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How to cancel an event

What steps you need to take when cancelling an event.

Written by Jonny White

We know it's never ideal to cancel an event, but it does occasionally happen. If it needs to happen, this help article explains the steps you need to take to cancel your event and notify your ticket buyers.


How to cancel your event

  • First, you need to notify your ticket buyers that the event has been cancelled. You can do this using the Broadcast feature.

    • We recommend that you explain that the event has been cancelled, and if applicable, when they should expect their refund or voucher to be issued.

    • You may want to think about what other questions people may have and answer this in the email too, to prevent your ticket buyers from responding with more questions.

  • Next, you need to update the status of your event to SALES CLOSED.

    • From your Ticket Tailor dashboard, head to Events.

    • Next to your event, use the Status dropdown to choose SALES CLOSED instead of Published.

Gif showing the 'Status' dropdown, and the 'SALES CLOSED' option.
  • A popup will appear as shown below. Select the option Set custom status and write Cancelled in the text box as shown below. Add any useful information for customers, as this will appear on the event page.

Screenshot showing the 'Change event state' modal as described above. The 'Event status' has been set to 'Set custom status' and the 'Custom status' has the word 'Cancelled' in the text box field. There is a 'Customer notice' field, with the following example text submitted: 'This event has been cancelled. Ticket holders have been contacted via email with further information'.
  • Finally, if applicable, you should process refunds for your ticket buyers as soon as possible.


How to refund tickets for a cancelled event

💡 If this is your first time refunding an order, check out: How to cancel or refund an order.

  • We advise that you process refunds as soon as possible. If refunds are delayed, or ticket buyers are confused about whether they are entitled to a refund, it can lead to your customers processing a dispute with their bank which can lead to a huge administrative burden for you. If you lose the dispute, you'll need to pay dispute fees on top of the refund. Learn more about disputes.

  • If you used offline payment methods, you'll need to process your refunds via the payment method you used to collect your payment.

  • You might also advise ticket buyers to cancel or reschedule their own bookings via self-serve. If you do this, you'll need to make sure you have enough money in your Stripe, PayPal or Square account for refunds to process successfully.

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