The most common situations:
“I was charged, but the money wasn’t refunded.”
“I don’t see any refund.”
“When will I get my money back?”
In most cases, no card payment actually took place. With a card payment, the money isn’t charged immediately — it’s only temporarily held on the card (an authorization).
If the booking is cancelled in time:
the payment is not completed
the money is never charged
the bank releases the hold
Therefore:
the client won’t see any refund
because there’s nothing to refund
⚠️ Why this confuses clients
Banking apps display this in a confusing way:
First the client sees:
a “pending” or “debited” amount
(in reality it’s only a hold)
After the booking is cancelled:
the hold is released automatically
the transaction often disappears completely
Result:
the client feels the money is gone
but no real payment ever took place
⏱️ How long it takes to release the hold
usually: 1–3 business days
at most: up to 7 days (depends on the bank)
🔍 How to verify it
For every booking paid by card there’s a link to the Stripe Dashboard, where you can find the payment status:
uncaptured / not captured → the payment was never charged
incomplete / failed → the payment wasn’t completed
In both cases:
the money never left the client’s account
💬 How to respond to the client
With card payments, so that a booking can be cancelled easily, the money is at first only temporarily held on your account.
This is normal — in your banking app it may look like a “pending” or “charged” payment.
If the booking is cancelled during that time, this hold is released automatically as well.
So the money never actually leaves your bank — it’s simply “released back”.
You can check for yourself: in your banking app, look at the date of the original booking (payment). You won’t find any actual outgoing payment there.
That’s why you don’t see any refund — because no real payment ever took place.
❗ When to investigate further
If the Stripe payment status is captured (the payment was actually charged).