> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.riservahq.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Set your cancellation policy Set your shop's cancellation policy at **Settings → Policies**. It answers two questions: **how much does a guest get back when they cancel**, and **what can they change on their own** without calling you. It's one page, with one set of rules for the whole shop. An experience can override it with its own rules. Exactly **one set of rules ever applies to a reservation**: the experience's custom rules if it has them, otherwise your shop policy. ## Set the refund schedule 1. Go to **Settings → Policies**. 2. Choose **Refund on a schedule**, or **All sales final**. 3. For a schedule, set the first line: a full refund with enough notice. Most wineries need just this line. 4. Optional: click **Add partial-refund step** for a softer landing closer to the visit. You can have up to three steps in all. 5. Read the **"How guests will read it"** preview, then save your changes. The rules read as sentences, because that's what they are: > **100%** refund until **2 days** before the visit > **50%** refund until **4 hours** before the visit > *With less notice than that — or once the visit has started — there's no refund.* Steps must move toward the visit and shrink. Riserva won't save a schedule where a later step refunds more than an earlier one. Prefer **All sales final** for ticketed dinners or small-group events you can't resell on short notice. It means no automatic refunds at any time. You can always refund manually from the Shopify order. As you edit, the **"How guests will read it"** preview shows the exact sentence Riserva generates from your settings: > Full refund until 2 days before your visit, then 50% until 4 hours before > your visit; no refund after that. Guests can cancel online at any time, and > reschedule while a refund is still available. ## What happens next That same sentence appears on the reservation page. Its refund terms ride the guest's confirmation email. What you set here is what guests are told, with nothing to keep in sync by hand. The schedule applies to **staff cancellations too**. Cancelling from the reservation page computes the refund from these rules and shows it before anyone confirms. ## Good to know * Until you save a policy, Riserva uses a built-in one. See [What applies if you never touch this page](#what-applies-if-you-never-touch-this-page). * A refund covers **everything the guest paid**, including add-ons. * Your staff are never restricted by the self-service rules. See [Edit a reservation](/daily-operations/edit-a-reservation). ## Let guests cancel or reschedule online **Guest self-service** has two switches, and each has an optional cutoff. * **Guests can cancel online** — a *Cancel this reservation* link appears on your manage-reservation page, with the refund it would bring. Any refund follows the schedule above. * **Guests can reschedule online** — a *Change date or time* button appears **while a refund is still available**. Its optional **cutoff** closes rescheduling even earlier. Both cutoffs show up in the generated policy sentence. So guests are told the limits before they hit them. Turn both off and the manage page tells the guest: > Online changes are closed for this reservation. Please contact the winery. By default guests can cancel **at any time**. They just stop getting money back. Add an optional **cutoff** ("Closes 1 day before the visit") to stop last-minute cancellations entirely. Past the cutoff, the link disappears and the guest is asked to get in touch with you. The "while a refund is still available" condition is automatic, and anchored to the original time. Without it, a guest past your refund deadline could move the reservation out a month. They could then cancel from there and collect a refund they'd already lost. One special case: an **all sales final** policy has no refund to protect. So there, guests may reschedule right up to your cutoff, or the visit itself. That makes "non-refundable but movable" a policy you can express. ## Decide who can refund beyond the policy When a paid party shrinks, the refund for the removed guests follows the schedule above. That happens at check-in or on the reservation's edit page. **Refund overrides** decides who may go beyond the schedule. * The reservation's edit page in the admin always offers a full refund. * At the register, it's off by default. Tick **Allow POS check-in to refund beyond the policy** to let front-of-house do the same. * Every override lands on the reservation's timeline with who did it. ## Suggest waiving entry fees at the register The register's **Bill credits** tile offers to add the entry fee to the sale, or to waive it. It does this for an experience charged **At the visit**, and for a party whose fee is still due. **At the visit** means the card is saved at checkout and charged when the visit is closed out, unless the register settles it first. * **Suggest waiving the fee when the rest of the sale is over** sets the amount of the rest of the sale at which **Waive** becomes the suggested choice. * Leave it blank for no suggestion. Staff still choose on every sale. * An experience can set its own amount on its **Pricing** card. * A waived fee is recorded on the reservation and is never charged to the saved card. ## Edit the cancellation reasons **Cancellation reasons** is the short list guests choose from when they cancel online. Each answer is saved on the reservation. Riserva starts you with "Change of plans", "Travel or weather", "Found another option", "Booked by mistake" and "Other". You can: * edit the wording * add your own, up to twelve * empty the list to stop asking ## Set custom rules for one experience 1. Open the experience. 2. Find **Cancellation policy** in its **Booking rules** card. 3. Click **Set custom rules for this experience**. 4. Set its own schedule and self-service switches. These are the same controls, applying to this experience only. The **Cancellation policy** section shows the rules that currently apply: > Follows your shop policy — Full refund until 2 days before your visit; no > refund after that. … **Use the shop policy instead** reverts it. Settings → Policies lists every experience with custom rules under **Custom rules**. So you can always see at a glance what deviates from the shop policy. ## What applies if you never touch this page Riserva doesn't leave you without a policy. Until you save one, the shop policy is: * **100% refund if cancelled 24 hours or more before the visit**, nothing after * **Guests can cancel and reschedule online** The Policies page shows exactly this until you change it. What you see on that page is always what a cancellation would actually compute. It's worth a minute to make it match what you tell guests on the phone. ## What a refund actually covers The percentage applies to **everything the guest paid**, including add-ons. "100% refund" has to mean 100% of what they paid, or the promise is a lie. The money goes back through Shopify to the original payment method. A phone reservation with no order attached has nothing to refund, so nothing moves. See [Cancellations and refunds](/daily-operations/cancellations-and-refunds) for what staff see and what lands on the timeline. **What things mean on this screen:** [What things mean: Settings](/reference/settings) ## Related * [Cancellations and refunds](/daily-operations/cancellations-and-refunds) * [Guests managing their own reservations](/guest-experience/guest-self-serve) * [Payment policies and money states](/core-concepts/payment-policies) This documentation is built and hosted on [Mintlify](https://mintlify.com), a developer documentation platform.