If you are an attendee wanting to claim a refund, click here.
Setting a refund policy is essential before publishing your event. It will provide a much better experience for your ticket buyers to let them know beforehand what to expect regarding getting a refund for their tickets.
🔥Tips for writing a good refund policy
A good refund policy:
Is clear, concise, and straightforward.
Answers the following 3 questions:
Under what circumstances will you accept refunds? Common scenarios include:
When the event is postponed/cancelled.
When a ticket buyer can no longer attend (with proof of medical certificate, etc.).
When are you accepting refunds? Common policy:
Up to X days before the event starts.
Should we expect a credit instead of a refund?
Great alternative policy when you are not accepting any refunds.
A good refund policy should build trust between you and a ticket buyer. Ticket buyers may feel more reluctant to purchase tickets if their refund expectations aren’t met. Having clear terms and conditions upfront means you’ll also prevent misunderstandings and disagreements, as ticket buyers are made aware of your conditions before they purchase.
You may even help cut down on cancellation or refund requests and protect your ticket revenues by reducing the risk of ticket buyers unfairly requesting chargebacks.
Additionally, you’ll have some extra time as you cut down on back-and-forth communication, and answering questions related to refunds and cancellations.
Overall, adding a detailed refund policy is a professional move that improves your reputation amongst ticket buyers with some simple communication.
Is there anything communication doesn’t solve? 👏
🔊 How to set a refund policy
Your refund policy will be displayed on the event page.
Click events on the top menu bar and manage your event.
Head to the payments and fees > settings page via the left-hand menu bar.
Select refunds.
Choose a pre-set refund timeframe or select custom to write out your own.
Click save.
Pre-set refund policy
The pre-set refund policies communicate a timeframe for buyers to claim a refund.
e.g. Refunds are available up to 7 days prior to the event
Custom refund policy
Use the text box provided to create a custom refund policy specific to your event.
Changes after publishing your refund policy
After you have published an event, you are not allowed to make your refund policy more restrictive.
For example:
❌ You cannot change from “Refunds available up to 7 days prior to the event” to “Refunds available up to 1 day prior to the event”.
✅ You can change from ‘No refunds’ to ‘Partial refunds available’.
Changes to your refund policy are important. So, always over-communicate. You can communicate any refund policy changes to your ticket buyers via the email campaigns tool
✉️ How does a ticket buyer request a refund?
Cut down on your admin and enable self-service refunds and cancellations for your buyers. Buyers can action refunds without contacting you by managing their order.
Ticket buyers can request refunds by clicking the contact host button on the event page and in the confirmation email they receive when they purchase a ticket.
As the host, you will receive an email for each refund request.
You can nominate additional recipients of these emails via the default notification settings
In general, Humanitix does not action refund requests from ticket buyers. These requests will be forwarded to you as the event host. Humanitix will make contact with you in situations where a refund request may require our intervention.
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🤔Alternatives to refunding ticket buyers
While refunding a ticket buyer might be the best solution in most cases, some alternatives can help protect your ticket revenue while keeping ticket buyers happy.
A. Postpone the event (instead of cancellation)
You can update the event date to a new postponed date. All ticket buyers can use their existing tickets for this new date. Read our guide on postponing your event.
B. Offer to move attendees to another event/event date
If you have a recurring event or another event in your account, you can use our swap ticket tool.
This allows you to swap tickets to another date or event, or change to a different ticket type. This is useful for individual booking changes.
C. Offer a global discount code
You can create a global discount code equivalent to the cost of their ticket, which can be applied to any other event you run
📝 Refund policy examples
Please note that these are examples only and are only a starting point to set a refund policy and should be used as general information. It’s up to you to ensure your refund policy suits you and is consistent with consumer laws.
Refunds are available up to 7 days before the event. If the event cannot go ahead, the event will be postponed to a new date and all tickets will be transferred.
No refunds, but date swaps are available. If you cannot make the event, we can change your ticket to another class. Please reach out to us through the ‘contact host' link below. You may transfer the ticket to someone else’s name if you cannot attend. (Navigate to your confirmation email > edit order > change name and email address > email to new ticket holder).
Partial refund is available. To cover the sunken costs of this event, only 80% of the ticket price, excluding booking fees, will be refunded if you submit a refund request 7 days prior to the event.
What you need to claim the refund:
A medical certificate to show that you are unable to make the event date.
Or poof of travel documents if you will be out of the country and unable to attend.
No refunds. If the event must be cancelled due to factors outside the host’s control (extreme weather conditions/government restrictions), all tickets will be transferred to the new postponed date. If you cannot attend the new date and apply within the correct time frame (you will be notified via email if this situation unfolds), you will be entitled to a 90% refund of your ticket, excluding booking fees. Alternatively, you can resell your tickets through our trusted resale partner.
⚖️ Legal considerations
⚠️ Humanitix does not give legal advice concerning refund policies. Hosts should do their research to set a suitable refund policy and consider the relevant consumer laws for their jurisdiction.
In most cases, a cancelled event must result in the refund of all ticket buyers, a postponement of the event date, or an equivalent credit or voucher for the full value of their ticket.
Here are some suggested resources: