A fair cancellation policy, with a free template

A late cancellation costs more than the one appointment. It's time you kept free, usually at short notice when no one else can take it, and now and then product you ordered in or a drive you'd already made. A clear policy won't stop every cancellation. What it does is tell clients what to expect, give you a fair way to cover your loss, and spare you some awkward conversations down the track.

Below is what tends to work, what the law expects of a cancellation fee, and at the end a policy builder that writes the policy for you (with confirmation and reminder messages to go with it).

This is general information, not legal advice. If your situation is unusual, or a dispute is heading somewhere serious, talk to a lawyer or Community Law.

Prevent it first

Most missed appointments aren't bad faith. People forget, or something comes up and they feel awkward about cancelling. So the cheapest fix is making it easy to remember, and easier still to move.

Confirm every booking in writing with the date, time and address, and a link to your policy; for a new client, that confirmation is also where they agree to it. Then send a reminder 24 to 48 hours before, one they can reply to if something's changed. Someone who can reschedule in one tap is less likely to just not turn up.

It's also worth keeping a short waitlist of regulars who'd happily take a last-minute spot. If you can refill a cancellation you haven't lost anything, and no one has to be charged.

A booking app can do all of that for you, though a text and a notes app do the job too. There are confirmation and reminder messages ready to use further down, and our guide to the cost of no-shows works out what missed appointments cost you and what reminders could save.

How much notice to ask for

Ask for as much notice as you'd need to fill the time again. For everyday appointments that's usually 24 or 48 hours. Longer services (colour corrections, extensions, a full set of lashes) can justify more. So can bookings that are hard to refill, like wedding mornings or group bookings, which often have their own terms anyway.

Whatever you go with, apply it to everyone the same way and say it plainly, something like "Please give at least 24 hours' notice to cancel or move your appointment." The policy builder below puts your notice period into the wording.

Deposits or cancellation fees?

There are two ways of covering a late cancellation, and in practice they're quite different.

A cancellation fee gets charged afterwards. It's easy enough to put in a policy, but then you're trying to collect it from someone who's already let you down. Many never pay, and chasing a small amount rarely makes sense when even the Disputes Tribunal charges $62 to file a claim under $2,000 (Disputes Tribunal).

A deposit is paid when the client books, so you've already got it. It comes off the price if they turn up, and you only keep it (all of it, or part) if they cancel late or don't show. That makes it the more practical option for new clients you don't know yet, for long or expensive services, for anything where you order product or colour in specially, and for clients who've missed before.

Keep it in proportion to what you'd lose, the part of the day you set aside, say, or the product you ordered. Many professionals only ask their regulars for a deposit after they've missed one, which keeps things friendly for the people who always turn up.

What New Zealand law expects

When a client books, the two of you have a contract, however informal. The government's consumer protection site is plain about it: someone who cancels an appointment before it's due is breaking that contract, and "if the service provider suffers a loss because you have cancelled, they are entitled to still charge you for at least some of the cost of the service" (Consumer Protection). So charging for a late cancellation is legitimate. The questions are how much, and how clearly you said so up front.

On the first of those, two separate parts of the law point the same way, towards a fee that reflects what you've lost rather than one that punishes the client.

One is the rules on unfair contract terms. A booking policy you give every client counts as a "standard form consumer contract" under the Fair Trading Act, and a term in one can be declared unfair if it creates a significant imbalance between you and the client, isn't reasonably necessary to protect your legitimate interests, and would cause the client detriment. Among the Act's own examples is a term that penalises one party, but not the other, for breaching or ending the contract (Fair Trading Act 1986, sections 46L and 46M). Only the Commerce Commission can ask a court to declare a term unfair. Once a court has, though, businesses must stop using it.

The other is the law on penalties. A court won't enforce a clause whose consequence is "out of all proportion" to the business's legitimate interest in the contract being kept, which is the test the Supreme Court set out in 2020 (127 Hobson Street Ltd v Honey Bees Preschool Ltd).

The Commerce Commission's guidance gives a useful way to think about all this. It says it will look at "whether the payment is disproportionate to any cost incurred or loss suffered by the business", and it expects a business to be able to show why a term is needed (Unfair Contract Terms Guidelines). In one case the High Court found a retailer had no legitimate interest in keeping customers' money when they didn't spend their vouchers within a year (Commerce Commission v Home Direct Ltd, cited in the same guidelines).

Day to day, most of it comes down to common sense. Make sure clients see the policy before they book, because the guidelines say terms hidden in fine print are more likely to be unfair; put it in your booking confirmation, not only on a page nobody reads. Then charge what you lose and no more. Half the price for a late cancellation, or the full price for a no-show on a slot you couldn't refill, is easy to explain. A $200 fee on an $80 appointment isn't.

