Cancellations and refunds

Open your booking page — the link is in your confirmation email, or find it under Find your booking — and use the cancellation control there. You can also email us quoting your booking reference, and we will do the same thing on your behalf.

Flights. We do not currently sell flights. What follows governs flight bookings made while we did. The airline quotes the exact refund first, and nothing is cancelled until you confirm that figure. What you see on the confirmation step is what you get.

Hotels. A hotel cancellation is a single step: the hotel's system cancels and reports the charge in the same call, so we can show you an estimate from the rate terms beforehand and the settled figures only afterwards. We tell you this on the confirmation step. The settled figures are sent to you in writing straight away.

We keep nothing when you cancel. What you get back is set by the terms of your rate or fare, and nothing of ours is withheld on top. Before the rate's cancellation deadline, everything you paid comes back. After it passes, the supplier keeps whatever their terms allow and the rest is returned to you, our service fee included. On a non-refundable rate the supplier keeps the room cost, and our fee still comes back. You are never asked for more than you paid.

Before the cancellation deadline the hotel releases the full room cost, so everything you paid comes back to your card, our service fee included. Your booking page states the deadline with its time zone, and the amount that comes back.

After the deadline the hotel or airline keeps the penalty its terms state, and you receive everything else — the rest of the room cost, plus our service fee. We never keep more than you paid: the two lines on your cancellation notice — kept by the supplier, refunded to you — always add up to the amount charged.

Non-refundable rates and fares return nothing of the room cost or the fare: the supplier has already counted it as sold, and that is why the rate was cheaper. Our service fee still comes back, so a cancellation on a non-refundable rate refunds you exactly what you paid us.

Flights follow the airline's fare rules, which were shown on the review step before you paid and are repeated on your booking page. Where the airline did not state a change or refund term, we say that rather than guess at it.

Where a rate's terms do not let us compute the refund in advance, your booking page says so. We do not print an estimate we cannot stand behind.

Your room was paid for through Nuitée Travel Limited (LiteAPI), who are the merchant of record for it, so the refund is theirs to send: they return it to the card you paid with as the cancellation settles, under the rate’s own terms. Your cancellation notice states the amount they released. They send it at once, but your bank decides when it shows: usually within five to ten business days, often sooner. If it has not reached your card within ten business days, contact us and a person will chase it with them.

Once sent, your bank takes its own time to show it — typically five to ten business days. The refund transaction reference is on your booking page to give your bank if it has been longer than that.

We do not currently sell flights. What follows governs flight bookings made while we did.

When an airline cancels a flight, or changes its schedule significantly, and you choose not to travel, you are entitled to a refund of the fare, taxes and any bags or seats bought with it. Because you paid us rather than the airline, we owe you that refund and will issue it within seven business days of the airline's notice, in full, including our service fee. Contact us with your booking reference; we do not deduct anything for an airline's cancellation.

Occasionally a hotel cannot honour a confirmed booking. If that happens we tell you as soon as we know and offer a choice: a comparable alternative at our cost, or a full refund including our fee. You are never left to argue with a hotel we sold you.

We do not currently sell flights. What follows governs flight bookings made while we did.

United States rules require airlines to let you cancel a ticket free within 24 hours of booking when the flight is at least seven days away. That rule binds airlines, not agents, and we have not adopted a separate 24-hour policy of our own: the change and refund terms shown before you pay are the terms that apply to a booking made here. If you want a free 24-hour window, buy a fare whose terms include free cancellation.

Not arriving usually forfeits the full amount, and leaving early rarely refunds unused nights — both are the hotel's rules rather than ours. Missing a flight forfeits a non-refundable fare. If your plans change, cancelling in advance almost always recovers more than not turning up.

If a charge looks wrong, contact us first. A refund we owe is faster from us than through a dispute, and a dispute filed while a refund is already in progress can delay both.