Cancellation policy generator & no-show calculator
Write a salon cancellation policy clients accept — built from your own numbers
Start with what no-shows cost you: your appointments, your average price, plain multiplication. Then see what holding the slot with a small deposit looks like as a WhatsApp conversation, and leave with a cancellation policy written out from your numbers, ready to copy onto your booking page. Free, no signup, and nothing you type leaves your browser.
Just need the policy template? Skip ahead.
Region & currency
Your numbers stay in your browser — nothing you type here is sent anywhere.
A sample week, to show what you'll get: 2 no-shows a week at $50 a visit. Enter your own numbers above and everything below updates to yours.
A week
$100.00
A month
$433.33
A year
$5,200.00
Plain multiplication of the counts you gave — each empty slot at your average price, minus the ones who rebooked. If a walk-in fills some of those slots, your real number is lower.
The fix most owners land on is a small deposit at booking, asked for where the booking conversation already happens. This is the whole exchange, deposit to confirmed appointment.
Starting point: $15 — about 25% of your average price, rounded. It's written into your policy below.
An example conversation with a $15 deposit—yours goes in the message with your own amount. The payment itself happens on a normal payment link the client taps; card payments inside the chat aren't available to UK/US/EU businesses.
A deposit only works when the policy around it is written down where clients see it: your booking page, your bio, the front desk. Here's one built from your numbers, ready to copy and make your own.
Booking & cancellation policy Your appointment time is set aside just for you. A $15 deposit secures the booking, and it comes straight off your bill on the day. Plans change — we get it. Give us at least 24 hours' notice and we'll happily move your appointment and carry the deposit over, or refund it if you'd rather. With less than 24 hours' notice, or if the appointment is missed, we can't offer the time to anyone else, so the deposit isn't refunded. Running late? Let us know and we'll do our best to fit you in. If we can't, it counts as a late cancellation. Thank you for understanding. It's what keeps prices fair for everyone.
A template to adapt, not legal advice. Consumer rules on deposits vary by country, so check the wording fits where you trade.
A cancellation policy without a deposit is a polite request
Most owners go looking for a cancellation policy template after a bad week of empty chairs. The wording matters; it sets expectations and keeps things friendly. But wording alone doesn't change behaviour. What does is a small deposit taken when the booking is made: the client has something in the game, and the appointment stops being free to forget. Fresha's own study of UK beauty businesses puts the damage at around 7% of monthly revenue lost to cancellations and no-shows, with 62% of cancelling clients giving less than 24 hours' notice.
That's why the generator above writes the deposit into the policy rather than around it. For the full wording walkthrough (tone, the notice window, where to publish it), read how to write a salon cancellation policy clients accept.
Your booking system probably supports deposits — with strings
Fresha, Booksy, Square Appointments and Vagaro all offer some form of deposit or no-show protection. Each one also ties it to their own payment processing, a paid tier, or both — and Square doesn't do partial deposits at all, only full prepayment or a card on file. If you've tried to switch deposits on and given up halfway, that friction is why.
We've read the four platforms' docs so you don't have to: what each booking system actually supports for deposits.
No-show fee or deposit? Collect before, not after
The other route platforms offer is a no-show fee: keep a card on file and charge it after the client fails to appear. It sounds equivalent and isn't. A fee is collected from someone who already didn't come, off a saved card that can decline, inside rules like Fresha's requirement to mark the no-show manually before the end of that same day. A deposit is collected at booking, from someone who wants the appointment, while they're paying attention. By the time the day arrives, there's nothing left to chase.
The deposit maths in more depth, including what the published no-show figures do and don't support, is written up in what no-shows actually cost a salon.
Frequently asked questions
What should a salon cancellation policy include?
Four things, stated plainly: how much notice you need (24 or 48 hours is standard), what securing the booking costs (the deposit and that it comes off the bill), what happens with less notice or a missed appointment (the deposit isn't refunded), and a human line about lateness. Keep the tone warm — the policy's job is to set expectations before there's a problem, not to threaten. The generator on this page writes all four parts from your own numbers.
How much deposit should a salon charge?
There's no published standard. Booking platforms let you set anywhere from 1% to full prepayment, and their own guidance ranges from about 20% to 50% of the service price. A quarter of the average service price, rounded to a friendly number, is a common starting point: enough that the client has something in the game, small enough that nobody hesitates to book. The calculator suggests that by default and you can overwrite it.
Can clients pay a salon deposit through WhatsApp?
The conversation can happen on WhatsApp; the card payment itself can't — in the UK, US and EU, WhatsApp doesn't offer in-chat payments to businesses. What works today is sending a payment link in the chat: the client taps it, pays on a normal payment page, and comes back to the conversation. That's exactly the flow the mock on this page shows.
Can I keep the deposit when a client doesn't show up?
Generally yes, if the client agreed to a clearly communicated policy when they booked and the amount is reasonable rather than punitive — that's what the written policy is for. The specifics vary by country and by how the deposit was taken, so treat the generated text as a template to adapt, not legal advice.