openchair
Sign InStart Free Trial

Bookings

Rescheduling & Cancelling Bookings

Rescheduling & Cancelling Bookings

Move a booking to a different time, change the staff member, or cancel the appointment — whether you are a staff member managing the calendar or a customer changing your own booking online.

Overview

Rescheduling and cancelling lets you:

  • Move a booking to a new date, time, or staff member from the calendar or booking inspector
  • Drag and drop a booking block on the calendar to quickly reschedule (web and iPad)
  • Let customers reschedule or cancel their own bookings via a secure Manage Booking link
  • Enforce your venue's cancellation notice window and deposit policy automatically
  • Handle deposit refunds, store credit, or forfeit based on your cancellation rules

Rescheduling a Booking (Staff)

Staff can reschedule from the booking inspector or by dragging a booking block on the calendar.

From the Booking Inspector

  1. Open a booking by clicking or tapping it on the calendar
  2. Click Reschedule
  3. The Reschedule Booking dialog opens, showing the current time: "Currently [date] at [time] with [staff name]"

Choosing a New Time

The reschedule flow offers three ways to find a new slot:

Quick options — The dialog shows "Best next options" with up to two suggestions:

Option What It Shows
Next with current stylist The soonest available slot with the same staff member
Soonest available The earliest slot with any qualified staff member

Click either option to jump straight to the review step.

Browse other times — Under "Browse other times", choose from:

  • Browse same stylist times — see all available slots for the current staff member
  • Browse next available times — see all available slots across any staff
  • Browse another stylist — compare availability for each qualified staff member (multi-staff venues only)

Date and time search — When browsing, a date strip shows the next 14 days. Tap a date to see available time slots. Use "Pick a date" to jump to a specific day. If no slots are available, click "Find next available day" to skip forward.

Reviewing the Change

Before confirming, the "Review change" screen shows:

  • Your current booking date, time, and staff
  • The new booking date, time, and staff
  • Any changes to duration, price, or deposit treatment

If the change involves a deposit policy difference, the review shows the specific impact (e.g., "The existing deposit of $50.00 stays attached to this booking").

Click Confirm change to complete the reschedule. A toast confirms: "Booking moved to [date] at [time]".

Waitlist Alternative

If no suitable time is available, click "Keep booking and join waitlist" to keep the current booking confirmed while saving an earlier-availability preference. OpenChair notifies the customer if a better slot opens up.

Drag-to-Reschedule on the Calendar

On web and iPad, drag a booking block to a new time slot or staff column:

  1. Click and hold a booking block on the calendar
  2. Drag it to the desired time and staff column
  3. Release to drop

If you drag onto a staff member's day off or outside their working hours, a warning appears:

  • "[Staff name] is rostered off on [day]."
  • "Outside [Staff name]'s working hours on [day]."

A confirmation dialog asks whether to proceed. If confirmed, the booking moves and a toast shows "Booking moved" with an Undo option (available for 8 seconds).

Tip

Drag-to-reschedule is the fastest way to adjust appointment times. You can undo the move within 8 seconds if you drop it in the wrong spot.

Rescheduling on Mobile (Phone)

  1. Open the booking detail screen
  2. Tap Reschedule
  3. The reschedule sheet opens with the same flow as web: quick options, browse, and review
  4. Tap Confirm change to complete

Rescheduling a Booking (Customer Self-Service)

Customers can reschedule their own bookings using a secure link — no account or phone call required.

Using the Manage Booking Link

Every booking confirmation email and SMS includes a Manage Booking link. The link is unique to each booking and secured with an HMAC token.

When a customer opens the link, they see their booking details:

  • Date and time
  • Service name and staff member
  • Venue name and location
  • Status badge (Confirmed, Awaiting confirmation, etc.)

To reschedule:

  1. Click See Other Times
  2. Browse available time slots (same flow as the staff reschedule: date strip, time grid)
  3. Review the change and click Confirm change
  4. The customer receives a confirmation email and/or SMS with the new time

Policy Window Restrictions

If the booking falls inside the venue's cancellation notice window (e.g., within 24 hours of the appointment), a warning banner appears:

"Self-serve rescheduling is closed inside [X] hours." "You can still explore other times and call the venue to confirm a change. Cancellation is still available here."

The customer can still browse times, but the Confirm change button is replaced with "Call venue to confirm" (with the venue's phone number). The venue must manually confirm the reschedule.

Changing Staff (Customer)

By default, customers can only reschedule with the same staff member. If the venue has enabled Allow customer alternate staff reschedule in their booking settings, customers can also choose a different qualified staff member, provided the duration and price remain the same.

Cancelling a Booking (Staff)

On Web

  1. Open the booking in the inspector
  2. Click Cancel (or the "Cancel booking" link at the bottom of the panel)
  3. A confirmation dialog appears: "Cancel Booking?"
    • If a deposit is held, the dialog includes: "A $[amount] deposit is held and will be handled according to your cancellation policy."
  4. Click Confirm Cancellation
  5. A toast confirms: "Booking cancelled"

On Mobile

  1. Open the booking detail screen
  2. Tap Cancel in the action buttons
  3. Confirm in the dialog: "Cancel [customer name]'s Booking?" / "This will permanently cancel [customer name]'s booking. Any deposit will be handled according to your cancellation policy."
  4. Tap Cancel booking to confirm

Who Can Cancel

Only Owners and Managers can cancel bookings. Stylists see the cancel button but receive an error: "Only managers can cancel bookings."

Caution

Cancellation is permanent and cannot be undone from the app. If a booking is cancelled by mistake, create a new booking for the customer.

