Edinburgh business travel · NovaBid
Cancellation and changes, in plain English
The legal version is on our booking terms page. This is the same thing in the words you would actually use. One rule covers most of it: more than 48 hours before check-in, cancel for a full refund. Inside 48 hours, the hotel is paid, because it held the rooms for you.
Hands-on Edinburgh service opens 12 October 2026. The self-serve platform follows. See the launch plan.
What is NovaBid's cancellation policy?
More than 48 hours before check-in you can cancel for a full refund, with no charge and no reason required. Within 48 hours of check-in, or if nobody arrives, there is no refund and the hotel is paid as normal for having held the rooms. Refunds go back to the original payment method, normally within five to ten business days. Changes to dates or guest names after confirmation are at the hotel's discretion, and we will ask on your behalf.
The booking pattern we hear about
Business trips move. The meeting shifts, someone drops out, a client reschedules, and the booking made three weeks ago no longer matches the trip.
Consumer non-refundable rates look cheap until the first time plans change, and then the saving is gone several times over.
A policy written in legal language does not help the person deciding at five o'clock on a Thursday whether they can still cancel without losing the money.
How NovaBid fixes it
01
More than 48 hours out: cancel, full refund
Open the booking under Bookings in your dashboard and choose Cancel booking; the refund is issued the same moment. Or email hello@novabid.co.uk with your booking reference. No charge, no questions, no reason needed. The 48 hours are counted to 15:00 UK time on the check-in date, and the cancellation takes effect when we receive it, so if you are close to the line, do it rather than sleeping on it.
02
Inside 48 hours, or nobody arrives: the hotel is paid
There is no refund. The hotel turned away other business to hold those rooms on those nights and is paid as normal. This is the same trade every hotel makes and we do not pretend otherwise.
03
Changing rather than cancelling
Dates and guest names after confirmation are the hotel's decision, not ours, and we will ask for you. Independents are often more flexible than a booking system would be, because a person is deciding. Ask early: a change requested a fortnight out is a different conversation from one requested the night before.
Pricing
Free for SMBs. Hotels pay commission only on a paid booking: 10% founding, 12% standard.
No markup on the rate. No subscription. No per-booker fee. The hotel covers everything as the cost of winning your business.
Frequently asked
How do I cancel a booking?
From the booking itself: Bookings, open the stay, Cancel booking. Or email hello@novabid.co.uk with your booking reference. The time that counts is when we receive it, not when you decided, measured against 15:00 UK time on the check-in date.
How long does a refund take?
It goes back to the original payment method, normally within five to ten business days, on Stripe's timelines rather than ours. Card refunds sometimes show on a statement a day or two after the bank has actually released them.
What if only some of my travellers drop out?
Tell us as soon as you know. Reducing a booking is a change, so it is the hotel's decision, and the 48 hour rule still frames it: outside 48 hours there is usually room to adjust, inside it there is not. For a block of rooms, ask about this at the offer stage, not after.
Can a hotel cancel on us?
A confirmed booking is a contract between you and the hotel, made through NovaBid as the hotel's disclosed agent, and it is already paid. If a property could not honour a booking we would refund you in full and work to place your people somewhere comparable. It has not happened, and we would tell you here if it had.
Do different hotels have different cancellation terms?
The 48 hour platform rule is the floor and applies to every booking. A hotel can state additional terms on its offer, for example on a large block, and those are shown on the offer before you accept, so you can compare flexibility alongside price rather than discovering it later.
Is anything non-refundable?
We do not sell non-refundable rates. Every booking carries the 48 hour full-refund window. That is deliberate: business travel moves, and a rate that punishes you for it is a false economy.
Written by Thomas Mellot, founder of NovaBid. He trained as a chef in France and worked front of house in Edinburgh hotels, as Chef de Rang at the Caledonian and the Balmoral. He built NovaBid after watching independents lose business travel to platforms that never set foot in the building. More about NovaBid.
Last reviewed 8 September 2026. We correct these pages when the facts change; tell us if something here is wrong.
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