FreeSince v1.2.0

Customer self-service cancellation

Customers can cancel their own booking from a link in their email — no account, no login, no phone call to you. You decide whether it is allowed at all, and how close to the appointment the link keeps working.

How it works for the customer

  1. They open the link in their email
    Included in the pending, confirmation and reminder emails.
  2. They see their booking
    Service, staff member, date and time — so they can be sure it is the right one.
  3. They confirm
    Nothing changes until they explicitly confirm; simply opening the link cancels nothing.
  4. It is done
    The booking is cancelled, the slot is freed immediately, and the cancellation email goes out exactly as if you had cancelled it yourself.

Turning it on and off

Both controls live under Settings → Booking rules.

The Booking rules settings showing the allow-cancellations toggle and the cancellation cut-off in hours
Settings → Booking rules.
Setting What it does Default
Allow customer cancellations Switch off and no cancellation link is included in any email. Customers then have to contact you. On
Cancellation cut-off How many hours before the start time the link stops working. Set 0 to allow cancelling right up to the appointment. 24 hours
Choosing a cut-off

Match it to how much notice you need to refill a slot. A busy salon might use 24 hours; a consultant with long appointments might want 48. Too tight and customers call you instead — which is the outcome this feature exists to avoid.

After the cut-off

Once the window has closed, the link explains that the booking can no longer be cancelled online and tells the customer to get in touch. Nothing is changed silently.

Yes. Each link contains a signature unique to that one booking, generated from a secret only your site knows. It cannot be guessed, altered to point at someone else’s booking, or used to browse your bookings — and the page reveals nothing until a valid link is presented.

Cancelling on the customer's behalf

You can always cancel from the admin regardless of these settings, from the booking drawer. The cut-off applies only to customers cancelling themselves.

What you see

A customer cancellation appears in your bookings list like any other, with its source recorded as customer so you can tell it apart from one you made. It also appears in the activity log.

Schedopia Pro

Pro will let customers reschedule themselves from the same link, rather than only cancelling, and will predict likely no-shows so you can intervene first. Pro is not on sale yet.