As an event creator, you’ll try to avoid refunds as much as possible. But sometimes, unforeseen circumstances arise that mean you need to give people their money back. Our COVID-19 refund policy takes the hassle out of the process, easing the stress of refunds for both you and your attendees. Here’s everything you need to know about Eventbrite’s many refund options, including tips on how to set a fair policy and apps that’ll improve your bottom line.
A variety of policies
Setting a refund policy builds trust with attendees and helps to avoid any confusion between you and event-goers. Whether it’s no refunds at all or a highly flexible 24-hour option, you can select the policy that best fits your event:
- 1 day means attendees have until 24 hours before your event starts to request a refund. This offers the most flexibility to event-goers. In fact, knowing they can receive a full refund up until the day before could be the difference between buying a ticket or deciding against it.
- 7 days means attendees can request a refund up to a week before your event begins. This can help both you and your guests by offering them freedom and you the chance to sell refunded tickets.
- 30 days only allows refund requests up to a month before the event date, giving you plenty of time to plan ahead.
- No refunds is the best option if you’ve got large overheads that you need to cover with ticket sales. But keep in mind that event-goers may be put off by this kind of policy.
- Non-specified allows you to deal with refund requests on a case-by-case basis. It’ll take up more of your time, but can be fairer on ticket-holders.
The ability to change
Your Eventbrite refund policy doesn’t have to be set in stone, even if your event page is already live. It’s possible to change to a more flexible option – for example, switching from no refunds to a 30-day policy – at any time. You can also swap to a more restrictive refund policy. But if your event has already been published, you’ll need to unpublish it, refund any orders, and change the policy before re-publishing.
Pick your refund method
As well as a wide variety of policies, we also offer numerous ways to refund ticket costs to suit you and your attendees:
- Refund back to the original payment method. Seamlessly process refunds to the payment method used to buy tickets via your Eventbrite dashboard.
- Offer the buyer credit for future events. The process is simple: Guests can be given a credit that can be redeemed for any of your future events. You’ll still make money on the original sale and have the flexibility to choose when the credit expires (from one year to never.) Only pick this option if you’re confident that you’ll be hosting events in the future.
- Minimise the financial impact with Tixel. This nifty app allows attendees to donate their ticket, swap it for a gift voucher, or receive credit for future events, so you can keep hold of the cash.
Save precious time
Dealing with multiple refunds can be time-consuming. If you want to avoid the bother, opt into automatic refunds. Any request that involves a single ticket and a refund to the original payment method will be processed automatically, speeding up response times and vastly improving the experience for ticket-holders. We even have a time-saving solution for refunds that require your input: processing them in bulk. This is particularly ideal if your event ends up being postponed or cancelled.
Simpler than ever
Deciding to postpone or cancel an event is never easy, but Eventbrite’s refund policy is constantly evolving to support both your business and your ticket-buyers. Decide how you want to go about things and we’ll do the rest.
