What Refund Policy Should a Conference Have?

A conference refund policy should step down as the event gets closer: a full refund less a small admin fee until about 60 days out, a credit or part refund to 30 days, transfers only to 14 days, then no refund, plus a full refund if you cancel. On 400 tickets at $1,000, refunds to 60 days put about $18,000 at risk, net of a $100 fee kept per refund, if 5% of buyers ask.

• The question organisers ask: “what refund policy should my conference have?” Answer: a time-based ladder, not a single yes or no.
• The asset on this page: the Conference Refund-Window Ladder, a four-rung table by days to event, with the cash each rung puts at risk on a worked 400-seat example.
• What we read: the published 2026 cancellation policies of three conferences (ITAA, SIIA’s National Conference and DBIA’s Design-Build Conference), Eventbrite’s organiser refund rules, and Australian and UK consumer-law guidance.
• The gap: we found no public study that measures how refund terms change conference ticket conversion, so the conversion side of the trade-off is stated as reasoning, not as a number.

Rules of thumb

• Choose the strictest terms you will need before you publish. On Eventbrite, once an event is live you can only change the policy to a more flexible one.
• Always allow transfers. All three published policies we read (ITAA, SIIA, DBIA) let a registration pass to another person after cash refunds have stopped.
• Stop cash refunds when your catering and venue numbers lock. SIIA gives “staffing, food, and beverage” commitments as its reason for refusing late refunds.
• Price every 1% of refund requests before you offer refunds. At 400 seats and $1,000 a ticket with a $100 fee kept, each 1% of buyers who claim costs $3,600 (4 refunds x $900).
• In Australia, write “no refunds for change of mind”, never just “no refunds”. The WA regulator says plain “no refunds” signs are generally against the law (details below).

The Conference Refund-Window Ladder: what to offer at each stage

The Conference Refund-Window Ladder gives delegates four rungs of cover by days to event, so refunds shrink as your sunk costs grow and the time left to resell a seat runs out. The cash column uses a worked example: 400 tickets at $1,000, a $100 admin fee kept on each refund, and an assumed 20 requests (5% of buyers) landing in each window. The 5% is an assumption, not a benchmark; replace it with your own past cancellations.

The days in each rung are a starting point. Move the 30-day line to the date your venue’s final catering numbers are due, because that is the date after which an empty seat costs you money whether or not you refund it.

Conference refund policy FAQ

What refund policy should a conference have?

A conference should have a time-based ladder: refund less an admin fee until about 60 days out, credit or part refund to 30 days, transfer only to 14 days, then no change-of-mind refund, with a full refund if the organiser cancels.

Should a conference offer refunds at all?

Not legally required for change of mind in Australia, but early refunds remove a purchase objection. Published policies vary: ITAA refunds in full beyond 30 days, while SIIA never refunds more than 50%.

Can I charge a fee for a conference refund?

Yes, an admin fee is common in published policies. DBIA keeps $125 before 11 September 2026 and $175 after that date until refunds stop, as its cancellation page shows.

Is a credit to next year better than a refund?

A credit keeps cash now but becomes a liability against next year’s event. In the worked example, 20 credits at $1,000 carry $20,000 into next year instead of paying out $18,000 today.

Do I have to refund if I cancel the conference?

On Eventbrite, yes. Its organiser refund policy requirements make refunds mandatory when an event is cancelled, or postponed and not rescheduled within 90 days.

How much cash does a conference refund window put at risk?

A refund window to 60 days out puts between 1.8% and 7.2% of ticket revenue at risk on the worked example, depending on how many buyers ask. No public benchmark for conference refund request rates was found, so the three bands below are assumptions to replace with your own history.

Two things change the real cost. First, a seat refunded at 61 days can often be resold, so the net loss is the refund minus whatever the resale brings in. Second, platform fees are rarely returned to you when you refund: check your ticketing platform’s terms, and see our comparison of ticketing platform fees in Australia for what each one charges per ticket. If you discount early tickets, run the refund maths alongside the early bird ticket pricing break-even, because a generous refund plus a deep discount gives early buyers a free option on your event.

What do real conference refund policies say in 2026?

Three published 2026 conference policies all stop cash refunds at a fixed date before the event and all allow transfers; two of them keep a fee or part of the price on every refund, while ITAA refunds in full more than 30 days out. Each was read on its organiser’s own site on 3 November 2026.

