💡 Note: This article covers Direct booking reservations only.
Channel reservations: Bookings made through your connected channels must be cancelled via the channel directly. Contact your channel's support teams for guidance
Walk-in reservations: Bookings created directly in your property management system (PMS) must be cancelled within your PMS
About cancelling Direct bookings
Guests can cancel their Direct booking reservations via their confirmation e-mail when:
The reservation is outside of the cancellation penalty window (they are allowed to cancel).
Your cancellation settings are set to Allow guest cancellation for both Property cancellation settings and Room cancellation settings.
If they need help or cannot cancel themselves, you can cancel the reservation for them.
Before you cancel:
Check if you need to charge a cancellation fee if the guest cancels outside the cancellation policy terms and conditions they agreed to when booking
Remember that once cancelled, you cannot change the reservation status back to Confirmed, Checked in, or Checked out. Cancelled reservations cannot be reactivated
Note that you cannot update any details on a cancelled reservation
Cancel a Direct booking reservation
To cancel a Direct booking reservation:
Go to the Reservations page.
Find and open the Direct booking reservations you want to cancel. (Only for Direct booking - cannot be cancelled here for channel reservations.)
Click the ellipsis button (three dots button) and click Cancel reservation.
Click Cancel reservation again to confirm.
SiteMinder will notify the main guest of the cancellation if your booking engine cancellation e-mail is enabled. You can find this in Direct booking > Configuration > Guest communications > Reservation cancellation.
Manage availability after cancellation
When a Direct Booking reservation is cancelled, those room nights are released. Whether those dates can be booked again on your booking engine depends on your setup (including any PMS/RMS/CRS connection, auto-replenishment, and restrictions such as stop sell or CTA/CTD).
If you have a connected PMS, RMS, or CRS with inventory updates enabled
If you have a property management system (PMS), revenue management system (RMS), or central reservation system (CRS) when a Direct Booking reservation is cancelled, the PMS/RMS/CRS will receive the cancellation, and should adjust availability and send updated availability back to SiteMinder.
⚠️ Important: Do not enable auto-replenishment if you have a connected PMS, RMS, or CRS managing availability. This can cause incorrect availability and potential overbookings.
If you don't have a connected PMS, RMS, or CRS, or inventory updates are disabled
You have two options to manage availability after cancellations.
Option 1: Enable auto-replenishment
We recommend this option for properties without a connected PMS, RMS, or CRS. Turn on auto-replenishment to update availability automatically after cancellations. Go to your property name > Property settings > General information > Auto-replenishment.
Option 2: Manage availability manually
If you don't have a PMS, RMS, or CRS connected and auto-replenishment is turned off, update availability manually. Go to Distribution > Inventory and increase the room availability for the cancelled dates.