Reference
About Onestrada
Who Onestrada is, what we book, and why every brief reads back as one written contract before the booking is locked.
Reference
Cancellation terms
Cancellation windows and refund schedules are supplier-specific — they live on the contract you sign, not on a category page. This page explains how the windows are usually structured so the numbers on your quote read as a pattern, not a surprise.
The structure
Tiered against the handover date
Almost every luxury rental contract in Europe uses the same shape: a cancellation made well before the handover carries a small fee or none at all; one made closer to the date carries a larger fee; one made inside the final window carries the full rental. The exact windows and the percentages applied to each are confirmed per quote because they move with vehicle category, season, and supplier — a New Year's Eve booking in Zermatt is not on the same schedule as a Tuesday in February.
The schedule that applies to your booking is on the contract you sign before the deposit clears. We don't quote it on a shared page because doing so would be wrong for at least one supplier within the network.
Force majeure
When the trip can't happen
Travel disruption that prevents the rental from starting — airspace closure, a cancelled inbound flight, a closed border — is handled case by case with the supplier holding the booking. The first-resort outcome is usually a date shift against the same contract rather than a refund, because the supplier has held the vehicle off the market for your dates. Where a shift isn't workable, the standard cancellation schedule applies; in genuine cases of force majeure, suppliers routinely waive the closer-window fee.
None of this is automatic. If something changes on your side, tell us the moment you know — the room to negotiate with the supplier is wider the earlier the conversation starts.
Vehicle substitution
When the supplier has to swap the car
Damage to the booked vehicle on the prior rental, service recalls, or an accident on the way to the handover can force a supplier to substitute. The contract pattern is that a substitution is to "a vehicle of the same class or higher," with any equivalent or better specification accepted. Where the supplier can only offer a lower-class car, the difference is refunded against the rental total. Substitutions are confirmed in writing before the handover; the contract references the original booking so the cover and the deductible track the vehicle that actually shows up.
Refund route
Back to the card it came from
Refunds and partial refunds go back to the same card the booking was paid on — the supplier is the merchant of record, so the credit comes from them directly. Card-network timing applies; credits typically clear within five to ten business days of the supplier issuing the reversal. We confirm the reversal in writing the moment the supplier records it, and we don't claim a date the card network controls.
For context on where cancellation sits in the booking sequence, see how bookings work. For the figures that get refunded against, see insurance and deposits and cross-border rentals. Reach the concierge through the contact page or send a brief directly via the enquiry form.
Keep reading
References
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- Reference
How bookings work
From enquiry to deposit release — the eight steps every Onestrada booking moves through, with the paperwork named at each stage.
- Reference
Insurance and deposits
What insurance covers, what the security deposit holds, and why every exact figure is confirmed per quote rather than promised in advance.
- Reference
Cross-border rentals
Permitted countries, the cross-border permit, tolls, and the paperwork that has to be in the glovebox before the car leaves the country of pickup.
Concierge
Send the brief
The cancellation schedule that applies to your trip arrives on the quote — confirmed per quote, never inferred from a category page.