• ITAA Annual Conference: full refund more than 30 days before the start, a credit less a $50 administrative fee at 15 to 30 days, and no refunds or credits within 14 days, though “registration may be transferred to another attendee” (ITAA).
• SIIA National Conference (11 to 13 October 2026): 50% refund less a 3% fee before 18 June, 25% less 3% from 19 June to 3 September, then nothing for later cancellations and all no-shows; substitutions are permitted for the 2026 event only (SIIA).
• DBIA Design-Build Conference: refund less $125 before 11 September 2026, less $175 from 11 September to 9 October, then no refunds or credits; one substitution per original registrant (DBIA).

SIIA is the strictest of the three: it never offers more than half the ticket back, which suits a company-paid audience where the employer, not the individual, controls the registration. Choose looser terms when your buyers pay personally and choose stricter ones when a company pays and can send someone else.

What does Australian consumer law allow in a conference refund policy?

Australian Consumer Law does not require a conference to refund a delegate who simply changes their mind, but it does stop you claiming that no refund is ever available. Consumer Affairs Victoria says a store generally does not have to give a refund if a customer simply changes their mind, that a business with a change-of-mind policy must abide by it, and that the policy cannot take away the customer’s rights under the Australian Consumer Law.

WA Consumer Protection says “no refunds” signs are generally against the law because they suggest a refund is never available, even for a major problem with the product or service, while a sign stating “No refunds will be given if you have simply changed your mind” is acceptable. The same page lists “We will only exchange, repair or give credit notes” as generally against the law, so word every rung as a change-of-mind term: the 0 to 14 day rung should read “no change-of-mind refunds within 14 days”, and the credit rung should be a change-of-mind credit. This is general information, not legal advice: if your event is cancelled or substantially changed, get advice before you set the remedy.

For UK readers, the 14-day cancellation right in the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply to services related to leisure activities with a specific date (regulation 28(1)(h)); check with an adviser whether your event falls within it. In the US, check your state’s rules; the ladder itself is a commercial choice, not a legal minimum.

How to set up a conference refund policy, step by step

Setting up a conference refund policy takes five steps and about a day, and it must be finished before the first ticket goes on sale.

1. Day one: list your cost lock dates. Write down when the venue deposit, final catering numbers and printed materials are due. These dates set your rung boundaries.
2. Price the refund risk. Run the table above with your own ticket price, seat count and last year’s cancellations. Decide the admin fee from what a refund costs you in platform fees and staff time.
3. Write the four rungs in plain dates. “Before 1 March: refund less $100” beats “more than 60 days prior”, because buyers do not count days. Add how to request a refund and how fast you reply: Eventbrite’s organiser requirements ask for instructions and a first response within five business days.
4. Add the cancellation clause. State that you refund in full if you cancel, and what happens on postponement.
5. Publish it before purchase. Put it on the ticket page, at checkout and in the confirmation email. The finish state: every buyer sees the ladder before paying.

If refund requests rise sharply in the final month, treat that as an attendance signal and work the event no-show rate levers rather than loosening the policy.

How do you refill seats that come back through the refund ladder?

A refunded or transferred seat is only a loss if nobody else fills it, so the refund ladder works best with a resale list ready from day one. The cheapest buyers to sell a returned seat to are people who started registration and stopped, which our guide to event registration abandonment covers, and companies that already sent one delegate and may add a colleague, covered in selling conference group tickets to companies.

Doing this yourself means a person calling and messaging each warm contact within days of a seat coming back, which we assume at a few hours a week in the final two months (an estimate, not a measured figure; scale it to your seat count). Organisers who would rather hand that follow-up to a team can see how LeadsNow approaches lead generation for event organisers.

Sources

1. Eventbrite: Set and manage your refund policy
2. Eventbrite: Organizer Refund Policy Requirements (updated 11 January 2024)
3. ITAA Annual Conference registration fees and cancellation policy
4. SIIA National Conference registration and cancellation policy
5. DBIA Design-Build Conference cancellations and substitutions
6. Consumer Affairs Victoria: Change of mind
7. WA Consumer Protection: No refund signs (updated 5 May 2026)
8. UK Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, regulation 28

Related: see Should I offer a virtual ticket for my in-person conference?.

Related: see Should events offer ticket payment plans?.