How to write a cancellation policy for a studio

Why a studio needs one

A cancelled booking leaves you with an empty room you could have sold. The later it comes, the less chance you have of filling it. A policy shares that risk fairly: clients who cancel early get their money back, and late cancellations pay for some of the time you held for them. Without a written rule, every cancellation becomes a negotiation, and the loudest client gets the best deal.

1. Pick a deadline that matches how your room is rebooked

The deadline is how long before the start a client can cancel for a full refund. Choose it from your own calendar: how far ahead does a freed slot usually get booked again?

• Rooms booked a few hours ahead (meeting rooms, rehearsal rooms in a busy area) can live with a short deadline, such as 24 hours.
• Rooms booked days or weeks ahead (recording sessions with an engineer, photo shoots with a set built for them) need a longer one, such as 48 hours or a week.
• One deadline is easier to understand than a ladder of them. If you need two steps, keep it to two.

2. Decide what happens after the deadline

After the deadline you can refund nothing, a part, or everything as a gesture. A partial refund (for example half) is often easier to accept than none, and still covers some of the lost time. Whatever you choose, write it as a number, not as "at our discretion".

Decide also whether there is a point after which people can't cancel themselves at all, for example in the last two hours, and must contact you. That gives you a chance to talk before the slot is lost.

3. No-shows, late arrivals, overruns and reschedules

• No-show: a client who doesn't come and doesn't cancel. The simplest rule is that the booking counts as used and isn't refunded. If you also hold back future bookings after repeated no-shows, say so.
• Late arrival: the booking still ends at the booked time, because the next client is waiting. Say this in the confirmation.
• Overrun: decide whether time past the end is charged, and at what rate, and how you handle the next booking that starts late because of it.
• Rescheduling: many clients don't want to cancel, they want another time. A move before the deadline is usually best kept free (you keep the client); decide whether a move after it counts as a late cancellation. Treating a reschedule as a cancellation plus a new booking, with the usual rules for each, keeps it fair.

4. Prepaid hours, packs and plans

When a booking is paid with hours from a pack or a monthly plan rather than with money, the same policy should apply to the hours. Cancelled in time: the hours go back. Cancelled late: the same share is kept as you would keep of a card payment. That keeps the rule identical whatever the client paid with, and stops prepaid hours from becoming a free option on every slot.

Gift cards and discount codes work the same way: say whether the gift card amount returns to the card, and whether a used discount code can be used again.

5. Be clear at booking time

A policy only holds if the client saw it before paying. Show it next to the price in the booking form, repeat it in the confirmation e-mail and keep it on a page of your website. Write it in plain words in the languages your clients book in.

Consumer law in many countries expects clear terms to be shown before purchase and can treat penalties that are out of proportion to your loss as unfair. Rules for business clients, for withdrawal rights and for bookings of a specific date differ between countries. This guide isn't legal advice: check your local consumer rules or ask an adviser before you publish your policy.

6. Examples by studio type

These are examples to adapt, not recommended terms:

• Rehearsal room: "Cancel for free up to 24 hours before the start. Later cancellations and no-shows are not refunded."
• Podcast or recording studio with an engineer: "Cancel for free up to 48 hours before the start. Later, 50 % is refunded. A booking that is not cancelled counts as used."
• Photo or video studio with a set built to order: "Cancel for free up to 7 days before the shoot. Later, the set-up fee is kept and 50 % of the studio time is refunded."
• Meeting room: "Cancel for free up to 2 hours before the start. After that the booking is charged in full."

Doing this in Ruumio

Every room has its own cancellation policy: a full refund when a booking is cancelled at least the hours you choose before the start, and a refund percentage you set for later cancellations. The same share of plan hours and pack minutes goes back, and the same share of a gift card amount. Members can cancel online until the room's cancellation cutoff; after that they are asked to contact the studio.

For a paid booking or one using plan or pack hours, the booking form shows the policy before the member books, and the cancellation e-mail says what is refunded. When you cancel a booking yourself, you choose a full refund, the policy's share or no refund, and every refund comes with a credit note. There is no separate rescheduling step: to move a booking, cancel it with the refund you allow and book the new time for the member.

Reports (Standard and Pro) count cancellations and how many of them were late, so you can see whether your deadline works.

Questions