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Home>Preventing Disputes

Chargeback of Hotel or Accommodations No-show and Cancellation Fees

If you charge your customers no-show or cancellation fees when they fail to honour their reservation with you, please be aware that they are entitled to dispute these charges with their card issuers – and your customer’s card issuers may resolve the dispute in their favour.

We will do our best to represent your case to the issuer based on the card network's rules, but if the dispute is resolved in their favour, there is no further recourse. Square will no longer be able to assist you in getting the funds back once this decision has been made. You are responsible for paying this chargeback.

By taking the right precautions at the time of receiving bookings and accommodation fees, you will reduce the likelihood of receiving a dispute and be prepared in the event that you do receive one. This will also allow Square to represent your case to the card issuer with the best support available.

At the time of receiving bookings

When you receive a booking from your customer, make sure your no-show and cancellation policy is disclosed and agreed to by your customer. We encourage you to do your best in always explaining your policies to your customer and obtaining signed authorisation of those policies after checking your customer’s ID.

When you send a Square invoice for accommodation fees, No-show charges and Cancellation charges

When you create an invoice, make sure to include a message with your no-show and cancellation policies to indicate those policies are accepted by paying the invoice.

Card-Not-Present transaction for No-show and Cancellation charges

Avoid card-not-present transactions when your customer’s consent is required. After obtaining consent from your customer, take a payment by using Square Invoice.

Note: If the cardholder or card issuer disputes a payment and the dispute is resolved in their favour, the card payment needs to be refunded and you will need to take the payment outside of Square.

Cancellation of Transaction Past One Year

If your customer requests to cancel their booking after one year has passed from the original payment date, you will need to refund your customer outside of Square as you cannot process a refund one year after the transaction date. However, please note that even if the cancellation was made within one year of the payment date, if your Square balance is smaller than the refund amount, your refund may be declined.

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