Cancellation Policies and Refunds

The Six Policies

Kabora has six cancellation policies, the same as Airbnb's. Every listing uses one, and a name means the same thing on every listing:

• Flexible: Full refund until 1 day before check-in. After that, the first night is kept and the other nights are refunded. Once the stay has begun, the nights stayed are kept.
• Moderate: Full refund until 5 days before. After that, one night is kept and half of the other nights is refunded. Once the stay has begun, the nights stayed and one more are kept, and half of the rest is refunded.
• Limited: Full refund until 14 days before. Then 50% until 7 days, and nothing after.
• Firm: Full refund until 30 days before. Then 50% until 7 days, and nothing after.
• Strict: A full refund only in the first 24 hours after booking. Then 50% until 7 days before, and nothing after.
• Non-refundable: No refund, and any cancellation requires the host's agreement.

On every policy except Non-refundable, a guest who cancels within 24 hours of booking receives a full refund, provided check-in is at least 7 days away. A "night" is the stay's average night: the stay's price shared equally across its nights. A share of nights is that exact share of the price, to the cent. On Moderate, a six-night stay canceled after its free window keeps one night and returns half of the other five, which is 5/12 of what the policy refunds from, and the stay's tax comes back in the same share. The page states the share kept as it is: 58.33%, never rounded up or down to a different figure.

Choosing a Policy

Each listing's Cancellation policy offers these six and nothing else. Settings → Defaults → Cancellation sets the policy every listing follows until it has its own, and it is also one of the six.

You can write policies of your own only for direct bookings, made on your own booking site, and for stays you type in. Under Direct bookings → Booking policies, each listing uses:

• The Kabora policy: The same policy the listing has on Kabora.
• Another standard policy: Another of the six.
• Your own policy: One you wrote.

A stay you type in follows that same policy. The two never mix: a booking made on Kabora is always on one of the six.

Listings that were on Kabora's earlier Strict policy (full refund until 14 days, 50% until 7) are now on Limited. Limited has the same terms under the name Airbnb uses, so no listing's terms moved. Stays booked before October 6, 2026 keep the terms they were booked with.

A Cheaper Rate With No Refund

A listing's Cancellation policy page can also offer a Non-refundable rate: a lower price in exchange for no refund if the guest cancels. It is 10% off unless you set another discount, between 5% and 50%. At checkout, the guest chooses between the listing's own policy and the rate. A stay booked on the rate carries Non-refundable terms.

The rate is never offered on:

• Stays of 28 nights or more: These follow the long-term rule below.
• Stays you type in, or stays brought over from another site: Neither is booked at a checkout.

Terms Fixed at Booking

The policy in force when a stay is booked governs it, and it is recorded on the reservation. Every booking made on Kabora, on your own site, or typed in by you carries its terms.

A stay booked on another site keeps that site's terms, not Kabora's. Nights a calendar link closed are not a booking here, so they carry no terms. Changing a listing's policy later never rewrites an existing booking's terms. The sheet always displays the terms as booked.

How a Refund Percentage Is Calculated

The platform fee and the card processing are never given back, whoever cancels and whatever the reason. Everything else follows the policy — after those two have already come off the top.

A "50%" band is not half of what the guest paid; it is half of what remained once the fees came out. On a $2,000 booking carrying $98.30 of fees, a 50% band returns $950.85, not $901.70. The guest sees that exact number before paying, and again before confirming the cancellation.

On a stay paid in parts, the band is a share of the whole stay, not of the part paid so far. The policy keeps its share of the stay, net of the fees. The guest receives whatever they paid above that share, and never less than nothing. Nobody is asked to pay the rest of a stay they have canceled.

For example, take a $16,912 stay with $11,446 paid. A 50% band keeps about $7,900 for you and returns about $2,450. On the same stay paid in full, it returns half of what remains after fees, as above.

Long Stays

On a stay of 28 nights or more, the long-term rule replaces the policy's bands from the day it is booked. Everything but the fees is refunded until 30 days before check-in. After that, the first 30 nights are not refunded. Once the stay has begun, the nights stayed and the next 30 are not refunded, never past checkout. The nights after that are refunded, less the fees. A later cancellation never returns more than an earlier one. A long stay on Non-refundable returns nothing. A long stay booked before September 25, 2026 keeps its earlier terms: the policy's bands until check-in, then the nights stayed and the next 30.

Who Canceled

• The guest cancels: The policy band above applies, and the guest bears the two fees.
• The host cancels: The guest receives every cent they paid, with no band applied. The guest did nothing and has lost their trip. The fees are still not returned, so the host bears them.
• A card dispute: A guest who goes to their bank instead does not unwind the stay. It opens a case for a person to answer, with the card network's own deadline.

When the host cancels, the nights remain closed on the host's calendar, marked "A booking you canceled". Nothing reopens them, so a cancellation cannot become a way to sell the same dates again.

How Canceling Works

When the policy allows it, guests cancel themselves from the reservation sheet. The refund preview displays the exact number before they confirm. It is calculated from the booked terms and the calendar date, with the same calculation the server runs.

When a policy requires the host's agreement, the sheet sends a cancellation request instead. You answer it on the stay:

• Everything except the fees: Approve it, refunding all but the fees.
• An amount you choose: Approve it with a partial refund.
• Nothing: Approve it with no refund.
• Decline, keep the booking: The booking stands.

An approval is the guest's cancellation, so no host cancellation fee is owed. A decline tells the guest the booking stands, and only then offers them Kabora's support. While the request waits, Kabora refuses your own Cancel; answer the request instead.

A stay booked on another site is canceled there. The guest paid that site, and that site holds the money. Kabora does not quote another site's refund.