How to cancel a reservation

Changed your mind? No problem. Every route to canceling a reservation or a contribution is below, as a guest and as the organizer of the list.

The quickest route, at a glance

Find your situation below. If Stripe was involved, the first row decides — it overrides the three under it.

Your situation	How to cancel
Stripe was involved at all — paid, still pending, or a checkout you started and abandoned	Not with the buttons below. A payment that went through becomes a Request refund; while one is pending, nobody can cancel it. See 4. Special case: you paid online through Stripe, further down this page
Same browser you reserved from, within 90 days, and without an account	On the wishlist itself, in your Your next step box
You reserved without an account and have the confirmation email	The cancellation link in it
You reserved with an account	The Cancel reservation button on the wishlist
None of the above	Ask the organizer — they can cancel for you

---

Canceling as a guest

1. On the wishlist, in the same browser

Without an account, in the browser you reserved from and for up to 90 days, your gift shows a green box called ✓ Your next step. Signed in you never get that box — step 3 is your route. The button in it depends on what you promised:

What you promised	Button	What happens
Reserved a gift	Cancel reservation	The gift is open to everyone again straight away
Pledged money by PayPal or offline	Cancel pledge	Your contribution stops counting toward the list
Noted a donation	Remove note	Only the local note goes — the donation itself isn’t canceled
Paid or started a checkout through Stripe	—	No button here. A payment that went through becomes a Request refund, and a pending one can’t be cancelled — see section 4

Confirm and you’re done. No account, no email.

Good to know: this only works in the browser you reserved from, and for up to 90 days. On another device, in another browser, or after clearing your cookies: signed in, go straight to step 3 and cancel on the wishlist; without an account, use the email link below — and if you gave no address either, ask the organizer, who can cancel it for you from the gift’s contributor list.

2. Through the confirmation email — without an account

If you reserved without an account and gave your address, your confirmation email carries the link:

1. Open the confirmation in your inbox
2. Press the button in it — it reads Cancel reservation, or Cancel pledge on a contribution; on a list that takes card payments it reads Request refund even for a plain gift, and cancels all the same
3. Confirm on the page — done

The link works on any device, with no login. If you were signed in when you reserved, your confirmation has no such link — it points you to the wishlist instead, which is step 3.

3. With a Wishlist.de account

If you were signed in when you reserved, the wishlist shows your status on the gift — ✓ You reserved this gift — with a Cancel reservation button next to it.

4. Special case: you paid online through Stripe

Online payments run directly between you and the organizer, and Wishlist.de has no access to the money. So:

• Payment still pending — wait for the confirmation, or for the checkout to expire. The pledge can’t be released before that.
• Payment went through — you request a refund. Use the Request refund link in your confirmation email; a card payment carries one whether or not you have an account, and it is the only route — on the wishlist itself your reservation shows a short note instead of a button. The request goes to the organizer, who issues the refund from their own Stripe account. Wishlist.de never triggers a refund itself.

5. Special case: you already paid outside Wishlist.de

Cancel pledge only removes your promise from the list. Money you already sent by PayPal, bank transfer or in cash does not come back this way — settle that with the organizer directly.

Nothing works?

No email, another device, no account? Message the organizer of the list, by WhatsApp or however you reach them. They can either cancel for you — you get a short email about it if your address is on file — or resend your confirmation, which carries the cancellation link again as long as Stripe was never involved — even a checkout you started and abandoned takes the link out.

---

Canceling as the organizer

You can release any reservation on your own list, whether a guest asked you to or somebody dropped out.

One exception, and it follows from surprise mode: if the list is for you and surprise mode is on, you cannot see who reserved what — so the contributor details and these controls are not there for you either. A co-owner can do it, or the guest cancels it themselves with the routes above.

1. Open your wishlist and tap the gift in question
2. Look at the contributor details — they show who reserved or contributed
3. Cancel next to that person and confirm

The gift or the amount is open again immediately, and an entry appears in your list’s activity. The guest gets a short email about it if their address is on file — that’s a checkbox in the dialog, checked by default, so uncheck it if you’ve already told them yourself.

The same view lets you mark a gift or an amount as received once it actually arrives, and resend a guest their confirmation email. That resent email carries the cancellation link only for a guest who reserved without an account and where Stripe was never involved — a checkout that was started and abandoned already counts.

Stripe payments: a contribution that has already been paid can’t simply be canceled. Issue the refund in your Stripe dashboard first — a full one; a partial refund has to go through us — and the contribution is released on the list afterwards.

---

Common questions

Is the gift open again right away?

Yes, as long as no Stripe payment is involved. The moment you cancel, the wish is open again and somebody else can step in. Stripe works differently: while the payment is still going through you can’t cancel at all, and once it has gone through you send a refund request instead — the wish reopens when the refund comes back.

Does the recipient see the cancellation?

Not if surprise mode is on — then the cancellation stays invisible to them too. Without it, the recipient sees the same reserved-or-available state as everybody else. That state is the shared part; a recipient who owns the list is still its organizer and also sees who reserved or contributed, along with the controls that go with it.

I deleted the confirmation email — now what?

Ask the organizer. They can resend it, or cancel for you.

I gave no email and I’m on another device — now what?

Then it goes through the organizer, as above. Worth doing next time: reserve without an account and leave an email address, and your confirmation carries a cancellation link that works on any device. Signed in, you get no such link — you cancel from your own reservations instead.

Do I get my money back if I cancel?

It depends on how you paid. With Stripe you send a refund request to the organizer. With PayPal, a bank transfer or cash you settle it with them directly. Wishlist.de never holds your money at any point.

Can I change my contribution instead of canceling?

Not the amount directly. By PayPal or offline: cancel your contribution and enter the new amount afterwards. Paid through Stripe, there is nothing to cancel — a payment that went through becomes a refund request and a pending one cannot be touched, so take section 4 first and contribute again once it is settled.