How to Write Cancellation Letters for Various Instances (Samples Included)

As the name suggests, a cancellation letter is a letter written to cancel any preplanned arrangements. The situations where a cancellation letter can be used vary across instances, organizations, and intents. This means you can write a cancellation letter to cancel an appointment with someone, to cancel a subscription, registration, or if you’re in a position of power, you can write a cancellation letter to cancel an appointment with multiple people altogether. 

When writing cancellation letters, there are things you must take note of, especially when you’re canceling an appointment with someone. You must make sure you do it with empathy as this person must have gone through some inconvenience before the appointment. 

In this article, we’re going to discuss all the rules associated with canceling for various instances, and we’re going to give some templates and samples on how to write cancellation letters for various events. 

Tips on Cancelling Various Reasons?

Cancellation letters before billing: When writing cancellation letters to companies, you need to take a different approach than you would when sending them to people. With companies, especially in the event of you canceling your subscription to a package before a billing, it is important that you do this right before you’re billed. 

Cancellation Letters to cancel subscriptions: If you’re canceling a subscription to packages that offer refunds, it is important that you send the letter in the validity period to ensure you do not forfeit the refund. 

Writing to cancel meetings or appointments: When sending cancellation letters to cancel appointments that involve other parties, you need to do this immediately after you find out you can no longer make it. It is unethical to cancel an appointment, especially physically mere hours before the event. If an event is slated for the next week and you find out you can no longer make it today, send in that cancellation letter immediately after you find out. 

There are cases of emergencies where you have no other option but to cancel an appointment hours before. In this instance, it is important that you express your sincere apologies, and state that the reason for the cancellation was an emergency. If you feel like it, you can go further and state what the emergency was, but if you don’t feel like it, there’s no rule stating you must. 

Canceling a Business Event: When canceling a formal business event, you need to ensure it is done as professionally as possible. If available, use your company’s letterheaded paper and attach a signature. Also, ensure to suggest a date to reconvene.

Canceling other events: When generally canceling events, one of the major rules is to ensure no invited party is left out. If you sent out invitations to 100 people, you should also send out cancellation letters to the same amount of people. As said earlier, you need to let the guests know as soon as you find out. This will save them a lot of inconveniences. It is also important to add a short reason for the cancellation. If you’re uncomfortable with it, you don’t have to go into too much detail, but you do have to extend the courtesy of an explanation. 

Tips for Writing a Cancellation Letter

When writing cancellation letters, there are things you must bear in mind. In this section of this article, we listed everything you need to know when writing cancellation letters. 

1. Treat as a formal letter: When writing cancellation letters, you need to remember they’re professional letters and treat them as such. This means including the correct dates, honorifics, letter headed papers, etc. 
2. Use an accurate subject: When writing letters, you need to give out the full detail of the letter in the subject. The recipient should know what the letter is about from reading the subject. 

3. Use a professional tone: It doesn’t matter if you’re writing to a familiar colleague, you need to ensure you maintain a professional tone in all the messages you send. 

4. Propose a new date: If you’re canceling an event as a result of unplanned circumstances and not because you no longer want to honor the commitment, it is important that you include new dates. In proposing new dates, you tell the other party that you’re still interested in the meeting and yes, the cancellation was due to circumstances that you had no control over. When proposing new dates, you need to make sure the other party is given the chance to choose. This is a common courtesy and goes to send your apologies to the participant. 

5. Include all the important information: The kind of information to include in a cancellation letter varies according to reason. If you’re canceling an appointment, the only information you may be required to include is the reason for the cancellation and the proposed dates. If you’re sending letters to cancel subscription packages, you may need to include other information such as your account ID, etc. 

6. State the steps if your cancellation request isn’t granted: As said earlier, writing to cancel services is different. As such, you may need to take other actions if your request isn’t granted, and it is also important to include these actions in your letter. This tells the receiving party that you’re serious and not to be toiled with. 

7. Do not be offensive: A cancellation letter is a professional letter. This means your letter must be void of any offensive language. Regardless of how offended you might be, you need to ensure you maintain professionalism and explain your case without any disrespect of any kind. 

Cancellation Letter Samples

Jacob Cancelo 123 New Avenue, Houston Texas 11011 15 April 2022 Stark Internet Services 456 Davidson Avenue, Los Angeles, California 11101 RE: Cancellation of service To whom it may concern, This is to inform you of my request to cancel my subscription with you as I am moving to another town and would no longer require your services in my new location. My customer ID is 123456789. According to your contract, whenever I cancel my subscription with due notice, I get a 10% refund on my last subscription. I enjoyed using your services and if I were to return I would definitely use your services again. Please confirm my cancellation. Kind Regards, Jim Blessed 

Cancellation Letter Sample Two

Woculus Inc 123 Old Lane, Houston Texas 11011 15 April 2022 Cap Hotels and Suites 456 New Avenue, Los Angeles, California 11101 RE: Cancellation of Hotel Reservation To whom it may concern, Our company XYZ Inc., reserved the cap hotels for our event on the 18 of April 2022 from 8 am to 6 pm. After much consideration, we regret to inform you that we have canceled the event as our company has decided to host the event annually instead of biannually. According to your contract, if a cancellation is made with a 30-day notice, a complete refund is given. As such, we would like to ask that a refund be made. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this has caused. Kindly reach out to us if you have further questions or inquiries. Regards, Jim Blessed 

Cancellation Letter Sample Two

Dear Team, RE: Meeting Cancellation Notice I’m writing this letter to cancel our weekly meeting that was slated for later this afternoon. I had a family emergency this morning as my child ingested something harmful and had to be rushed to the hospital and I have to be with her. My sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused as I know you must have prepared for this meeting. Upon my resumption, we will reschedule a new date for this meeting. Thank you for understanding. Kind Regards, Jim Blessed Manager, Paint Inc. 

Conclusion

When writing cancellation letters, the most important thing to note is the instance. If you’re writing a cancellation letter to the rest of your team, the tone can take a much calmer turn depending on your relationship with your team. But if you’re writing a letter to an external party, you need to be professional and firm in your approach. 

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Ayo Oyedotun is a professional blogger and freelance writer. He reads, writes and talks about business. You can follow him on Twitter @Ayo_Oyedotun[http://twitter.com/#!/Ayo_Oyedotun] or read Business Owners’ Bible[http://woculus.com/].