Overview
There are two kinds of records in the Rental Engine, and they cancel differently:- A Rental is a confirmed, paid rental — the customer has been charged and units are reserved for their dates.
- A Booking is a pre-payment hold — units are held while the customer checks out, but no charge has happened yet.
Cancel a confirmed rental
When a paying customer needs to cancel, open the rental and cancel it from the Manage rental card. This releases the reserved units back to available and marks the rental cancelled. Cancelling is only available while the rental is confirmed — before you hand the units over. Once a rental is active, the customer has the units, so the way to end it is Mark as completed (or Inspect & receive units) when they come back. Cancelling the order in Shopify still cancels an active rental.1
Open Rentals
Go to Shopify Admin → Circuly Rental & Subscriptions → Rentals.
2
Open the rental
Click the rental you want to cancel to open its detail page.
3
Click Cancel rental
In the Manage rental card, click Cancel rental.
4
Confirm in the modal
A confirmation modal titled Cancel this rental? explains what will happen.
Click Cancel rental to proceed, or Keep rental to back out.
Cancel a pre-pay booking
A Booking is a hold placed while a customer is still checking out — no charge has happened yet for a held cart booking. If you need to release that hold, you can cancel the booking directly.1
Open the booking
Open the booking from the Rental Engine.
2
Click Cancel pre-pay
In the State controls card, click Cancel pre-pay.
Automatic conflict refunds
In rare cases, two customers can secure the same units for overlapping dates — for example, if one order slips past the storefront availability check. When this happens, the system detects the conflict and automatically refunds the affected order. Nothing is released that the customer never actually received.You don’t have to do anything — conflict refunds are automatic. The customer
is refunded for the line that couldn’t be honoured.
- Single-line order — the full order is refunded, since the one rental line couldn’t be honoured.
- Multi-line cart — only the conflicting line is refunded (a partial refund). The customer’s other rental lines stand and continue as normal.
Related pages
Rental booking flow
How bookings are placed, held, and confirmed into paid rentals.
Rental troubleshooting
Diagnose availability, conflict, and refund issues.