# Set booking rules and a cancellation policy

Updated 2026-10-12 by the TicketPa team. Source: https://ticketpa.com/help/booking-rules-and-cancellation-policy

Each activity has its own rules for online bookings on its **Policies** tab: how close to the start and how far ahead guests can book, how many people one booking can have, and what guests get back when they cancel.

## Steps to set the policies

1. Go to **Activities** in the sidebar, open the activity and select the **Policies** tab.
2. Under **When guests can book**, set:
    - **Stop online bookings**: how many minutes before the start online bookings close. Leave it empty to use your business setting, which is 60 minutes unless our support team changed it. Use 0 to take bookings until the start. When guests must pay online, online bookings close at least 32 minutes before the start, so there's time to pay.
    - **Open bookings**: how many days ahead guests can book. Leave it empty to open every time slot on the schedule.
3. Under **Group size**, set:
    - **Smallest booking**: the fewest people one booking can have, like 2 for a class that needs pairs.
    - **Largest booking**: the most people one booking can have. Leave it empty to allow up to the places left, and at most 99 guests in one online booking. For a bigger group online, enter a larger number.
4. Under **Cancellations**, set:
    - **Free cancellation until**: how many hours before the start guests can cancel for a full refund. It is 24 to start with. Use 0 to allow it until the start: the booking page then says "Cancel any time before the start for a full refund."
    - **Refund after that**: the percentage guests get back when they cancel later. Use 0 for no refund.
5. Select **Save policies**.

## What guests see

- The activity's booking page shows only the dates and times guests can book under your rules.
- If a guest picks too few or too many people, they see a message like "Book at least 2 people."
- A **Cancellation** section on the activity's page spells out your policy, like "Cancel up to 1 day before the start for a full refund. After that, it is not refunded."
- Guests can cancel from their ticket until the start time. They get back the share of what they paid that the policy allows at that moment. The part paid online goes back to their card automatically, and anything paid in person is yours to give back.
- Guests can move their booking to another time themselves only while cancelling would still get them a full refund. See [How guests cancel or move a booking](https://ticketpa.com/help/guests-cancel-or-move).

> **Note:** The policy that counts is the one in place when the guest cancels. If you change it, bookings made earlier follow the new policy too.

## Rules your team doesn't follow

These rules are for guests booking online. When your team adds a booking with **New booking**, or a walk-in on the day, the cut-off, how far ahead and the group size limits don't apply. The places left in the time slot still do. See [Add a booking for a guest](https://ticketpa.com/help/add-a-booking).

When your team cancels a booking, they choose between giving back everything paid and what the policy allows. See [Cancel a booking](https://ticketpa.com/help/cancel-a-booking).

## Frequently asked questions

### Can I change the 60-minute cut-off for the whole business?

Only our support team can change the business-wide cut-off. Contact support, or set **Stop online bookings** on each activity instead.

### Does Open bookings go beyond 120 days?

Schedules create time slots 120 days ahead. A longer **Open bookings** only opens later dates that have time slots, like one-off time slots you added in the calendar.