Cancellation policy

The policy you book under is the one honored

When you confirm a booking, Akenna saves the listing's cancellation policy with your booking at that moment. Any change a host later makes to their listing's policy never affects an existing booking — your cancellation and refund are always judged by the policy you saw when you booked. It also appears on your booking voucher.

How refund windows work

Every listing has a cancellation policy that sets a free-cancellation window before check-in. Check-in time is 3:00 PM (Saudi time) on your check-in date. Counting back from that moment:

• Cancel before the window closes — 100% refund of what you paid.
• Cancel inside the window, before check-in time — 50% refund.
• Cancel at or after check-in time — no refund.

Refunds are calculated on the total you actually paid (VAT inclusive), rounded to the nearest riyal.

The policies

• Flexible — free cancellation up to 24 hours before check-in.
• Moderate — free cancellation up to 72 hours (3 days) before check-in.
• Strict — free cancellation up to 7 days before check-in.
• Super strict — free cancellation up to 30 days before check-in.
• Akenna default — if a listing doesn't specify a policy, a 48-hour free-cancellation window applies.

Under every policy the partial refund is 50%, and no refund applies from check-in time onward. The listing page and the reservation card show the applicable policy before you book.

How and where you are refunded

When you cancel a booking yourself, the refund is credited to your Akenna wallet immediately and automatically, and you can use it toward any future stay.

After check-in

Once you have checked in (or the stay has been delivered), the booking can no longer be cancelled from the app. If something went seriously wrong with your stay, report it — that is what the service-failure path below is for.

Service failures — full refund

Some situations are not ordinary cancellations. You are entitled to report a service failure if:

• essential services (such as electricity or water) were interrupted for more than 2 hours;
• the unit was closed by the authorities;
• you had to evacuate for a public-health or safety reason;
• you could not check in despite a confirmed reservation.

Report it from your booking or through Akenna support. Once approved, the refund defaults to 100% of everything you paid — including Akenna's service fee — and at minimum covers the failed night and all remaining nights. It is returned to your original payment method: card payments go back to your card, wallet payments back to your wallet. The host earns nothing for a failed stay.

For hosts

Hosts cannot cancel a confirmed booking. When a guest cancels inside the window, the non-refunded portion (after VAT and Akenna's service fee) is added to your payout for that month. If a stay is found to be a service failure, no earnings accrue for it.

How to cancel

Open your booking under Trips in the app (or your bookings on the web) and choose “Cancel booking”. Any refund due is calculated automatically under your booking's policy and credited to your Akenna wallet.

Questions about a specific booking? Message Akenna support from the app or email hello@akenna.sa.