Let a client swap out of a late cancellation

What it is

Quick swap is a setting, and it is off by default. When it is on, a client who would pay a late-cancellation fee or lose their deposit by cancelling now sees Ask to swap out beside Cancel (fee applies) on their booking page. Their time is offered to matching clients on your waitlist while they stay booked, and the first waiting client to take it gets the booking.

Why it helps

A late cancellation usually leaves a gap you cannot fill. With Quick swap the time passes straight to someone who wants it, with the same team member, room and equipment, so the slot stays booked. The client who asked is released with no late-cancellation fee and no lost deposit, so they have a fair way out instead of not turning up.

How to use it

1. 1Open Settings, then Quick swap (under Essentials). Owners and admins can change it, and so can any role you give 'Manage the business'. Turn on 'Let clients swap out of a late cancellation'.
2. 2Under 'Stop offers before the start', set how many hours before the booking offers end, from 1 to 336 (2 by default). Under 'Their deposit, when a swap goes through', choose to refund it, to their card or to the credit they paid with, or to keep it as account credit for their next booking. Tap Save Quick swap.
3. 3Inside your late window, the client sees Ask to swap out beside Cancel (fee applies) on their booking page. When they tap 'Yes, offer my time', up to five waiting clients who want that service on that day (and that team member, if they chose one) get a one-tap link, your best-spending clients first. Anyone who joins the waitlist later is offered it too, until offers stop. The client stays booked and can tap 'Withdraw my request' until someone takes it.
4. 4The first waiting client to tap 'Take this spot' gets the booking, and pays their own deposit if one is due. The client who asked is cancelled with no fee and their deposit is handled the way you chose. You get an email and an alert, and see the swap on the calendar and in the booking. A refund Stripe refuses stays on the booking for you to handle.
5. 5If nobody takes it before offers stop, the client stays booked and is told so. They can still cancel, with the usual fee, or with the full price if you chose that in the next step.
6. 6Under 'If they cancel inside the last 2 hours', choose what a cancellation costs once offers have stopped: 'The usual late-cancellation fee' (the default), 'The full price, for bookings quick swap could offer', or 'The full price, for every booking'. The hours are the ones you set for offers to stop, or your free-cancellation window under Cancellation policy if that is shorter: the full price only ever applies where cancelling would already cost a fee or the deposit, so a cancellation that would be free stays free. The full price is what the client would have paid, every service of a visit, less any deposit you keep, up to your maximum fee, and one fee is queued for the whole visit. It needs 'Require a card to hold the booking' and a fee under Cancellation policy, so there is a card to charge.
7. 7The full price only applies to a booking made on your booking page, whose client saw it there before they confirmed. Bookings made by your team, through the API or an assistant, or with a card saved for an earlier booking, keep the usual fee, and so do bookings made before you chose it, or before you last switched it back on. The client's booking page and the 'still booked' email say what cancelling then costs, and the fee waits on the No-show fees screen for you to charge or let go, like any other. If you change your mind before you charge it (back to the usual fee, Quick swap off, or other hours), Charge takes the usual fee for when they cancelled instead, never more than either. If you change your cancellation policy before you charge it, the fee is not charged: the client agreed to the old terms for that booking.
8. 8Quick swap is never offered for a booking that is checked in, completed, a no-show, cancelled or already started, or one waiting for a deposit or for your answer. Classes, group bookings and bookings away from your premises or with travel are left out too, and nothing is offered while you approve online bookings first. A visit of several services swaps as a whole, only to a waiting client who wants all of it.