Table of content

• Understanding Booking Status
• Coverage Window Explained
• Submitting a Claim
• Tracking Claim Status
• Reimbursement Amount
• Payments and Reconciliation
• Daily Best Practices

Once Cancellation Protection is active, managing your bookings is straightforward. This guide explains how to monitor protection status, handle cancellations, and submit claims when needed.

Understanding Booking Status

In your Smily dashboard, each booking displays its cancellation policy type and protection status. Here's what you'll see:

Non-Refundable Bookings

Bookings made at the non-refundable rate show:

• Policy type: Non-Refundable
• Status: No protection applied (traveler chose the lowest rate without flexibility)

These bookings cannot be cancelled for a refund by the traveler.

Flexible Bookings (Active)

Bookings made with the flexible rate show:

• Policy type: Flexible with Cancellation Protection
• Protection fee: The amount collected for protection
• Coverage window: The period during which cancellation is covered
• Status: Active and protected
• Waiting period before protection is activated: 1 day (24 hours). If the traveler cancels their reservation within 24 hours of making the reservation, the compensation claim will not be accepted.

If the traveler cancels within the coverage window, you're eligible for reimbursement.

Cancelled Bookings - Claim Eligible

When a flexible booking is cancelled within the coverage window by the traveler:

• Status: Cancelled - Claim Eligible
• Claim amount: Shows 96% of your rental revenue
• Action required: Submit a claim form (link provided in the booking details)
• Deadline: You have 1-60 days after the original checkout date to submit the claim

You'll see a prominent button or link to submit the claim directly from the booking page.

Cancelled Bookings - Not Eligible

A cancelled booking may not be eligible for reimbursement if:

• Cancelled by you or Smily (not by the traveler): Protection only covers traveler-initiated cancellations
• Cancelled outside coverage window: Too early (more than 30 days before check-in) or too late (less than 24 hours before)
• Cancelled within 24 hours of booking: The waiting period hasn't elapsed
• Claim window expired: More than 60 days have passed since the original checkout date

The booking will show the reason why it's not eligible for reimbursement.

Coverage Window Explained

Cancellation Protection applies to cancellations made:

From 30 days before check-in up to 1 day before check-in

• Start of coverage: 720 hours (30 days) before scheduled check-in time
• End of coverage: 24 hours (1 day) before scheduled check-in time
• Waiting period: 24 hours after booking creation

Example:

If check-in is December 31 at 4:00 PM:

• Coverage starts: December 1 at 4:00 PM
• Coverage ends: December 30 at 4:00 PM
• If the traveler books on December 5 at 2:00 PM, coverage doesn't start until December 6 at 2:00 PM (24-hour waiting period)

Submitting a Claim

When a booking is eligible for reimbursement, follow these steps:

Step 1: Access the Claim Form

1. Go to the cancelled booking in your Smily dashboard
2. Look for the "Submit Claim" link or button in the Cancellation Protection section
3. Click the link—this will open the claim form (provided by our partner)

NB : Once you have submitted a claim for a cancelled booking, it is no longer possible to open a new form:

Step 2: Complete the Claim Form

You'll need to provide:

• Booking reference details (usually pre-filled)
• Confirmation that the cancellation meets eligibility criteria
• Any additional information requested by the form

Step 3: Submit and Track

Once submitted:

• You'll receive a confirmation
• The claim status will update in your Smily dashboard
• You cannot submit multiple claims for the same booking

Example of an email you will receive after submitting your claim:

Tracking Claim Status

After submitting a claim, you can monitor its progress directly in Smily:

Claim Statuses

Pending - Claim has been submitted and is under initial review

Ready for Process - Claim has been verified and is being processed

To Pay - Claim approved; payment is being prepared

Closed - Claim has been finalized. This can mean:

• Paid: You've received the reimbursement
• No News From Property Manager: No response was received during the claims process
• Fraud: The claim was identified as fraudulent
• Out of Warrant: The claim didn't meet eligibility requirements

Amendment to Pay - An adjustment to the payment amount is being processed

You can hover over the claim status in your dashboard to see more details about the current stage.

Reimbursement confirmation document: where to find it

When a Cancellation Protection reimbursement is processed, Smily provides a confirmation document that explains and justifies the reimbursement amount.

How you receive it

You will receive this document by email.

Where else it’s available (in-app)

In addition to the email, the same reimbursement confirmation document is also available directly in the Smily interface:

• Open the relevant booking
• Go to the booking details
• In the Cancellation Protection / reimbursement section, you’ll find the reimbursement confirmation document available to view/download

This makes it easy to retrieve the document later (for example, if the email can’t be found or needs to be shared internally).

Reimbursement Amount

When your claim is approved, you'll receive:

96% of the rental revenue (the amount that would have been split between you and the property owner)

Important Notes:

• The 96% is calculated from your net rental revenue after deducting commissions, fees, and taxes. The refund split should be the following: the Owner receives 100% of their expected payout and the Property Manager receives 80% of their commission, allowing the PM to absorb the 4% difference so the Owner stays fully compensated.
• If another booking is made for the same dates, the reimbursement will be adjusted to cover only the difference (you won't receive double payment)
• Smily automatically checks for replacement bookings

Reimbursable amount breakdown

When a cancelled booking is eligible for a Cancellation Protection claim, Smily shows an “Eligible protection amount” in the booking details.

To help you understand this number, you can now open a detailed breakdown that shows exactly how the reimbursable amount was calculated.

Where to find it

1. Open the booking in your Smily dashboard.
2. In the Cancellation Protection section, click on the eligible amount (the amount shown under the protection status).
3. A side panel opens: “How is this amount calculated?” with the full calculation steps.

