I’m struggling with last-minute cancellations – what should my policy be? (All Teachers)

[Gemma Doyle]

Really great to hear that students are happy & willing to agree to such policies!
Thank you for your posts, this has helped me as I’m now going to send these Terms & Conditions to every student booked.

Best wishes, Gemma

[Guest Teacher]

So I’ve had one of those days this week with 5 out of 6 students cancel all because they were ill. I had turned down other lessons on this day because I was fully booked.

I have a 48 hour cancellation policy, that doesn’t apply in exceptional circumstances (but illness is still a grey area), and as of yet I haven’t had to deal with it. But 5 people in one day was certainly a shock to the system – I will definitely implement some of the brilliant above suggestions from the beginning of the new term, but looking for some advise what to do this week because I’m a bit stuck.

Nearly all my students pay up front, and the majority know about the cancellation policy.
Out of the 5 that cancelled:
I managed to rearrange 2 this week, but the second cancelled again (as this time his son was ill)
One of which offered to still pay for the lesson which I accepted
One (parent) refused to pay the cancellation fee, and asked me to ‘add the fee to the next lesson’ because it wasn’t fair to expect her to still pay for a lesson if her child was ill.
The fifth is a new, and very nice student, who I hadn’t got round to emailing my policies to yet, so I kind of feel that this one is my fault, and I should let it slide.

Just looking for some advise from other teachers as I’m quite a lot of money down this week and not great with confrontation so not sure where to start!

Any advise would be appreciated.

[Guest Teacher]

Adding to this, I had considered making the lesson fully chargeable if they have missed it without notice/forgotten/not told me they cant make it more than 48 hours in advance.

For illnesses and situations out of their control, what about implementing a “half fee” policy where they pay half the lesson price as compensation, understanding that we also have to make a living, but not putting the student off by paying having to pay for being ill?

Just a thought!

[Eliza Fyfe]

All cancellations including illnesses should all be fully charged. No exceptions. This is your business; you lose out when you’re ill too. Also, rearranging is literally the same as a cancelled slot.

[Guest Teacher]

Hi Steph

I had the same problem a little while ago, I too have a 48 hour cancellation policy and have also battled with the illness and situations that are out of their control thing.

Two things have come to my attention when dealing with this:

The first thing is that whenever a student cancelled it became because they were ill even if they weren’t just because they knew thought that would get them out of paying.

The second thing is all my students have been happy to pay it. I had one student who kicked up a fuss because she said it was out of her control but after I explained that it is also out of my control and I had turned down other students because she had booked my time she understood and paid. Also what Eliza says about us losing out when we are ill is true. If we are ill and cancel then we lose money, if they are ill and cancel then they lose money. Simple as that.

Once people understood this they also stopped cancelling for feeling a bit tired or under the weather and only cancelled when they were really ill. Don’t be tempted to put in a half fee either because you will have the same problem, every time someone needs to cancel it will be because they are ill and you will lose money.

I always try to have sympathy and tell them that I hope they get better soon etc. but i don’t wave the fee.

Hope that helps