Booking cancellation policy for a service business: how to write one, with examples

A booking cancellation policy states how much notice a customer must give to cancel or move a booking, and what happens if they give less: a fee, a lost deposit, or nothing at all. It protects time you have turned other customers away for. It only works if the customer sees it before they book, and it cannot take away rights consumer law gives them.

What a cancellation policy should say

1. The notice window: for example, 24 or 48 hours before the start time.
2. What happens inside the window: a fee, part or all of a deposit kept, or the deposit turned into credit.
3. Rescheduling: whether moving a booking counts as a cancellation, and how often it can be moved.
4. No-shows and lockouts: what happens if nobody is there or you cannot get in.
5. Your cancellations: what the customer gets if you cancel, usually a full refund and a new time.
6. How to cancel: by phone, email or a link, and when the notice counts as given.
7. Exceptions: illness, emergencies, severe weather, at your discretion.

Choosing the notice window

Sample policies

• Simple, no deposit: "Please give us 24 hours’ notice to cancel or move your booking. Cancellations with less notice may be charged a fee of [amount]."
• With a deposit: "A deposit of [amount] secures your booking. Cancel at least 48 hours before the start and it is refunded in full. With less notice, or if nobody is home, the deposit is kept. If you move your booking with at least 48 hours’ notice, the deposit moves with it."
• Credit instead of forfeit: "Cancel with less than 24 hours’ notice and your deposit becomes credit towards your next booking within 3 months."

Consumer law to check first

• UK: many services booked online, by phone or away from your premises carry a 14-day right to cancel, and GOV.UK sets out what you must tell customers when selling at a distance.
• Australia: a cancellation fee in a standard form contract can be an unfair contract term if it is out of proportion to your actual loss. Keep fees tied to what a late cancellation really costs you.
• US: the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rule gives three days to cancel certain sales made at the customer’s home; state laws vary.

In every country, a policy the customer never saw is hard to enforce. Show it before they book, in the confirmation and in the reminder.

The free cancellation policy generator writes a policy from these choices, ready for your booking page.

Applying it fairly

Decide in advance when you will waive it: a first late cancellation, genuine emergencies, a customer of ten years. Apply it the same way to everyone else. A no-show policy goes with it; and reminders prevent many late cancellations before a fee is ever needed, as the guide on reducing no-shows explains.

Cancellation terms in Primemgr

In Primemgr each business sets its own booking terms: a notice window of 12, 24, 48 or 72 hours or any other; whether a cancellation in time is refunded in full, in part or turned into credit; what happens to a late cancellation or a no-show; whether a deposit moves when a booking is rescheduled; and whether staff can decide otherwise case by case, with a reason. The terms are shown before anyone books and again in the confirmation, with a note that local consumer law comes first. Each booking keeps the terms it was made under. Deposits are recorded as received and refunds as paid by your staff; Primemgr does not charge customers’ cards itself.