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Glossary
TL;DR
A weather cancellation policy is the set of rules for when a rental refunds a deposit on weather-driven cancellations: wind, rain, storm. Critical for water, event, and outdoor-sports verticals.
A weather cancellation policy defines under which weather conditions a customer can cancel without losing the deposit (or part of it). Rules typically rest on objective thresholds from official meteorological sources (IMGW in PL, EuroWX): wind > X km/h, rain > Y mm/h, level-1 weather alert. The policy is in the contract and shown to the customer at booking.
Setup: define policies per niche/product (kayak: wind >25 km/h, SUP: wind >20 km/h, jet-ski: any IMGW alert ≥0). Some systems monitor the forecast for the rental's location and, 24h before booking, email the customer a free-cancel or reschedule option. On sudden weather changes (squall), staff mass-cancel all active bookings in a category. The deposit refund follows the policy.
Without a policy: ad-hoc decisions (disputes either way – customer never happy), the infamous 'day-before weather but customer pays' = Google-reviews damage. With a policy: clear, objective rules accepted by the customer at booking = no dispute. In water sports it's industry standard – without one the operator looks amateur.
In OneRental you set a weather cancellation policy per niche/product and show it to the customer at booking (a 'Cancellation Rules' section). You issue refunds through your own gateway, and the Reservation Ledger records each refund with an audit trail. Automatic forecast monitoring (OpenWeather, IMGW) and forecast-driven auto-cancellation are on the roadmap – today staff make the call and mass-cancel a category.
Discover how OneRental can help you streamline operations, boost revenue, and elevate the customer experience.