How to let customers cancel or reschedule appointments online

Let customers cancel or reschedule online, but only on your rules: online changes close a set number of hours before the appointment, a late cancellation is charged or sent to you, an in-time cancellation refunds or keeps the deposit as your policy says, and a booking can be moved only a limited number of times. Show these rules before the customer books, and again on the page where they cancel.

Why let customers do it themselves

A customer who can’t cancel online often doesn’t cancel at all: they don’t call, they just don’t come. When the change is one click from the confirmation email, you hear about it earlier and get the time back while you can still fill it. Rescheduling online also keeps the customer instead of losing the booking.

The four rules to set

1. How late can they change online?

Choose a window: online cancelling and rescheduling close a number of hours before the start. Before that, the change is free and instant. After it, the customer can’t use the button, and the next rule applies. A window of zero means right up to the start.

2. What happens with a late cancellation?

Two honest options:

• Contact the shop. Past the window, the customer is asked to call or write to you, and you decide case by case.
• Charge the no-show fee. The customer can still cancel online but sees the fee first and has to accept it. It is a cancellation, not a no-show: they did tell you.

3. What happens to a deposit when they cancel in time?

Decide whether an in-time cancellation refunds the deposit or you keep it, and say so where the customer pays. A refund promise makes a deposit easier to accept; keeping it suits services with costs before the visit. Our deposit policy template has wording for both.

4. How many times can one booking move?

Unlimited rescheduling lets a customer hold your best times and keep pushing them. A limit of one to three moves per booking covers real changes of plan; after that, they contact you.

What to tell customers

Put the rules in three places: on the booking page before they pay, in the confirmation email, and on the page where they cancel or move the booking, with the exact deadline (“You can change or cancel online until Friday, 14:00”). A rule a customer first hears about when they are charged turns into a dispute.

How Rezervito handles cancelling and rescheduling

In Rezervito, our booking app for Shopify (launching November 2026), every confirmation email has a link to the customer’s own booking page, shown inside your theme. There they can cancel or pick a new time, with the deadline shown, as long as your rules allow it.

You set each rule in Settings: whether customers can cancel online at all, and up to how many hours before the start (from zero up to 30 days); whether a late cancellation means “contact the shop” or the no-show fee, which the customer must accept before cancelling and which they pay with their next online booking; whether an in-time cancellation refunds a deposit or keeps it, with the refund made automatically; and whether customers can reschedule, until when, and how many times per booking (once, twice, three times or unlimited). When a rule closes the online way, the page shows your contact details instead.

These rules bind only the customer. You and your staff can cancel or move any booking at any time.