Reserve & Cancel Policy

Your booking and cancellation policy decides how far ahead customers can book a class, how close to class time they can still book, and how late they can cancel. Say most of your classes fill up the night before and late drop-outs leave empty mats: a 12-hour cancellation deadline gives the waitlist time to fill those spots.

These settings apply to classes. Appointments, series and events have their own settings (see the links at the end).

Find your booking settings

1. From the side menu, go to Settings > Business.
2. Open the Bookings tab.

When you change anything, click Save changes at the bottom of the screen.

Booking window

How far ahead customers can book – How many days ahead of a class customers can book it. Classes further out don't appear on your schedule yet. If you leave it empty, customers can book 30 days ahead.

For example, with 14 days, a customer looking on June 1 can book classes up to June 15.

Stop taking bookings before a class starts – How close to the start of a class customers can still book. Once this point passes, the class drops off the schedule your customers see. If they open the class's own page, it says "Not taking reservations". Leave it at 0 to take bookings right up to the start.

You can also enter a negative number to keep taking bookings after the class has started. For example, -1 hrs lets someone who walks in late still book in during the first hour.

You and your staff can still book customers into any class from the admin app or the point of sale, whatever these settings say.

Note: To let some customers book further ahead, such as members on your top membership, turn on Longer booking window on that pass and set Days ahead customers can book. See Creating Membership Pass.

Cancellations

Cancellation deadline before a class starts – How close to the start of a class customers can still cancel on their own. Leave it at 0 to let them cancel right up to the start.

For example, with a 12 hrs deadline, a customer booked into a 6 pm class can cancel until 6 am that day.

A customer who cancels before the deadline always gets their class credit back.

Allow cancelling after the deadline – What happens when a customer tries to cancel after the deadline:

• If it is off, customers can't cancel. The booking stays and the credit is used. Instead of a Cancel button, customers see a note asking them to contact you, with your support email.
• If it is on, customers can still cancel, and the booking is marked as a late cancel. Under When they do, what happens to the credit?, choose one:

Return it to the customer and free the spot – The customer gets their class credit back.

Keep it and free the spot – The credit is used, as if they had come to class.

Either way, the spot opens up for someone else. If the class has a waitlist, it's filled the way you chose in Configure Waitlist Settings.

What customers see

• When a customer cancels after the deadline, the confirmation tells them whether their credit will be refunded, and the amount of any late cancellation fee.
• The booking shows as "Late Cancelled" in their booking history, along with whether the credit was refunded or used.
• A late cancel sends a late cancellation email to the customer, the instructor and your studio. An on-time cancel sends the usual cancellation email.

Late cancellation and no-show fees

Below the deadline settings you can also turn on a Late cancellation fee and a No-show fee. The late cancellation fee is charged to the customer's saved card when they cancel after the deadline, if their pass has Charge the late cancellation fee turned on. If you don't see these settings, fees aren't included in your plan. For how the fees work, including per-class fees and what happens when a customer has no saved card, see Configure Different Late Cancel and No-Show Fees.

Things to know

• Changes take effect straight away, for existing bookings too. The deadline is checked when the customer cancels, not when they booked.
• You and your staff can cancel a booking at any time, and you choose whether to refund the credit when you do.
• A customer on the waitlist can leave it at any time. That's never a late cancel.
• These settings are the same for every class. You can't set a different deadline for one class, but each class can have its own late cancellation and no-show fees.

Where are the settings for appointments, series and events?

They each have their own booking and cancellation rules: Global Appointment Settings, Configuring Series Management and Create an Event. The one exception: events only show on your schedule as far ahead as How far ahead customers can book allows.

If you have any questions, reach out to us at team@studiogrowth.com and we'll get you up and running in no time.