Cancelling needs the Bookings · Edit permission. Open the booking and use Cancel; you can add a reason, then confirm. The button is not shown on a booking that is already cancelled, or once the event has started.
The single most important thing to know: the refund rules that apply were fixed when the booking was made, not when you cancel.
Cancelling before you have paid
Nothing has been charged, so nothing is refunded. The booking moves to Cancelled and any part-finished payment session is closed, so a payment page left open in another tab cannot complete afterwards. Paying closes when the event starts, at the same moment as Cancel: if the event's date passes before you've paid, the booking page says so, and it can no longer be paid or cancelled there. Nothing has been charged; contact support@arrivebooking.com if you need help.
Cancelling after you have paid
ARRIVE works out the refund from the notice period and returns it to your organization's original payment method. The booking then shows as Cancelled, with the refunded amount and percentage on the money panel. The performer is told the booking won't go ahead, along with anything they are owed under the booking's cancellation terms.
The refund policy is locked to the booking
When you create a booking, ARRIVE takes a copy of its cancellation tiers and stores that copy on the booking. From then on that copy is the policy for that booking — if ARRIVE changes its published tiers afterwards, your existing bookings keep the terms they were made under, and new bookings get the new ones.
The shape of the policy is:
- The more notice you give, the larger the share of the booking total that comes back to you.
- The shortest notice windows return only part of it.
- You can cancel until the event starts — its start time on the booking, in the booking's time zone. Every booking made since September 30, 2026 has one; an older booking with no start time closes at the start of the event's day.
The exact percentages are set by ARRIVE and are not something your organization configures. The ones that apply to your booking are printed on that booking's own agreement PDF, under Cancellation Policy, with the note that the tiers were locked at booking time. Read them there rather than assuming a number.
Two things the tiers never change:
- The service fee is not returned when you cancel. Refunds are calculated on the booking total only, so the fee is retained in full at every notice period. The one exception is below: a booking the performer can't do.
- ARRIVE's commission is taken proportionally from whatever is retained — the performer is not left carrying the platform's share of a cancellation.
If the performer can't do your booking
Occasionally a performer finds they can't do a booking after it has been paid for. They tell ARRIVE Support, and Support cancels the booking for them. When that happens:
- You're refunded in full — the booking total and the service fee — to your organization's original payment method.
- The cancellation tiers don't apply, because you didn't cancel.
- Your members with booking access are told in the app, and by email unless your organization has switched off Booking updates or they have turned off Booking emails for themselves.
- The booking shows as Cancelled, marked as cancelled by ARRIVE Support.
- You can book someone else for that date straight away: Book someone else on the cancelled booking (or in the email) starts a new booking for the same night, with the date, start time and hours filled in.
If the performer didn't show
If a paid booking didn't go ahead because the performer didn't show, open a dispute on the booking's Disputes tab as soon as you can — within about 72 hours of the event. ARRIVE Support is told as soon as you open it, and the dispute keeps the payment held while Support looks into it. Anything that helps — photos, messages, times — can go to support@arrivebooking.com.
Support reviews your report and tries to reach the performer. If Support confirms the booking didn't go ahead:
- You're refunded in full — the booking total and the service fee — to your organization's original payment method.
- Your dispute is marked Resolved.
- Your members with booking access are told in the app and by email.
- The booking shows as Cancelled, refunded in full by ARRIVE Support.
Opened later than about 72 hours after the event, a dispute may no longer hold the payment — contact support either way.
When cancelling is refused
- "Booking is already cancelled."
- "Only Stripe-paid org bookings can be cancelled here."
- "Payment just completed for this booking — refresh and cancel again to process a refund." — the payment landed while you were cancelling. Reload and cancel again; it will be handled as a paid cancellation.
- "This event has already started, so it can no longer be cancelled. If something went wrong, open a dispute on the Disputes tab, or contact support@arrivebooking.com." — Cancel closes when the event starts. From then on, if something went wrong — including a performer who didn't show — open a dispute and contact support@arrivebooking.com.
- "This booking is already being cancelled — refresh the page." — someone else cancelled it at the same moment. Reload to see the result.
- "We’re finishing your cancellation — this can take a few minutes." — your cancellation has started and ARRIVE is completing it on the terms that applied when you pressed Cancel, with one refund. You don't need to press Cancel again; the booking shows as Cancelled once it's done.
The Disputes tab
Every booking has a Disputes tab. Opening or withdrawing a dispute needs Bookings · Edit. A dispute records a Reason (required), optional Details, and an optional Contested amount — the form itself says the contested amount is "for reference only, no charge or refund is made".
A dispute starts as Open. ARRIVE Support reviews it and moves it on: Under review, then Resolved (with a note saying what was decided) or Cancelled. When ARRIVE resolves or cancels your dispute, your members with booking access are told in the app and by email, with ARRIVE's note; if ARRIVE reopens one, they're told in the app. You can Withdraw a dispute you no longer need while it is open or under review; only ARRIVE resolves, cancels or reopens one. There is no delete: a closed dispute stays on the booking, so the record survives.
While a dispute is open, the payout to the professional is paused. Opening one stops the 72-hour release; the money stays held until every dispute on that booking is Resolved, Withdrawn or Cancelled, at which point the release resumes on its normal schedule. Closing one dispute while another is still open does not release the payout.
Two limits worth knowing. A hold only delays a release — it never redirects one, so a dispute does not refund you by itself, and the contested amount stays informational. The one route from a dispute to a refund is a performer who didn't show — see “If the performer didn't show” above. And a hold is only certain within about 72 hours of the event: opened later than that, a dispute may be a record rather than a hold, and anything that needs money to move is a matter for support@arrivebooking.com. The tab itself changes its wording once that time has passed.
A dispute does not change the booking's status: while one is open or under review, the booking reads Confirmed, dispute open (or Completed, dispute open once its release time has passed) and stays in its usual group. ARRIVE Support is told as soon as you open one, and it stays on the booking as your organization's record, visible to your members.
What this does not do yet
- You cannot cancel part of a booking, change its amount, or agree a bespoke refund in the workspace — cancellation is all-or-nothing against the locked tiers.
- Opening a dispute tells ARRIVE Support, but it doesn't refund you by itself — within about 72 hours of the event it pauses the payout, as described above. A refund after a no-show comes from ARRIVE Support. It is your organization's own record, visible to your members.
- There is no way to reopen a cancelled booking. Create a new one.
- Your cancellation reason is stored on the booking and shown to your members, but it is deliberately kept out of the organization's activity log.