Deposit

[Nightowl]

I understand your point.

you cancel = guests expect their deposit back

they cancel = guests expect their deposit back

So you're holding the dates and ALL the risk.

I think it's perfectly OK to charge an 'administration fee' or just to pass on the costs of their cancellation and explain just that - that its cost you xyz euro and you are deducting that before returning the rest of the deposit.

Some businesses have terms which say that the holding deposit is not refundable, depending on how long the dates have been held.

Most of us say it's returnable if we can rebook the dates, otherwise it might not be or might only be a partial refund.

So I think its reasonable enough to make sure you don't have any losses from their cancellation. Therefore, keep back the cost of the 4 cc charges and refund the rest.

But if you haven't already got wording to this effect in your T&Cs, you should add some, going forward.