Cancellation, and what comes back
Cancelling never leaves a guest owing damages here; the only thing that decides what stays with the house is how much notice the message carries.
Plans change and nobody here treats that as a moral failing. What matters is the clock. The house keeps only the part of the fee it has already earned at the moment your message lands, and the amount of notice in that message is the only thing that sets the size of it.
The three steps
More than twenty-four hours before the booked time, nothing is kept and everything sent comes back. Inside the final day, while she is still where she started, half of what was sent stays as earned fee and half is returned. Once she has left for your address, what was sent stays with the house.
Two things that soften the last step
If somebody else takes the hour you gave up, the money comes back in full, because in the end no time was lost. And if you can show that the real loss was smaller than the sum kept, only the smaller sum is kept. Neither of those has to be argued for at length; they are written here so they can simply be pointed at.
Where nothing was sent ahead
A returning guest's same-day hour or two at a city address has no first half behind it, so the steps have nothing to act on. Called off before she leaves, it costs nothing whatever. Called off once she is already travelling, it costs the share of the fee her journey represents, and the house asks for nothing past that share.
Moving instead of cancelling
One change of date is free, asked for more than twenty-four hours ahead and landing inside the following fortnight, and the money travels across whole. A second move is read on the steps above exactly as a cancellation written at that minute would be. The deposit and cancellation page sets each case out as a share of the fee.