Refunds

You can give money back to a guest who paid by card, either when you cancel their booking or on its own, without cancelling. Refunds go back to the card the guest paid with.

Refund when you cancel

When you cancel a booking that has been paid, PootlrHost asks How much should [guest] get back? and offers:

• As your policy says: the amount your cancellation policy gives
• Full refund: everything still on their card
• Another amount: type in what you want to give back

The button then says, for example, Cancel and refund £45. See Cancelling a booking for the rest of that process.

Only the owner can refund. When someone on your team cancels a booking, nothing is refunded, and you can refund the guest afterwards from the booking’s page as below.

Refund without cancelling

For a part refund on a booking that’s going ahead, such as a shortened stay:

1. Open the booking. Under Money, tap Refund deposit, Refund balance or, if they paid in one go, Refund payment. Only the owner sees these.
2. Choose The full amount or Part of it, and enter how much.
3. Tap Refund £….

You can’t refund more than is left on that payment. Each payment, a deposit or a balance, is refunded on its own.

Recent card payments are also listed on Payments (Payments & billing › Guest payments): tap one there to refund it the same way.

How long it takes

The money goes back to the guest’s card in 5 to 10 days. The payment shows as Refunded, or Refunded £… for a part refund, on the Payments page and on the booking.

Fees on a refund

• Stripe’s card fee (1.5% + 20p on standard UK cards) isn’t given back when a payment is refunded, so you pay it even on a full refund.
• PootlrHost’s £1 booking fee is part of the guest’s first card payment (their deposit, if they paid one). It comes back to you in proportion to how much of that payment you refund: all of it on a full refund, part of it on a part refund. Refunding only a balance doesn’t return any of it, and a booking cancelled with nothing refunded keeps it. When you cancel and refund, the deposit is refunded first. If you pass the £1 on to guests, they get it back in the same share as the stay.
• Your own service fee, if you add one, is refunded in the same share as the stay.

Payments that weren’t by card

If a guest paid you on arrival, by bank transfer or in cash, PootlrHost can’t send the money back. You’ll need to pay it back yourself. Bookings from other booking sites are refunded by that site, not by PootlrHost.

Good to know

• The Payments list only shows your most recent card payments. To refund an older one, open its booking.
• You can also refund a card payment in Stripe. PootlrHost records it on the booking, and the £1 booking fee’s share comes back to you, just as when you refund here. The booking isn’t cancelled, so cancel it here if the guest isn’t coming.
• If a guest’s bank takes a payment back (a dispute or chargeback), Stripe takes it, and its dispute fee (£20 at the moment), from your Stripe balance, and we email you. You answer it in Stripe: open Payments and choose Your details, or sign in to Stripe, and send what shows the booking was made and the stay was as described. Stripe charges another £20 for each dispute you answer, which it gives back if you win. If you win, Stripe gives the payment back too. PootlrHost’s £1 isn’t given back on a dispute.