Cancelling a Booking (Customer Self-Service)

Customers cancel through the same Manage Booking link used for rescheduling.

  1. Open the Manage Booking link from the confirmation email or SMS
  2. Click Cancel Booking
  3. A confirmation dialog shows "Confirm cancellation" with details about deposit handling:
Scenario What the Customer Sees
No deposit "No deposit is attached to this booking."
Outside notice window "Your existing deposit of [amount] will be refunded."
Inside notice window (forfeit policy) "Your existing deposit of [amount] will be forfeited because this cancellation is within [X] hours."
Inside notice window (credit policy) "Your existing deposit of [amount] will be returned as venue credit."
Tiered refund policy "[Refundable amount] of your [total] deposit will be refunded under the current cancellation policy."
  1. Click Confirm Cancellation to cancel the booking
  2. A confirmation appears: "Your booking has been cancelled."

The dialog also suggests: "If you still want this appointment, try See Other Times first to look for the next available options."

Cancelling Pending Requests

If the booking is still Pending (awaiting venue approval), the customer sees a "Cancel Request" button instead. Cancelling a pending request is always allowed regardless of the notice window.

Counter-Offered Bookings

If the venue has counter-offered with alternative times, the customer sees the offered time slots and can:

  • Accept This Time on any of the offered slots
  • No Thanks, Cancel Request to decline all offers and cancel

Counter-offers expire after 24 hours by default (configurable by the venue). Expired offers show: "This booking request expired before it could be confirmed. Any deposit has been refunded automatically."

How Deposit Refunds Work

When a booking with a deposit is cancelled, the refund depends on the venue's deposit rule and how far in advance the cancellation is made.

Simple Window Policy

Timing Refund Action Customer Gets
Outside the notice window (e.g., >24 hours before) Full refund Deposit returned to card
Inside the notice window (e.g., <24 hours before) Depends on venue policy See below

The venue's policy for cancellations inside the notice window can be set to one of:

Policy What Happens
Full refund Deposit returned to the customer's card
Store credit Deposit converted to venue credit (valid for 365 days)
Forfeit Deposit captured — the customer is not refunded

Tiered Refund Policy

Venues can set up tiered refund percentages based on how far in advance the cancellation is made:

Example Tier Hours Before Appointment Refund Percentage
Tier 1 More than 48 hours 100% (full refund)
Tier 2 24–48 hours 50% (partial refund)
Tier 3 Less than 24 hours 0% (forfeit)

The notice window and refund tiers are configured in your venue's deposit rules. See Deposits for setup instructions.

Recording a No-Show

When a customer does not attend their appointment:

  1. Open the booking in the inspector
  2. Click No Show (web) or No-Show (mobile)
  3. A confirmation dialog appears: "Mark as No-show?"
    • If a deposit is held: "Their $[amount] deposit will be forfeited. This cannot be undone."
  4. Click Mark as no-show

The no-show is recorded on the customer's profile. If a deposit was authorised, it is automatically captured (forfeited).

Warning

No-show status is permanent. The deposit forfeit cannot be reversed once processed. If the customer contacts you after being marked as a no-show, you would need to issue a manual refund through Stripe.

What Happens After

After Rescheduling

  • The calendar updates immediately to show the booking in its new time slot
  • The customer receives a reschedule confirmation email and/or SMS with the new details and a fresh Manage Booking link
  • The booking history records the reschedule with the previous and new times
  • If the booking was linked to the waitlist, the waitlist preference is updated or removed

After Cancelling

  • The booking status changes to Cancelled on the calendar
  • Deposit is processed according to the venue's cancellation policy (refund, credit, or forfeit)
  • The customer receives a cancellation notification (if enabled in venue notification settings)
  • OpenChair checks the waitlist for customers who could fill the newly open slot
  • On web, a "This slot is now open" card appears with options to "Share this opening" or "Copy Flash Deal" to fill the gap

After No-Show

  • The booking status changes to No show on the calendar
  • Any held deposit is captured (forfeited) automatically
  • The no-show is recorded on the customer's profile
  • OpenChair checks the waitlist for customers who could fill the slot

Platform Differences

Feature Web iPad Phone
Reschedule from inspector Yes Yes Yes
Drag-to-reschedule Yes Yes No
Cancel from inspector Yes Yes Yes
No-show from inspector Yes Yes Yes
Customer self-service (Manage link) Yes (web page) Yes (web page) Yes (web page)
Undo after drag-reschedule Yes (8 seconds) Yes (8 seconds) N/A

Troubleshooting

Issue Solution
Customer says "Invalid Access Link" The Manage Booking link may have been corrupted in transit. Ask the customer to use the link from their original confirmation email or SMS.
Customer cannot reschedule — inside notice window The booking is within the venue's cancellation notice window. The customer can browse times and call you to confirm, or you can reschedule it from the calendar on their behalf.
Dragged a booking to the wrong time Click Undo in the toast notification within 8 seconds. If you missed the undo window, use the Reschedule button to move it again.
Deposit not refunded after cancellation Check your venue's deposit rule. If the cancellation was inside the notice window and the policy is set to forfeit, the deposit is intentionally captured. Adjust the deposit rule in your booking settings if this is not the intended behaviour.
"Only managers can cancel bookings" error Cancellation requires an Owner or Manager role. Stylists cannot cancel bookings — ask your manager.
Customer did not receive cancellation notification Check that cancellation notifications are enabled in your venue's notification settings. Verify the customer has a phone number or email on file.
"Booking status was changed by another request" error Another team member changed this booking at the same time. Refresh the page and try again.

Related Articles

Last updated: March 2026