Your refund depends on when you cancel, relative to both when you booked and when the experience starts. These rules apply to bookings made directly on Withlocals.
Direct bookings on Withlocals
Two windows decide your refund. The 24-hour grace period after booking is always checked first. If it applies, you get a full refund regardless of how soon the experience is. Otherwise, the time before the experience decides the rest.
When you cancel | Refund |
Within the 24-hour grace period after booking (and at least 24 hours before the experience) | Full refund, including the service fee |
Within the 1-hour grace period of a booking made less than 24 hours before the experience | Full refund, including the service fee |
Outside the grace period, more than 7 days before the experience | Refund of the experience price, minus the service fee |
Outside the grace period, less than 7 days before the experience | No refund |
Withlocals uses the exact start time of your experience, not midnight, when calculating the 7-day window.
24-hour grace period after booking
Right after you book, you have a 24-hour window in which you can cancel and get everything back, including the service fee. This grace period ends when one of the following happens first:
24 hours pass after the host confirms your booking.
You reach the point 24 hours before your experience starts.
If your experience is already less than 24 hours away when your booking is confirmed, the 24-hour grace period does not apply. You get the 1-hour grace period instead.
The grace period applies even when you book close to the experience date. For example, if you book three days before the experience, you still have 24 hours after booking to cancel for a full refund, as long as the experience is at least 24 hours away when you cancel.
1-hour grace period for last-minute bookings
If your experience starts less than 24 hours after your booking is confirmed, you can cancel within 1 hour of confirmation for a full refund, including the service fee. Most bookings are confirmed the moment you pay. A booking that needs your host's approval is confirmed when the host accepts it. This lets you fix a booking made for the wrong date, time or group size.
The 1-hour grace period ends when the experience starts, if that comes first. For example, if you book 40 minutes before the start, you can cancel for a full refund until the experience starts.
After the hour, the booking is not refundable.
7-day cancellation window
If you booked more than 7 days before the experience, then after the grace period ends and up until 7 days before the experience, you can still cancel and get the experience price refunded. The service fee is not refunded in this window. Bookings made less than 7 days before the experience do not have this partial-refund window.
No refund after the grace period within 7 days
Once the grace period has ended and you are within 7 days of the experience, cancellations are no longer refundable. This protects hosts who have reserved time for your booking.
If your booking moves to another host
If we move your booking to a different host, for example because your host can no longer make it, you can cancel for a full refund, including the service fee, at any time before the experience starts. The windows above do not apply to that booking. This does not apply when the change of host was made at your request.
If your host cancels
When a host cancels a confirmed booking, you get a full refund, including the service fee. You do not have to do anything. See What happens if my host cancels?.
Partner bookings (Viator, GetYourGuide, and others)
If you booked your Withlocals experience through a partner platform like Viator or GetYourGuide, the partner's cancellation policy applies and you manage the booking on their site. See Booking through Viator or GetYourGuide.
Good to know
The cancellation step shows you the refund you will receive before you confirm, so you always see the outcome first.
Rescheduling is a separate option and does not involve a refund. See How to reschedule your booking.
Refunds go back to the original payment method. Timing depends on your bank. See How long do refunds take?.
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