You cancel a Booking from the Booking itself, in your account on the Platform. A cancellation takes effect at the moment it is submitted through the Platform, and what comes back is worked out from that moment.

Who can cancel, and when

• Before the Sitter has answered, only the Owner can cancel the request. A Sitter does not cancel a request, a Sitter declines it.
• Once the Sitter has accepted, either side can cancel. An overnight stay can be cancelled up to the moment it starts. A walk, a drop-in visit or a day of day care is cancelled session by session, each up to its own start (section 4).
• Once an overnight stay has started, neither side can cancel it in the app. The Owner arranges an early pickup instead (section 7). A Sitter who cannot continue has to contact us.
• A Sitter cannot empty a multi-session Booking by cancelling it session by session. If a cancellation would leave no sessions at all, the Platform refuses it.

The first hour after the Booking is made

Whatever the Sitter's policy, if the Owner cancels within 60 minutes of making the Booking we keep nothing for the Sitter, however close the start is: the full Services amount comes back along with the booking provision. This window is there to catch mistakes. If the Sitter has already accepted, Pawko's flat service fee is still kept (section 8).

Where the Owner books at short notice, the Sitter's own full-refund window may already have passed by the time of booking. Those 60 minutes are then the only full refund that Booking ever has, and the Sitter's policy applies from that point on.

When the Owner sends a request we charge the amount of the Booking to the Owner's card. The request only reaches the Sitter once that payment has gone through.

So if the Booking ends before the Sitter accepts, the Owner gets the whole amount back and Pawko keeps no part of its fee. That covers the Owner cancelling the request, the Owner cancelling a Booking not yet paid for, the Sitter declining, and a request the Sitter never answers (a request expires if it is not answered in time). The part the Owner paid by card returns to the card, and any Pawko credit used for that Booking goes straight back to the Owner's Pawko credit. Where the Booking was never paid for, nothing was taken and there is nothing to return.

The refund bands in section 3 apply only once the Sitter has accepted.

Each Sitter chooses a cancellation policy (Flexible, Moderate or Strict), shown on the Sitter's profile and at the payment step, before the Owner books. The policy that applies to a Booking is the one shown when it was made. If the Sitter changes it later, that Booking keeps the original terms.

The bands below are for stays priced by the night: boarding and house sitting. Walks, drop-in visits and day care are cancelled session by session and have their own windows, in section 4.

Flexible

Full refund of the Services amount if the Owner cancels at least 24 hours before the start. In the last 24 hours, 50% is refunded.

Moderate

Full refund of the Services amount if the Owner cancels at least 72 hours (3 days) before the start. Between 72 and 24 hours before the start, 50% is refunded. In the last 24 hours, 25% is refunded.

Strict

Full refund of the Services amount only if the Owner cancels at least one week (168 hours) before the start. From one week down to 24 hours before the start, 50% is refunded, and in the last 24 hours there is no refund of the Services amount.

Read “full refund” as full refund of the Services amount, which is the Sitter's price, not of the whole amount the Owner paid. Once the Sitter has accepted, Pawko's flat 2.5% service fee is kept in every band, including the widest one and including the first hour after the Booking is made. The booking provision comes back in the same proportion as the Services amount. Section 8 sets out both fees in full.

Once the start time has passed, these bands give no refund, unless the Booking is still in its first hour (section 1). If the stay has already started, section 7 applies instead.

These services are booked as a set of sessions and are cancelled session by session. The full-refund window is measured before each session, not before the whole Booking, and the Sitter's policy is read in hours rather than days:

• Dog walking and drop-in visits: free up to 3 hours before the session with a Flexible Sitter, 12 hours with a Moderate Sitter, 24 hours with a Strict Sitter.
• Day care: free up to 12 hours before the session with a Flexible Sitter, 24 hours with a Moderate Sitter, 48 hours with a Strict Sitter.

Cancelling a session outside its window is always free and fully refunded. Where the Owner cancels inside the window, 50% of that session's price is refunded and the Sitter keeps the other 50%.

