Cancelling a hotel room booking

Many hotel rates are refundable until a day before arrival. This house does not work on that model. A guest who cancels keeps no claim on the deposit, whether he cancels a fortnight ahead or as she is getting out of the taxi. No tiered schedule applies, no free window exists, and no percentage is handed back in return for early notice.

Moving rather than cancelling

One move is allowed per reservation, asked for more than twenty-four hours before the start and set within fourteen days, and the deposit moves with it. A second move, or a request that comes later than that, counts as a cancellation, with the deposit kept.

Where the cost sits

A reservation starts costing the house the moment the office says yes. At that point someone has confirmed the details, a therapist has locked the hours against every other request, the enquiries that arrived for the same window have been declined, and the travel and coordination have been set in motion. A cancellation afterwards cannot give any of that back, and the deposit is what it has already cost.

Force majeure

Two situations are considered on their merits: a government ban on operations, and serious illness that prevents the service. If the office accepts either, the deposit is converted into credit toward a later reservation. Cash is not handed back in its place. Scheduling conflicts, a meeting that ran long, a mild indisposition, a moved flight and a change of mind all fall outside it.

Reservations taken without a deposit

When a returning guest's same-day hour is accepted, or a therapist is already on her way before any deposit could be sent, cancelling commits the house to the same costs. The house then asks for cancellation collateral, a payment matching the deposit the reservation would otherwise have required. It is the same rule, settled after the fact.

Sessions that end early

A guest who brings a session to a close ahead of time is not refunded any part of it. A therapist may end a session immediately where her safety or consent is compromised, and in that case no refund is due either.

The fourteen-day right

Guests sometimes mention a cooling-off period. The Wet Koop op Afstand, which is how the EU Consumer Rights Directive entered Dutch law, normally lets a consumer pull out of a distance purchase of services within fourteen days. Dutch Civil Code Article 6:230p carves out services delivered on a set date or during a set period: the date-specific-service exemption. A reservation for a set hour on a set evening is exactly such a service, so the withdrawal right never arises and the house policy applies. Read the whole of it on the cancellation policy page; the amounts involved are under deposit, and the wider conditions sit in the terms.