already collected sits ready as a credit for a deliberate refund decision -- without accidentally affecting the rest of the timeslot.

FAQ

Where do I actually cancel a booking?

Once a trip is Reserved, use Cancel This Booking from the activity's three-dot menu. Rebook's Remove Activity option only applies to a booking still in Draft status.

Does cancelling a booking refund the guest automatically?

No. Cancelling releases seats and reduces the trip total, but the payment already made stays on the trip as a credit until a refund is issued as a separate, deliberate action.

Can I remove just one guest instead of cancelling the whole activity?

Yes, before any payment touches that guest's booking -- use the Delete button on that guest's own booking row. Once a payment, gift card, or wholesale booking is attached, Delete is no longer available and Cancel This Booking is the only remaining path, which acts on every guest on the activity.

Does cancelling one activity close the whole timeslot?

No. The timeslot stays open for new bookings after Cancel This Booking -- cancelling one activity does not close the slot. To close a whole timeslot or day at once, use Bulk Actions from the Manifest instead.

What permission do I need to cancel a booking?

Cancel This Booking requires the booking-edit permission, and once confirmed, the action is permanent and cannot be undone.

Related lessons

• Editing an Existing Booking
• Bulk Actions from the Manifest (coming soon)
• Refunding a Booking & Handling Disputes

Learn more

• Reschedule, unschedule, or cancel a trip
• Refund a payment
• Delete a booking

Transcript

In the last lesson, Editing an Existing Booking, we covered everything you do to a trip while it's still happening -- rescheduling it, changing the activity, adding a guest, flagging it for a teammate. But sometimes a booking isn't changing, it's going away entirely. The guest isn't rebooking, the trip isn't happening, and you need to cancel it cleanly. That's this lesson -- and it's specifically about cancelling one guest's booking or one activity, one at a time. If you need to cancel everyone on a whole timeslot or a whole day at once -- a weather closure, say -- that's a different tool with its own lesson, Bulk Actions from the Manifest, and it works differently on purpose.

Rebook has its own Remove Activity option, for a booking still in Draft, before it's been reserved -- a simple, one-click way to undo a booking you just built, with no confirmation step needed since nothing's confirmed yet. Once a trip is Reserved, Cancel This Booking, from the activity's three-dot menu, is your cancellation path. Open that, and you get two choices before you confirm. First, whether to let these guests rebook themselves to any activity in your catalog, instead of just the one they were on -- handy when you want them to pick something else entirely. Second, whether to notify the lead guest, with a message template and an optional personal note. Nothing goes out unless you turn that on. Confirm, and TripWorks cancels the activity for every guest on it: seats are released, queued reminders and follow-ups are cancelled, and the trip total drops by that activity's amount. The timeslot itself stays open for new bookings -- cancelling one activity doesn't close the whole slot. This action needs the booking-edit permission, and once you confirm it, it's permanent.

Cancel This Booking covers everyone on that activity together. To remove just one guest and leave the rest booked, use the Delete button right on that guest's own booking row -- available any time before a payment, gift card, or wholesale booking has been attached to it. Once that guest's spot is paid for, Delete steps aside and Cancel This Booking becomes the way to make a change there, for the whole group. If one paid guest is dropping out and the rest are staying, cancel the booking here, then rebook the guests who are still coming as a fresh reservation.

One thing worth keeping in mind: cancelling a booking doesn't refund any money on its own. The seats come back, the trip total goes down, and the payment the guest already made stays right there on the trip as a credit -- ready for you to refund whenever that's the right next step. Refunding is its own deliberate action, covered next.

Cancelling releases the seats and closes out the activity, all with the right permission in place. When a refund is the right next step, that's exactly what our next lesson, Refunding a Booking and Handling Disputes, walks you through -- including how the refund method follows how the guest originally paid.