A refund returns money already collected from a guest. A payment dispute starts when the cardholder challenges a payment through their bank. Console links the payment history to the booking so your team can review what was collected, returned or disputed.
Refunds
A refund is money you send back to a traveller. Common reasons:
- Cancellation within the free-cancellation period, the booking's saved terms determine the charge. For a fully paid 720 EUR stay at Hotel Sunrise cancelled before its free-cancellation deadline, the expected refund is 720 EUR.
- No-show waiver, operator goodwill; you choose to refund despite the policy.
- Service failure, the property failed to deliver; you refund as part of resolution.
- Overpayment, a billing error on the booking that you correct.
Cancellation charge and refund
The cancellation quote uses the amounts and dates saved on the booking. Editing the property's policy later does not change those terms. Non-refundable terms charge the full booked amount from booking, including when the stay starts much later.
For example, a fully paid non-refundable 500 EUR stay cancelled the day after booking has a 500 EUR cancellation charge and no refund under those terms. If nothing has been collected, there is no payment to refund; the charge can remain owed. Review the charge, collections and any remaining balance separately.
How a refund flows
The refund record carries: who triggered it, when, the amount, the reason (free-text), the original booking, the resulting financial entries.
Multi-currency and partial refunds
Booking-level refunds use the original captured payment. If Hotel Sunrise's booking is EUR 600 and the traveller paid TRY 24,000, a full refund with no amount specified returns the outstanding captured amount in TRY. The financial records use an auditable exchange rate; see Settlement & reconciliation.
| Booking-level request | Result |
|---|---|
| Refund EUR 100 from an EUR booking paid in EUR | A partial refund is allowed up to the captured amount still available to refund. |
| Refund EUR 100 from an EUR booking paid in TRY | Refused: an explicit amount requires booking and capture currencies to match. |
| Refund the full outstanding amount from an EUR booking paid in TRY, leaving the amount unspecified | Allowed in the original capture currency. |
| Refund a booking with captures in both EUR and TRY | Refused by the booking-level refund action; review the individual payments. |
A monetary refund does not itself cancel rooms or package items. Review the booking's cancellation action separately when the traveller is also cancelling a service.
A failed recording step may follow a successful refund. If the payment provider completed the refund but Adrasis could not record its financial effects, do not submit another refund. Check the provider reference and refund history, then have the missing financial records reconciled. The repeat-refund guard prevents a blind second payment; an error alone does not mean the traveller received no money.
Refund controls
- Cancellation refunds within policy, typically automatic or operator-confirmed.
- Waivers and goodwill refunds, recorded with a reason.
- Bulk refunds, preview before applying.
Refunding from a booking
Open the booking's refund action and review the original captures, amount and reason. Refunding money requires the refund permission separately from permission to cancel or manage bookings. Cancellation, void and no-show statuses alone do not prove that a provider refund completed; check the payment history.
A card payment goes back through the payment account that took it, even if you stopped using that account later. If Console says that only the whole payment can be refunded before the bank's end of day, refund the whole payment or try the partial refund again after the end of day. A hold that was never captured is not refunded: release it instead. A payment recorded by hand is undone with Reverse, choosing Customer refund only after you returned the money outside Console. See Card payments and payment links.
When a guest cancels a card-paid booking on your web shop, Console refunds what the cancellation owes back by itself, once, through the payment account that took the payment. The booking's Timeline tab shows when the refund started and completed. If the bank declines it, an incident opens for your team; see Bookings that need attention. The Bookings list shows Refund due or Refunded with the amount beside the booking's total.
Cancellations release inventory
Cancelling or voiding a booking releases the inventory it held. A no-show releases nights after the arrival night. Channel-push bookings do not restore inventory they never deducted. For a package item cancellation, the release follows the cancelled item.
Payment disputes
A payment dispute is a transaction reversal initiated by the cardholder through their bank. Unlike a refund, you do not initiate it, the bank pulls the funds out of your account first, and you have a defense window (typically 7–14 days) to respond. Payment disputes are an industry-wide reality of taking card payments; what matters is how cleanly you can defend the legitimate ones.
How a payment dispute flows
What gets attached to the case
When a payment dispute opens, Adrasis automatically gathers the context:
- The booking record, dates, room, rate plan, traveller details.
- The rate plan's cancellation policy at the time of booking.
- Communications with the traveller (cancellation requests, no-show notices).
- The supplier's record of the stay (if available, check-in, check-out, ancillaries).
- Any operator notes attached to the booking.
You add or refine evidence before submitting. Adrasis AI Operator can help: "Pull the full evidence package for payment dispute CB-2389."
Common payment dispute reasons
| Reason | What it usually means |
|---|---|
| Service not received | The cardholder claims they did not stay. Counter with check-in / check-out evidence. |
| Fraudulent transaction | The cardholder claims they did not authorize the booking. Review IP, email, payment-method patterns. |
| Duplicate transaction | Two charges for one booking. Often legitimate; refund and concede. |
| Cancelled booking, refund not received | The traveller cancelled but did not see a refund. Check the refund history; if missing, refund and concede. |
| Different amount than agreed | The amount charged differed from the displayed total. Compare booking total to settlement; resolve. |
Adrasis tags each payment dispute with its reason code and surfaces likely defenses based on the case context.
Payment dispute economics
Payment disputes cost more than the disputed amount:
- The funds are pulled, then either returned (if you defend successfully) or kept by the cardholder.
- Most payment gateways charge a per-payment dispute fee regardless of outcome.
- Excessive payment disputes against an organization may affect gateway standing.
You see payment dispute rate per organization per period in the Console. The AI Operator can sweep: "Show payment disputes open for more than 14 days, grouped by reason."
Payment dispute controls
- Reading payment dispute cases, open the case from the booking or payments queue.
- Submitting defenses, attach evidence and submit the response.
- Conceding (accept the loss), recorded with reason.
- Bulk concession, preview before closing stale cases.
Refunds vs. payment disputes, a quick comparison
| Concern | Refund | Payment dispute |
|---|---|---|
| Who initiates | You | Cardholder via their bank |
| Time pressure | Per cancellation policy | Defense window from the bank (typically 7–14 days) |
| Recoverable | N/A, voluntary | Funds pulled until defense outcome |
| Cost | The refunded amount | The amount + payment dispute fee + handling time |
| Case history | Created by your refund flow | Externally driven; full case context auto-gathered |
A clean operation prefers refunds, proactive, cheap, traveller-friendly. Payment disputes are what happens when refunds did not happen in time, or when the dispute is opportunistic.
AI Operator and refunds / payment disputes
Common phrases that map to AI Operator operations:
- "Process the refund for booking BK-12345, the cancellation just landed."
- "Find every payment dispute open for more than 14 days and pull their evidence packages."
- "Show me cancellations in the last week where no refund has been issued."
- "Concede the payment dispute CB-2389, we are not going to win this one."
Read operations return immediately; writes preview before applying.
Where to next
- The settlement and reconciliation flow refunds tie into → Settlement & reconciliation
- Contracts defining refund terms → Contracts
- The notification surface that flags payment disputes → Notifications