Policy Templates

Tutoring Cancellation Policy

Pick a notice window and a charge, copy the wording, put it in front of families before the first session.

Notice required

Late cancellation charge

Cancellation Policy

Please give at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel or reschedule a session. Sessions cancelled with at least 24 hours' notice are not charged, and I will do my best to find an alternative time.

For cancellations made less than 24 hours before the session, the full session fee will be charged. The time was reserved for you and cannot usually be filled at short notice.

If a student does not attend and no notice is given, the session is treated as a late cancellation and the full session fee will be charged.

If I need to cancel a session, it will be rescheduled at no cost to you.

These are conventions tutors commonly use, offered as a starting point for your own wording — not legal advice, and not a statement about what is enforceable where you live.

Choosing your window and charge

The window is about how much notice you need to refill or repurpose the slot. The charge is about signalling that the time had value.

Window	Suits	Trade-off
12 hours	Regular weekly students you trust	Rarely enough time to refill the slot
24 hours	Most tutors — the default	Balanced; what families already expect
48 hours	Travel-heavy or in-home teaching	Feels strict to families new to it

On the charge: 100% is the most common and the easiest to justify — the slot was held and can no longer be sold. 50% is a softer option that still makes the point. Zero is a policy in name only, and families work that out quickly.

The hard part isn't writing it

Almost every tutor has a cancellation policy. Far fewer have ever charged anyone under it. The policy isn't the problem — sending a message to a family you see every week, about money, for a lesson that didn't happen, is.

So the policy quietly becomes decorative, cancellations creep up, and the tutor absorbs it. Three things actually help:

Agree it before the first session

In writing, alongside your rate. Enforcing something a family has already read is a reminder. Introducing it after a cancellation is a demand, and feels like one.

Never decide in the moment

The policy decides, not you. Case-by-case judgement is how it erodes — and how families end up with different rules by accident.

Make it automatic

If the charge applies by itself, there's no message to send and no decision to make. This is the only one that reliably survives a busy term.

Or let it run itself

TutorTab holds your notice window and late-cancellation charge as a setting. Families see the policy when they book, cancellations inside the window are handled according to it, and the charge happens without you raising it.

Which means the conversation you have been avoiding stops being a conversation. You set the rule once and it applies evenly to everyone, which is also the fairest version for families.

Music teachers: make-up lessons need their own handling — see the music lesson rates guide.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

What is a standard tutoring cancellation policy?+

Twenty-four hours' notice is the most common. Cancel with more notice and there's no charge; cancel inside the window or don't show and the session is charged in full. Some tutors use 12 hours for regular students or 48 for travel-heavy schedules.

Should I charge the full amount for a late cancellation?+

Full price is the most common and the easiest to explain — the slot was reserved and can no longer be filled. Fifty percent is a softer alternative that still signals the time had value. What matters more than the number is applying it consistently.

How do I enforce a cancellation policy without being awkward?+

Agree it in writing before the first session, so enforcing it is a reminder rather than a new demand. Then make it automatic — if the charge happens by itself, you never have to raise it, which is the actual reason most policies go unenforced.

What about no-shows?+

Treat a no-show as a late cancellation with no notice — charged in full. It's worth naming separately in your policy so there's no ambiguity when it happens.

Should I make exceptions for illness?+

Many tutors allow one or two waived cancellations per term for genuine emergencies, without specifying what qualifies. That keeps you humane without turning every cancellation into a negotiation about whether it counts.

A policy that enforces itself

Set your window and charge once. Free for tutors.

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