As a host, you can refund a ticket purchase directly from your Understory back office. Here's how:
Where do I see if a refund is pending, and how do I complete it?
If you can see a booking marked as "Refund pending" or similar in your Storefront/back office, it means a refund has been started but not completed yet. Follow the steps below for your payment provider to finish it.
If you use Understory Pay
Go to Bookings and find the relevant booking.
Select the payment linked to the booking.
Click Refund. Choose whether to refund the full amount or individual tickets.
If you want to refund a specific amount, please contact support and a colleague will help you.
The refund is processed automatically and linked to the original transaction. The amount is deducted from your next payout. Please note: a refund counts as a transaction, and standard transaction fees apply.
If you use Stripe
If your payments are handled through Stripe, the refund is issued via your Stripe dashboard. See the article "Partly refund in Stripe" for the steps.
Give a gift card instead of money back
When you cancel a booking or an event, refunding is not your only option. Choose Send gift card and the guest gets a gift card worth what they paid, plus an email inviting them to book another date. The money stays in your account.
A guest who would rather have the money can ask for it from that email — Understory then refunds the original payment and closes the gift card, so you do not have to handle it yourself.
The card follows your normal gift card expiry settings — see "Gift Card Configurations".
On the cancelled booking, the payment breakdown shows a "Gift card issued for refund" row that links straight to the card.
Guests who are checked in
A booking cannot be refunded while the guest is checked in. Undo the check-in first, then refund:
Open the event's Check-in page.
Find the booking marked "✓ Checked in" and click the undo button (↺).
Return to the booking and refund it as described above.
See the article "How to Check In Guests" for more detail on undoing a check-in.
This also applies to events that have already taken place — a past event can still be refunded, as long as the guest is not checked in.
Want your guest to be able to cancel and get refunded themselves?
Enable the "Allow guests to cancel booking" feature in your Sales Settings. Guests can then cancel on their own, and the refund is handled automatically according to your cancellation policy.
Still having trouble with a refund? Reach out to us and a colleague will help you.