What the breakdown means

The panel explains the calculation in two parts:

1. Rental price

This is the rental price paid by the traveler (sometimes called the “initial price”). It is the starting point shown at the top of the breakdown.

2. Deductions → Rent revenue

Smily then subtracts the costs and fees that apply to this booking to compute your rent revenue (the amount you would normally earn, after OTA commissions/fees and applicable items shown in the breakdown). This “Rent revenue” is the reference amount used for the protection calculation.

3. Reimbursable percentage → Eligible protection amount

Cancellation Protection reimburses 96% of the rent revenue (and applies a maximum cap per claim). The panel shows the percentage and the final result.

Example

In this booking’s breakdown:

• Rental price: €1,000.00
• Total deductions: -€274.84
• Rent revenue: €725.16
• Reimbursable: 96%
• Eligible protection amount: €696.15

This matches the calculation:

• €725.16 × 96% = €696.15

If the computed amount exceeds the maximum protection limit, the interface will clearly indicate that the claim is capped (maximum €50,000 per claim).

Why this is useful

• Transparency: you can see every step that leads to the eligible amount.
• Faster support: if something looks unexpected, you can immediately identify which fee or deduction affected the result.
• Clearer owner/property manager communication: the breakdown helps explain that the claim amount is based on rent revenue (after commissions/fees), not simply on the traveler’s rental price.

How rebookings (“relocations”) are taken into account in the payout calculation

When an initial booking is cancelled, the payout is not calculated by comparing the “total amount paid by the guest” of the initial booking to the “total amount paid” of the new bookings.

Instead, the payout is based on the eligible Cancellation Protection base (net eligible rental revenue, excluding non-covered elements such as city tax, certain fees, OTA commissions, etc.), and the loss is assessed night by night:

• For each cancelled night, we check whether that specific night was rebooked (relocated).
• If yes, the value of the rebooking for that night reduces the loss for that night.
• The remaining loss is then summed across all nights to determine the total loss, within the maximum insurable amount.

As a result, even if a “maximum insurable amount” is displayed, the final payout can be significantly lower when many nights have been partially or fully covered by rebookings.

Example (simplified)

Initial booking (Booking A, cancelled):

• Stay: 10 nights (e.g., from the 1st to the 11th)
• Maximum insurable amount (after applying the coverage rate) : €900

Two rebookings occur during the same period:

• Booking B: 4 nights (e.g., nights 2 to 5) for €520 (i.e., €130/night)
• Booking C: 3 nights (e.g., nights 8 to 10) for €240 (i.e., €80/night)

Calculation logic:

The loss is calculated per night on the covered base.

• Nights 2 to 5 are rebooked → we deduct €130/night (Booking B).
• Nights 8 to 10 are rebooked → we deduct €80/night (Booking C).
• Nights that are not rebooked remain fully lost for those nights (within the covered base and limits).

The final payout therefore corresponds to:

• the loss on nights that were not rebooked
• + the difference between the covered nightly value and the rebooked nightly value (if rebooked at a lower price)

Payments and Reconciliation

The Cancellation Protection fee is handled automatically:

During Normal Payouts

• The protection fee (including VAT) is deducted from your channel payout
• This appears in your completed payouts CSV with clear line items
• You'll see columns for "Cancellation Protection" and any carry-over amounts

When Payout Isn't Sufficient

Sometimes, deductions or adjustments mean there isn't enough in the channel payout to cover the protection fee. In these cases:

• The outstanding amount (called a "carry-over amount") is collected from the appropriate Smily wallet
• For split payment bookings: Collected from the PM wallet
• For non-split payment bookings: Collected from PM wallet (if you have carte G) or Owner wallet (if not)
• This appears as a separate line item in your payout export

Invoicing

You'll receive aggregated invoices for Cancellation Protection fees, similar to other SmilyPay fees. Each invoice summarizes all protection fees for the billing period.

Reconciliation impact (what you will see as a Property Manager)

When Cancellation Protection is enabled, Smily increases the guest price using a markup. This markup is designed to help cover the Cancellation Protection cost during reconciliation.

However, during reconciliation, the amount that remains to be split between you (the property manager) and the owner can be lower than the “base” rent price you may have in mind. This is normal and happens for two reasons:

1. Some commissions are not compensated by the markup

Some payment and OTA-related commissions can still be deducted during reconciliation and are not fully offset by the markup.

2. Most importantly: the markup covers only the net Cancellation Protection cost (VAT is not covered)

• The markup calculation uses the net Cancellation Protection rate (example: 11%).
• But when Smily charges the Cancellation Protection fee during reconciliation, VAT is added on top of that net amount.

This means the deduction you see during reconciliation is the gross amount (net + VAT), which is higher than the net rate used for the markup.

For example, if the net Cancellation Protection cost is 11% and VAT is 20%:

• Net rate used to calculate the markup: 11%
• Actual fee deducted during reconciliation (gross): 11% × 1.20 = 13.2%

So even if the markup was calculated using 11%, the reconciliation will deduct 13.2% (because VAT must be added).

Daily Best Practices

✓ Monitor your bookings dashboard regularly to stay aware of protection status

💡Tip: You can easily filter your protected or unprotected bookings using our new filter available in the "booking" menu.

✓ Submit claims promptly when eligible cancellations occur—don't wait until the deadline

✓ Keep rental information up to date to maintain eligibility (currency, location, payment gateway)

✓ Review your payout reports to understand protection fee deductions

✓ Respond to any Smily team requests for verification or additional information

With Cancellation Protection, most of the work is handled automatically. Your main responsibility is submitting claims when eligible cancellations occur and even then, the process is simple and straightforward.