You can cancel one attendee at a time, or shut down the whole event. Either way, affected attendees get an email — and for Card (Stripe) payments, Offkai handles the actual refund API call for you.
Cancelling a single RSVP
Open the guest list, click the attendee's row, and hit Cancel. This sends them a cancellation email and frees their seat.
Changed your mind? Switch the guest list filter to Cancelled and restore the row. If they were already verified/paid, restoring re-issues their QR ticket.
Cancelling the whole event
From the event page, scroll to the bottom and click Cancel event. This emails every attendee with an active RSVP, telling them the event is off and how to get refunded. The event is hidden from public pages and stops accepting new RSVPs.
Refunds are your responsibility on a full event cancellation — cancelling doesn't auto-refund anyone, even Card attendees. Work through the Payments page (below) to issue Card refunds, and handle other payment methods out of band.
Changed plans again? Re-open the event from the same panel. Existing RSVPs are untouched and no email goes out on re-open.
Your cancellation policy
Every event has a cancellation policy, set when you create or edit it. It controls whether an attendee can self-serve a refund by cancelling their own RSVP, and by when:
| Policy | Window | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Flexible | Up to 7 days before the event | Attendee cancels themselves; Card refunds fire automatically |
| Standard (default) | Up to 48 hours before the event | Same as Flexible, shorter window |
| Non-refundable | — | Attendees can't self-cancel for a refund; you can still refund manually from Payments |
| Custom | Your own terms | Attendees see your written policy on the event page and are routed to message you instead of self-cancelling |
Outside an attendee's self-serve window — or on a Non-refundable or Custom event — any refund is a manual call you make from the Payments page. See Cancel your RSVP & get a refund for how this looks from the attendee's side.
Refunding a Card (Stripe) attendee
Go to Payments → Stripe tab and click Refund next to the attendee. The refund form lists every line item on their order — ticket tier, add-ons, or plain seats — each with a quantity stepper, and totals the refund as you adjust quantities. Leave everything selected to refund the full remaining amount, or dial down individual items for a partial refund (refunding 1 of 2 seats returns exactly that seat's face value). Confirm, and Offkai calls Stripe's refund API on the spot.
What actually gets refunded
Refunds return the ticket's face value only — this matches how Eventbrite and Ticketmaster handle it, not a leftover-fee thing specific to Offkai. Three amounts on the original charge are not returned to the attendee:
- The Stripe processing buffer the attendee paid (if the event passes fees through) stays with the transaction.
- Offkai's $0.35 platform service fee is kept.
- Stripe's actual processing fee on the original charge (roughly 2.9% + $0.30 in the US) is never refunded by Stripe — that's a cost you absorb, per Stripe's own policy, not something Offkai withholds.
Worked example: a $20 ticket sold on Card with the default +1% buffer. The attendee paid $21.55 total ($20.00 face value + $0.35 platform fee + $1.20 Stripe processing buffer). You refund them in full: they get back $20.00 — face value only. Your Stripe balance takes a net hit of about $0.60 (Stripe's non-refundable processing fee on the original charge). Offkai keeps its $0.35 platform fee either way.
Partial refunds keep the ticket active
A partially-refunded ticket doesn't cancel — the attendee keeps their seat for whatever wasn't refunded, and the Stripe tab shows it as "Refunded $X of $Y." You can come back and refund more later; each refund is capped at whatever face value is still outstanding. The ticket only moves to Cancelled and drops into History once the full face value has been refunded.
Attendees see the same refund math laid out on their event page's cancellation-policy section, and again on their /my-rsvps confirmation before they click Cancel — nobody's surprised by what comes back.
Other payment methods
Cash, Venmo, Zelle, PayPal, and Wise aren't run through Stripe, so there's no API call for Offkai to make. Send the refund yourself the same way the attendee paid, then mark the row as refunded from the Payments → Refunds tab — that's what flips the confirmation shown on their RSVP page.
If a Refund button won't work
If the attendee has a paid top-up on their order (see Adjusting a confirmed RSVP), the Refund button blocks with an error telling you to refund the top-up charge separately from the Stripe Dashboard first. Top-ups land as their own Stripe charge, and Offkai can't yet combine multiple charges into a single refund — that's a planned improvement, not a permanent limit. Once the top-up charge is refunded in Stripe, come back and refund the original charge normally.
For how Offkai's fees work more broadly — platform fee, Stripe's cut, and who absorbs what — see Fees & payment terms for hosts.