On a Booking of 3 or more sessions each side also gets a few free late cancellations: roughly one for every seven sessions, at least one and at most five. They are used earliest first, and while the Owner still has one left a late cancellation is refunded in full and costs the Owner nothing. A Booking of one or two sessions gets none.

If the Owner cancels a session less than 1 hour before it is due to start, that session is not refunded at all, whatever the Sitter's policy and however many free late cancellations the Owner has left. The one exception is the first hour after the Booking is made: on a cancellation in that hour the session's price comes back in full. Pawko's flat service fee is still kept, because the Sitter has accepted (section 8).

Refunds for individual sessions are always paid as Pawko credit (section 10). A session cancelled with notice comes back in full, with the provision on it, less Pawko's flat 2.5% service fee. On a session cancelled late, Pawko's fee on that session is not refunded either, on top of the half the Sitter keeps.

If a Sitter cancels a Booking they had accepted, everything the Owner paid for that Booking comes back to the Owner, including Pawko's fee. The Sitter pays nothing in cash: cancelling never costs a Sitter money.

Where the cancellation came late enough to count against the Sitter, we also add a goodwill credit of 200 MKD to the Owner's Pawko credit. Pawko funds it, not the Sitter, and it is one per Booking. It is not paid on a no-show, which follows section 6 instead.

The Sitter's consequence is a record, not money. A Sitter who gives enough notice has nothing recorded at all: at least 7 days for an overnight stay, 24 hours for day care, 12 hours for a walk or a drop-in visit. Inside those windows the cancellation goes on the Sitter's reliability record, which is measured over a rolling 90 days, lowers where the Sitter appears in search results, and past a point hides the Sitter from search altogether. Sitters can see their own record on their Status page. A Sitter with at least 15 completed stays can protect one cancellation a month, which never covers a no-show.

An Owner whose Sitter cancels should contact us and we will help where we can. We cannot promise a replacement Sitter, but the refund does not depend on finding one and the Owner can book another Sitter straight away.

If the Sitter does not turn up

The Owner reports it from the Booking. Reporting opens a claim that we review, and no money moves until we uphold it. If we uphold the claim, everything the Owner paid for that Booking comes back to the Owner, including Pawko's fee, and the Sitter is paid nothing for it. If we do not uphold it, the Booking stands as booked and we say so. We have no fixed review time and this policy does not promise one.

The deadline for reporting is short. For an overnight stay the Owner can report from 20 minutes after the booked start time until 24 hours after that same start time, not after the end. For a walk, a drop-in visit or day care the report covers the individual session, from 20 minutes after that session's scheduled start until 24 hours after it ends. Outside that window the Platform cannot accept a no-show report and it cannot be opened later: the Owner should write to us instead and we will handle it as a problem reported on the Booking. Something that goes wrong in the middle of a multi-night stay is not a no-show either, and section 7 covers it.

An upheld no-show on a single session refunds that session in full, including its share of Pawko's fee, and the rest of the Booking carries on as booked.

If the Owner does not hand the pet over

The Booking stands and is charged as booked. There is no in-app report for this: the Sitter should contact us.

A Booking's money becomes final about 25 hours after the booked end time. Until then a claim or a dispute can still change the outcome. After that the Booking is settled.

This section is about overnight stays (boarding and house sitting) that have already started. Up to the booked end time neither side cancels the Booking. The stay is ended or shortened instead.

The Owner collects the pet early

The Owner chooses a new pickup time in the Booking. Nights already used are charged in full and 50% of the remaining nights is refunded, less Pawko's flat service fee on the refunded part. That 50% is the same under all three cancellation policies: the Sitter's policy does not change it.

The pickup time has to be at least 2 hours away (1 hour if the Owner marks it urgent), it lands on a 15-minute slot, and it has to fall between 08:00 and 21:00 Skopje time. It cannot be later than the booked end. If the pet has to be collected outside those hours, the Owner should contact us.

Nights are counted in half-night units, the same units the Booking was priced in, so the figure changes only at 12-hour boundaries and not hour by hour. A pickup on the first day still pays for the first night in full, because the Sitter held it.

