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The HoopAI platform lets contacts cancel and reschedule their own appointments through self-service links without requiring you to get involved manually. You control whether these options are available, how long they remain active, and what happens after a change is made.

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Enabling cancellation and rescheduling

Confirmation tab with cancellation and rescheduling toggles

Confirmation settings with cancellation and rescheduling toggles

Cancellation and rescheduling options are disabled by default. To enable them:
  1. Go to Calendars > Calendar Settings and click Edit on your calendar.
  2. Open the Notifications tab and scroll to the additional options section, or look for the Confirmation tab depending on your calendar type.
  3. Toggle on Allow Cancellation of Meeting and/or Allow Rescheduling of Meeting.
  4. Save your changes.
When enabled, self-service links are automatically embedded in the calendar invite that contacts receive. The links appear in the notes section of the invite.

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Setting expiration windows

You can limit how late a contact can cancel or reschedule by setting an expiration window. Once the window expires, the link no longer works and the contact cannot self-service their appointment change. To set an expiration:
  1. After enabling cancellation or rescheduling, look for the expiration time field beneath each toggle.
  2. Enter a number and choose the unit (hours or days). For example, “24 hours” means the link stops working 24 hours before the appointment.
  3. Leave the field blank if you want the link to remain active until the moment of the appointment.
Setting an expiration of 24 to 48 hours before the appointment gives you enough lead time to fill a cancelled slot while still giving contacts the flexibility to make changes.
When a contact clicks a cancellation or rescheduling link from their calendar invite:
  • Cancellation: The platform marks the appointment as cancelled and sends the cancellation notification to any configured recipients. Any payment collected is not automatically refunded — refunds must be processed manually through your payment gateway.
  • Rescheduling: The contact is taken back to the booking page, where they can pick a new available date and time within the same calendar. The original appointment is cancelled and a new appointment is created at the selected time. Standard booking notifications fire for the new appointment.
If a contact tries to use an expired link, they see a message indicating the link has expired and prompting them to contact you directly.
Notification settings with email template editor

Notification settings where merge tags are used

The self-service links can also be inserted into custom workflow emails and SMS messages using these merge tags:
  • {{appointment.cancellation_link}} — inserts the direct cancellation link
  • {{appointment.reschedule_link}} — inserts the direct rescheduling link
These tags are only available when the workflow is triggered by an appointment-based event (such as the Customer Booked Appointment or Appointment Status triggers). Using them in non-appointment workflows will result in the merge tag resolving as blank. This approach is useful when you want to include rescheduling options in your reminder messages. For example, a 24-hour reminder email might include a line like “Need to reschedule? Click here” with the reschedule link embedded.

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Cancellations on recurring appointments

For recurring appointment series, cancellation behaviour depends on how the series was created:
  • Calendar-level recurring settings: Cancelling using the self-service link cancels the entire series, not just a single occurrence.
  • Manually created recurring appointments (in-app): You can cancel all occurrences, only the selected occurrence, or all future occurrences from that point forward.
If a contact is likely to need to cancel a single occurrence within a recurring series, it is best to advise them to contact you so you can handle it through the appointment editor rather than through the self-service link.

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Handling rescheduled appointments in the CRM

Appointments list with status filters

Appointment list showing rescheduled and cancelled records

When an appointment is rescheduled, the platform creates a new appointment record at the new time and marks the original as cancelled. The contact’s activity timeline in the CRM will show both events. If you have workflows triggered by appointment status, the cancellation of the original appointment will fire those triggers as well.
Rescheduling through the self-service link always creates a new appointment. If your workflows trigger on new bookings, they will fire again for the rescheduled appointment. Review your automation logic to avoid sending duplicate confirmation sequences to the same contact.

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Best practices

  • Enable rescheduling but set a reasonable expiration window (24–48 hours) to avoid last-minute changes that are hard to fill.
  • Include the reschedule link in your reminder notifications so contacts have easy access if they need to change their time.
  • If you charge for appointments, decide on your refund policy and communicate it clearly on the booking page and in confirmation emails before a contact cancels.
  • Use the no-show status (rather than cancellation) when a contact simply does not appear without cancelling in advance. This keeps your cancellation statistics accurate.
Last modified on March 6, 2026