Guest modifications and cancellations
This page describes how your guest modifies or cancels their reservation themselves. It is part of the public widget: the guest reaches it from their email, without going through the back office.
Opening the page
Section titled “Opening the page”The guest reaches their reservation from the Modify or cancel link in their confirmation email, or from the confirmation screen right after booking. The page recaps the reservation — date, time, party size — and its status: Confirmed, Pending confirmation, Not confirmed or Cancelled.
Modifying
Section titled “Modifying”Modify reservation reopens the slot choice: party size, seating, date and time. The contact details are not asked for again — the guest can’t change the name, email or phone of the reservation online. They save with Save changes.
Online modification stops in two cases:
- The modification deadline has passed. Online modification closes at the same moment as online booking: the Cutoff before service in your booking rules. Once that lead time is reached before the reservation’s time, or the service is over, the page says so and offers only to cancel online, or to contact the venue for a change. A service set to Allow bookings during service never closes online modification.
- Online bookings are paused. Modification is temporarily unavailable; cancelling is still possible.
A change that would need a card guarantee the reservation does not have — a larger party, a service that requires one — is refused, and nothing is changed. The guest has to cancel and book again, or contact the venue.
Cancelling
Section titled “Cancelling”Cancel opens a confirmation — Cancel this reservation? — recalling that the action can’t be undone. The guest confirms with Confirm cancel or steps back with Keep reservation.
Online cancellation stays open even when modification is closed. This is deliberate: a guest who cancels in time leaves you the table to reassign, rather than an absence you discover once the time has passed.
Reservations with a card guarantee
Section titled “Reservations with a card guarantee”On a guaranteed reservation, the confirmation window adapts its message to the moment of cancelling:
- Before the free-cancellation deadline, cancelling is free and the card hold is released.
- After the deadline, cancelling may lead to a charge under your cancellation policy, and the amount is recalled.
Past the free-cancellation deadline, online modification is no longer possible: the guest must contact the venue. How the guarantee works on the guest side is described in What the guest sees; the guarantee request and the cancellation policy in Request a card imprint.