It should work both ways, too. Say what happens if you cancel: a full refund of any deposit and first pick of new times. A policy that only binds the client is exactly the kind of one-sided term the Act warns about. And if you manage to refill the spot, think about waiving the fee, since your loss is smaller and the client will remember you were fair.

If you're mobile

A no-show costs a mobile professional more. You've already spent the drive and the fuel or parking, and what's left is a gap in the day that's hard to fill from the road. So it's reasonable for your policy to cover a few situations a salon wouldn't need to.

Nobody being home is the obvious one. Say how long you'll wait, and how you'll try to reach them, before it counts as a no-show (15 minutes with a call and a text, for example). Then there's turning up to a space that isn't suitable or safe to work in; your policy can say you're able to cancel on arrival, and how that's handled. And if a client isn't ready on time, you may need to shorten the service to keep your next booking, at the full price.

Saying it kindly, and when to waive it

A policy goes down best when clients can see it's there to protect your time rather than to catch them out. A lot of that is in the wording. "I keep this time just for you, so please let me know as early as you can if you need to change it" lands better than "No-shows will be charged." If you do end up charging, say so kindly and point to the policy they agreed to, so it isn't a surprise.

It also helps to say in the policy that you'll waive it for genuine emergencies, like sudden illness, a family emergency or unsafe weather. Clients can see from that you'll be reasonable.

For a first slip-up from a good regular, use your discretion. The goodwill is usually worth more than the fee.

The policy template

Fill in the form and the policy is written as you go. Anything you leave blank shows up as a highlighted [gap] to fill in later. Once you're happy with it, copy it or download it as a Word document or PDF, then put it in your booking confirmations and on your website or booking page, so every client sees it before their appointment.

Before you use it, check the numbers against what your time and product cost you, and check that your booking system or payment method can hold a deposit (and refund it, if you're the one who cancels).

Your policy always says what happens if you cancel: a full refund of any deposit and first choice of new times. The Fair Trading Act lists terms that penalise only one side as an example of an unfair term, so a fair policy works both ways (why it matters).

Where to put your policy

A policy only protects you if clients see it before they book, and you don't need a website for that.

If you use a booking app, that's the best place for it. Most of them have a setting for a cancellation policy or booking terms. It's worth checking whether yours shows it to clients before they confirm, and whether it can take a deposit too, so the policy and the payment work together.

Otherwise, anywhere you can link to will do:

• A Google Doc. Paste your policy in, then use Share and set it so anyone with the link can view it (or go to File, Share, Publish to the web). It's free, and you can edit it whenever you like without the link changing.
• A Notion page, also free and a bit tidier-looking than a document. Share, then Publish, gives you a public link.
• Your social media. A pinned post, a story highlight or the link in your bio all work, so long as clients can find it.

Wherever it ends up, put the link in every booking confirmation so each client has seen it before their appointment. A Google Doc or Notion link keeps up with any changes you make. A PDF won't, so you'd have to send out the new one.

We're building Natty, a booking service in Auckland for independent professionals, and once it launches the plan is for professionals to keep their policy on their own Natty profile. If that'd be useful to you, you're welcome to register your interest.

Confirmation and reminder messages

The simplest way to prevent no-shows is a confirmation when someone books and a reminder before they're due. Of everything in this guide, reminders are the one fix with strong research behind them.

Fill in your messages

They're short enough for a text, and work just as well in an email. Fill in your details once and all three update; if you've already built your policy above, they borrow its details and wording so it all matches. The client's name, service and time stay as [gaps] to fill in for each booking. Do keep your policy link in the confirmation, so every client has seen it before their appointment.

When a client's in genuine trouble, a kind word and a waived fee will do more for your business than the fee ever would. There's more on that in the section on waiving.

What the research shows

We couldn't find independent research on beauty appointments, so the best evidence comes from healthcare, where missed appointments have been studied for decades, and reminders consistently cut no-shows there. The situation is much the same: someone books a time, has to remember it, and can be sent a reminder. The messages above keep it specific: the day, the time, the place and an easy way to reply. Our guide to the cost of no-shows goes through the research in more detail, and shows what reminders could be worth to you.

Sources

All checked on 27 September 2026.

1. Consumer Protection (MBIE), Change of mind (cancelling a booking or appointment)
2. Fair Trading Act 1986, sections 26A, 46I, 46L and 46M (unfair contract terms), version as at 1 July 2026
3. Commerce Commission, Unfair Contract Terms Guidelines (August 2022), including penalties, transparency and Commerce Commission v Home Direct Ltd [2019] NZHC 2943
4. Commerce Commission, Unfair contract terms
5. Supreme Court of New Zealand, 127 Hobson Street Ltd v Honey Bees Preschool Ltd [2020] NZSC 53
6. Disputes Tribunal, Forms and fees and claims up to $60,000