> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://app.docs.circuly.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Cancellations & Refunds

> Cancel a rental or booking, issue refunds, and how booking conflicts are refunded automatically.

## 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.

Cancellations are merchant-initiated from your Shopify admin. There is no customer-facing self-cancel — customers can't cancel their own rentals.

You'll also learn how the system handles the rare case where two customers secure the same units for overlapping dates: it refunds the affected order automatically, with no action needed from you.

***

## 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.

<Warning>
  Cancelling a rental **can't be undone**. No refund is issued automatically —
  if the customer should get money back, refund the order in Shopify.
</Warning>

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.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Rentals">
    Go to **Shopify Admin** → **Circuly Rental & Subscriptions** → **Rentals**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Open the rental">
    Click the rental you want to cancel to open its detail page.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Cancel rental">
    In the **Manage rental** card, click **Cancel rental**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="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.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Once confirmed, the reserved units return to your available pool and the rental is marked as cancelled. Any refund the customer is owed is handled by you in the Shopify order.

***

## 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.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the booking">
    Open the booking from the Rental Engine.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Click Cancel pre-pay">
    In the **State controls** card, click **Cancel pre-pay**.
  </Step>
</Steps>

Cancelling the booking releases the held units back to available. Because no payment was taken on a held cart booking, there's nothing to refund.

***

## 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.

<Note>
  You don't have to do anything — conflict refunds are automatic. The customer
  is refunded for the line that couldn't be honoured.
</Note>

How much is refunded depends on the order:

* **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

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="Rental booking flow" icon="calendar-check" href="/docs/mintlify/rental-booking-flow">
    How bookings are placed, held, and confirmed into paid rentals.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Rental troubleshooting" icon="wrench" href="/docs/mintlify/rental-troubleshooting">
    Diagnose availability, conflict, and refund issues.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>