Picture this: You’ve spent the past year planning a couple’s 25th-anniversary trip to the Maldives, securing a 10-day stay in the resort’s most romantic overwater villa, arranging seaplane transfers, booking spa treatments and excursions and making sure a chilled bottle of champagne would be waiting on arrival.
Then, just days before departure comes the call no advisor wants to get. There’s been a family emergency, and the couple can’t make the trip. Their disappointment is crushing — and now, your commission is on the line.
Cancellations like this are inevitable in the travel business, but they don’t have to be a total loss. With some advance planning, the right systems and a dose of empathy, you can salvage your effort and even inspire clients to rebook when the time is right. Here’s how to handle a canceled trip in a way that protects your relationships and your business.
Prep Clients Before Problems Pop Up
Handling cancellations like a pro starts long before a client ever thinks the trip might fall through. For Casey Halloran, CEO and co-founder at Costa Rican Vacations, a 26-year-old travel agency that has planned more than 65,000 trips, that means encouraging clients to invest in travel insurance early.
“We push it heavily, particularly for large groups, corporate travel and once you get into the six-figure range for a booking,” he said. “When a trip gets over a certain level of complexity or over a certain dollar figure, the travel advisor has to help the customer think through risk.”
He walks clients through real-life scenarios that could affect their trip: a potential hospitalization from an injury on an excursion, an outbreak of a virus that makes travel too dangerous or a sudden family emergency. By framing the conversation around “what ifs,” he helps clients understand the risks that could impact their trip and offers suggestions for policies that could protect them.
Heather Huber, a travel advisor at Vincent Vacations, said being proactive about insurance has helped protect both her clients and her bottom line when a trip gets canceled. In fact, when one of her honeymoon clients had to back out of a $20,000 trip to Tahiti after being diagnosed with cancer, the policy they purchased through Classic Vacations not only gave them a full refund but also included commission protection for their advisor.
“That’s a big perk of that insurance because you spend a lot of time planning a trip like that and you can protect the commission,” she explained.
Act With Urgency
Once you find out a client needs to cancel, time is of the essence. Acting with urgency shows clients you care about their situation, you’re handling the details and you’re committed to finding the best possible outcome.
“Run head-on into this like an EMT. Don’t dilly-dally. You’ve got to just attack it,” Halloran said. His team even developed a triage approach during COVID-19, prioritizing the most urgent situations, such as travelers already at the airport. He added that you should make sure the client has a single point of contact at your agency they can go to for updates, questions and resolution.
“As the customer, you don’t want to have to chase down five different people to try to put your case back together,” Halloran said.
Let the client know you care about their situation and the next steps. Huber suggested saying something like, “I’m really sorry you have to cancel,” and “Let me follow up with you in an email.”
Then, start checking the details. If the trip is still within the cancellation period, contact suppliers right away to secure any refunds or credits. If it falls outside that window, early outreach may increase the chances of negotiating a fair solution for everyone. This is also the moment to review any travel insurance the client purchased to see what coverage might apply before making final decisions.
Document everything as you go, including what has been promised, and refund and credit amounts. A clear paper trail helps keep you clear on the details and reassures clients that their case is being handled professionally. Once you’ve got all your ducks in a row, send the client an email outlining everything.
“I’ll write, ‘Please confirm you’d like me to cancel because this cannot be undone.’ That gets them to respond in a natural way,” Huber noted.
Handling Complex Cancellations
Transparency and strong relationships are your best assets when you’re dealing with a complex cancellation, like when there are nonrefundable deposits involved, a large group booking falls through or the traveler didn’t purchase insurance. Clients want to know you’re doing everything possible on their behalf, even if the outcome isn’t certain, so be honest about what you’re doing to address the situation.
Halloran recalled having “brutally honest conversations” with clients during the pandemic, when refunds weren’t immediately available — or even guaranteed. He told clients: “If I get the money from the supplier, I’ll get the money to you. You’ve just got to give me time.” Setting clear expectations early protects your credibility and gives clients some peace of mind.
This is when the ability to call in favors with long-standing partners really pays off, Halloran continued. He thinks of his agency’s strong relationships with suppliers as the “X factor” for his business and his clients.
“This is why you book with an agency versus an OTA or even direct, because when things go wrong, it’s a very different experience. It’s part of our sales pitch,” he said.
Because suppliers trust him, Halloran is often able to negotiate cancellation deadline extensions, reduced penalty fees and other resolutions to help his clients avoid major losses when they’re dealing with extenuating circumstances.
When speaking with suppliers about ways to address a complex cancellation, Huber urged advisors to be polite and honest. “Be really personable, tell them exactly what’s happened and ask if there’s anything they can do,” she said.
Huber added that it’s OK to ask: “Can you make a one-time exception?”
Turning Cancellations Into Fresh Starts
When a trip gets canceled, it’s easy to get caught up in logistics and finances. But Halloran said it’s important to remember that for clients, the real pain point usually isn’t the money — it’s the lost experience. That milestone anniversary trip they spent months planning now feels like it’s never going to happen.
“They wanted that memory and now they’re grieving that it didn’t go the way they wanted it to go,” Halloran said. “That’s why we try to stay away from money talk as much as we can.”
Instead, he tells clients: “Don’t worry, we’ll save this trip and figure out a way to recreate it at a different time.”
Huber reminds clients that they may have the option of pushing a trip back if the dates they originally wanted to travel are no longer an option, which can help prevent a vacation from being canceled altogether.
Even if the trip must be canceled indefinitely, try reframing it as a “pause,” Halloran said. Keeping the dream of the trip alive — even in a small way, when it feels like that vacation is no longer possible — can help clients stay hopeful. A simple reminder that you can make this trip a reality for them later on helps shift the focus away from the loss.
Once the dust settles, a low-pressure follow-up can help put the booking back on the table. Huber checks in months later with a postcard letting clients know she’s thinking of them or an email reminding them about a credit they may have.
“I usually set up a reminder for that travel credit about six months before it expires and just reach out and say ‘Hey, you’ve got this travel credit, it expires in six months. Can I quote you anything?’” she said.
In Huber’s experience, that approach pays off. The couple who had to cancel their $20,000 Tahiti trip eventually came back to rebook that vacation — with an even bigger budget.
Rebooked trips can bring added benefits for advisors beyond commission. Halloran recalled working with a family who postponed a multigenerational trip after their grandfather passed away. When they finally traveled, the experience became a way to honor his memory. They sent photos from the trip and later left a glowing review, saying how grateful they were that Halloran encouraged them not to completely abandon their travel plans, even though they were put on hold.
When handled well, a canceled trip doesn’t have to be the end of a story. It can be an opportunity to show your client just how valuable you are and that you’re ready to make their travel dreams come true when the time is right. It may even turn what might have been a one-time booking into a lifelong relationship with a client.
Originally appeared in the Winter 2025 issue of The Compass magazine
Joni Sweet
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