When you create a rental at the counter with card payment, Stortech sends you to Stripe to save the customer's card. If that step is never finished, because the customer does not have their card on them, because the window is closed, or because you get interrupted, the reservation stays incomplete: no saved card, no billing, no lease, but it still holds the unit. The unit therefore drops out of the ones you can rent.
You can cancel that reservation yourself from its page and put the unit back up for rent right away.
Who this article is for
You need the Owner or Manager role. A user with the Staff role does not see the notice: ask an Owner or a Manager on your team to cancel it.
Spotting an incomplete reservation
On the booking page, an Incomplete reservation notice appears above the summary: "Payment was never set up, but the reservation still holds the unit. Cancel it to put the unit back up for rent."
The Incomplete reservation notice sits above the summary, with the Cancel reservation button.
The notice only appears on a rental created at the counter with card payment whose Stripe page was never completed. It does not appear on an offline-payment rental, on a pending pre-authorized debit invitation (that one has its own resend button), or on a reservation that came from the online storefront.
Cancel the incomplete reservation
Step 1.
Open the booking page, from Rentals or from the unit itself.
Step 2.
In the Incomplete reservation notice, click Cancel reservation.
Step 3.
The Cancel the incomplete reservation window opens and shows Checking...: Stortech verifies the payment state directly with Stripe before offering anything.
Step 4.
Read what is about to happen. The window states that the reservation will be cancelled, that the unit will become available to rent again, and that nothing was charged, so there is nothing to refund. One more line, "The payment link that is still open will be closed.", is added only when the payment link is still active: if it has already expired on its own, there is nothing to close and the line does not appear.
The window after the check with Stripe. Here the payment link had already expired, so the line about it is not shown.
Step 5.
If useful, type a reason (for example "the customer did not have their card"). The field is optional and the reason is kept in the booking's history.
Step 6.
Click Cancel reservation. The button shows Cancelling..., then a message confirms: "Reservation cancelled. The unit is available again."
To close without changing anything, click Back.
What happens automatically
The reservation is marked cancelled and the unit goes back to Available: it can be rented again immediately. The Stripe payment link still open is closed, which stops it from being completed later and reviving a reservation you just cancelled. An entry is added to the booking's history, with the reason you typed if there is one.
There is nothing to refund: on this kind of reservation no card was ever saved and no amount was ever charged.
When the cancellation is refused
If the check with Stripe shows the reservation is not an abandoned setup, the window displays This reservation cannot be cancelled this way followed by the reason, and the confirm button does not appear. The most common reasons:
"The payment session was completed" or "A payment method was already saved from this checkout". — The card really was saved: the rental is real. If the customer backs out before the start date, use Cancel a booking before the rental starts. If the rental has started, use Schedule a move-out.
"This reservation already has an active Stripe subscription", "a Stripe billing schedule", "a signed contract" or "real invoices". — The rental is in place. Same thing: cancel before the start date, or schedule a move-out if it has started.
"This reservation has a pending pre-authorized debit invitation". — That is not an abandoned card checkout but an invitation waiting on the customer's bank details. Resend it from the booking page. See Pre-authorized debit (ACSS / PAD).
"Gate access was already set up for this reservation. Contact support before cancelling." — The customer already has a working access code on this reservation. Write to us before cancelling so we remove the access cleanly at the same time.
"The payment session could not be verified with Stripe". — The check did not go through. Try again in a few minutes; nothing was changed.
Common problems
I do not see the Incomplete reservation notice.
Check: do you have the Owner or Manager role? Was the reservation created at the counter with card payment?
Do: ask an Owner or a Manager. If the reservation is not that kind, this is not the right flow: see Cancel a booking before the rental starts.
The reservation is cancelled, but the unit did not become available.
Check: the message shown after the cancellation. "The unit is still held by another active reservation" means another rental already occupies that unit.
Do: open Units and check the unit's status and the reservation holding it.
The customer comes back with their card after the cancellation.
Check: is the unit available again?
Do: create a new rental. See Create a manual rental.
Common questions
Was the customer charged? — No. An incomplete reservation never had a saved card: nothing was charged and there is nothing to refund.
How is this different from "Cancel a booking before the rental starts"? — That flow applies when the card was saved and a payment is already scheduled for later. Here payment was never set up: there is no card and no scheduled payment to cancel, only a unit to free.
Can I cancel a rental that has already started this way? — No. The notice does not appear on an active rental. Use Schedule a move-out.
Is the payment link sent to the customer still usable? — No. If it is still active, it is closed when you cancel, so it cannot revive the reservation later. If it had already expired on its own, it was unusable already.
Can I undo the cancellation? — Reviving a cancelled reservation is not something the product does. Create a new rental: the unit is available again.
Do I need to do anything in Stripe? — No. Stortech closes the payment session that stayed open.