Clients sometimes need to cancel at the last minute. With the cancellation policy feature, you can set up fees that are deducted from the paid amount when a booking is cancelled close to the class start time.
Setting Up Cancellation Fees
Go to Settings (gear icon in the left sidebar).
Select Bookings and rules from the top menu bar.
You'll find the cancellation policy at the bottom of the page in the Booking cancellation section.
Adding a Cancellation Policy
Set up a new cancellation policy by clicking the + Add button.
A dialog will appear where you can define your cancellation conditions. In the example below, we're creating a condition that says: If a client cancels their booking 3 hours or less before the class starts, they'll be charged a 25% cancellation fee from the amount they paid.
Your new cancellation policy now appears in the list (see image below). If you’d like, click the + Add button again to create another condition — for example, a 50% fee for cancellations made within 2 hours before the class.
What this policy applies to (and which time units)
This policy covers individual sessions — that means single (open) classes and bookings for your appointment services together. There's only one shared policy, so you can't set separate rules for services and classes.
Fee windows and the Cancellation deadline for sessions are entered in hours only — days and weeks aren't offered here. If you think in days, convert first: 1 day = 24 hours, 1 week = 168 hours.
Courses and events work differently and have no percentage fees at all. See Setting Up Cancellation Policies and Make-Up Sessions.
Troubleshooting: can't save cancellation policy
If you're unable to save your cancellation policy, the most common cause is a conflict between a cancellation fee and the cancellation deadline. The system will display the following error:
One of your cancellation fees overlaps with the cancellation deadline (the deadline must always be earlier). Please change the deadline or remove the conflicting fee.
How to fix it
Check the cancellation deadline setting — it defines the latest time a client can cancel before the class starts.
Make sure none of your cancellation fees apply to a time window that falls after the cancellation deadline. The deadline must always be earlier than any cancellation fee window.
Either adjust the cancellation deadline or remove the conflicting cancellation fee.
Example: If your cancellation deadline is set to 2 hours before the class, you cannot have a cancellation fee that applies "1 hour before the class" — the client can no longer cancel at that point.
How to set up "free until X, then a fee"
Say you want cancellations to be free until 72 hours before the class and 25% after that. The rule to work around: every fee window has to sit further from the class start than the cancellation deadline, because the deadline is the point where clients can no longer cancel on their own. Two setups get you there:
Without a deadline — leave the cancellation deadline at 0 (or don't use it) and add a 25% fee for a 72-hour window. Cancelling more than 72 hours ahead is free, anything closer costs 25%, and clients can still cancel whenever they need to.
With a 48-hour deadline — set the deadline to 48 hours and add the same 25% fee for a 72-hour window. More than 72 hours ahead is free, between 72 and 48 hours the fee is 25%, and under 48 hours clients can't cancel themselves anymore.
What you can't do is combine the two, for example "free until 72 hours, 25% between 72 and 48 hours, and a different fee under 48 hours". That last fee would fall past the deadline, so the system won't save it and you'll see the error described above.