The Sitter cannot continue

The Owner should contact us, and where the Sitter tells us first we get in touch. All remaining nights are refunded in full and no part of Pawko's fee is kept on them. The Sitter stays responsible for the pet until it is safely back with the Owner or with the person the Owner names.

Something has gone wrong

If the Owner reports a problem on a stay in progress (for example the Sitter cannot be reached, or the pet is not where it should be), we credit the remaining nights to the Owner in full straight away while we look into it. What happens to the nights already used is decided by that review.

Refunds under this section are always paid as Pawko credit (section 10).

Pawko's fee has two parts, both calculated on the Services amount and both shown to the Owner before payment: a booking provision, which is 7.5% for boarding and house sitting and 5% for walks, drop-in visits and day care, plus a flat service fee of 2.5% on every Booking. Pawko Club waives the provision only, so a member still pays the flat 2.5%.

If the Owner cancels a Booking the Sitter had already accepted, the flat 2.5% service fee is kept every time, without exception. The provision is refunded in the same proportion as the Services amount, which means the share of the provision matching the part that is not refunded is kept as well: on a band that refunds 50%, we keep the 2.5% and half the provision. Where a session of a walk, drop-in or day-care Booking is cancelled late, the provision on that session is kept in full. What we keep is never more than the fee the Owner actually paid, so where a coupon covered the fee, nothing is kept. Paying with Pawko credit does not waive either fee.

The whole fee comes back to the Owner where the Booking ends before the Sitter accepts it, where the Sitter cancels, where we uphold a no-show, where a Sitter cannot continue a stay that has started, and where the law requires it.

The fee covers the cost of running the Platform, of processing the payment and of support. It is not payment for the care itself, which is the Sitter's. Our Terms & Conditions explain how it is calculated.

If a Booking cannot go ahead because of a serious emergency or circumstances beyond reasonable control (such as illness, accident, or a natural event), contact us. We may, at our discretion and on appropriate evidence, depart from the usual cancellation terms and give the Owner a full or partial refund or credit.

Where we settle a Booking ourselves (on a dispute, an emergency, or a report we uphold), we decide how the amount is divided between the Owner and the Sitter on the evidence we have. That decision can differ from the bands in this policy in either direction. If you disagree with it, write to support@pawko.app and we will look at it again. Your consumer rights are unaffected (section 11).

A refund goes back to where the money came from. The part the Owner paid by card returns to the card, and any Pawko credit used for the Booking comes back as Pawko credit, so one refund can arrive in two parts.

A card refund is only possible where the Owner's card was actually charged for the Booking, and only up to the amount charged. Only a cancellation of the whole Booking goes back to a card: refunds for ending a stay early, for individual cancelled sessions, for an upheld session no-show and for changes to a Booking are always paid as Pawko credit. In the rare case where a card refund cannot be started at all, we pay the amount as Pawko credit instead.

Pawko credit reaches the Owner's balance immediately, does not expire, and can be spent on any Booking on the Platform. It cannot be transferred to anyone else or converted back into money.

A card refund is processed through our payment provider. With most banks it shows straight away; with some it can take a few working days.

Where a Booking never reached acceptance, the whole amount is refunded, and we start the refund as soon as the Booking ends. With most banks it shows straight away; with some it can take a few working days.

The charge stays on the Owner's statement whatever happens afterwards, and a refund shows separately, so the statement can show both a charge and a refund for the same Booking even where almost everything came back.

A refund is limited to what was actually paid for the Booking, less anything already refunded on it. So where a Booking was changed or partly refunded earlier, the amount that reaches the Owner can be less than an earlier estimate.

Nothing in this policy limits any rights you have as a consumer under the law of the Republic of North Macedonia. If a mandatory consumer-protection rule gives you a better remedy than this policy provides, that rule applies.

Questions about a cancellation or refund? Email support@pawko.app or write to ПАВКО ПЕТ ДООЕЛ Битола, ул. Солунска бр. 33, 7000 Битола, Северна Македонија, and we'll help.