A band cancels at five for a seven o'clock session, and the Wednesday evening you turned two other bands away for sits empty. Another turns up forty minutes late and wants the full three hours. A cancellation policy settles both before they happen, as long as it's short enough to read on a phone and fair enough that your regular bands don't feel accused. This guide covers what to put in it, with wording at the end you can copy, whatever tool you use.
What a fair policy covers
Five things, a sentence each:
- How late a band can cancel and get everything back.
- What happens after that, and to a no-show.
- That sessions end on time.
- What you do if you cancel.
- What's different for recording and for regulars.
Anything longer and nobody reads it. Anything vaguer and you'll be arguing about it at the desk.
Rehearsal hours and recording days
They need different guarantees because they cost you different amounts when they fall through.
- Rehearsal: say a room is £12 an hour and a band books three hours. Taking the £36 at booking puts nobody off, and a 24-hour window gives you a fair chance to fill the slot again.
- Recording: two days at £300 with an engineer is £600 you won't resell at three days' notice. Take a deposit, say £100, that comes off the bill and is refunded up to seven days before. Your engineer's time is committed the moment the date is, so the longer window is fair.
Late arrivals: the session ends on time
Another band has the room from ten, so say it plainly: the session ends at the booked time and is charged in full, whenever the band arrives. Set a point where silence becomes a no-show, such as half an hour after the start, so you can let the room to whoever walks in asking. If the room is free afterwards, offer extra time at the normal rate. That's good service, not something the policy promises.
Credit or refund
- When the band cancels late, you can keep the payment. Offering to move the session to another night within a month often keeps the band, and costs you little if you fill the original slot. Write it in as one move per booking, the same for every band.
- When you cancel, for a leak, a broken mixing desk or a power cut, refund everything straight away. Offer a new date or credit only as an alternative the band chooses, never in place of their money. If it's your choice rather than bad luck, say you move a band for a bigger booking, the fair mirror of keeping their money when they cancel late is giving them something of the same value back, such as a free session of the same length.
Keep the deposit modest and tied to what you lose. Which? tells consumers that a business can generally keep only what covers its actual loss, not what it saves by finding another customer, and, citing the CMA, that a deposit should be a small percentage of the price. This is general information, not legal advice.
A lighter guarantee for regulars
The band that has rehearsed every Thursday for two years has earned a lighter touch. Let them pay at the desk on the night, with a card on file that's charged only if they don't turn up. Book their slot weekly through to a set date so they never have to think about it. If a regular starts missing sessions, move them back to paying at booking, as you would anyone else.
Wording you can copy
Change the numbers to suit your studio:
Cancellations. Cancel up to 24 hours before your session for a full refund. After that, the session is charged in full. If we rebook the room, we'll refund you.
Late arrival. Sessions end at the booked time, because another band follows you. If you haven't arrived or called us 30 minutes after the start, we'll treat it as a no-show.
Recording. A £100 deposit secures your dates and comes off the final bill. Cancel 7 days or more before and we refund it; after that, we keep it.
If we cancel, you get everything back, whatever the reason. If it's our choice rather than a fault, you also get a free session of the same length.
Doing it with Tuora
Tuora gives your studio a booking page showing only what's free. You set how late each kind of booking can be cancelled, so rehearsals and recording can have different deadlines. Bands pay in full or a deposit online, straight into your own Stripe account, or leave a card that staff charge for a no-show. Staff can book a regular band's weekly slot through to a date, mark no-shows and see each band's count. Bands change or cancel from their own booking page. More on rehearsal and recording studios.
Try it before talking to anyone: book a room at our demo studio.