Cancellation policy and no-shows for workshops and lessons

A guest who books a workshop, lesson or activity online for a fixed date has no 14-day cooling-off period in the EU. So you may charge cancellation fees, as long as they are reasonable. Work with a few periods: the closer to the start, the more the guest pays. Count a no-show as a last-minute cancellation and put it all on the page where the guest books.

Does the 14-day cooling-off period apply to a workshop or lesson?

For most online purchases, EU consumers have 14 days to change their mind. For a service those days start when the contract is made. There is an exception for leisure services with a specific date or period. It is in the EU Consumer Rights Directive (article 16, point l), in the Netherlands in article 6:230p (e) of the Civil Code and in Belgium in article VI.53, 12° of the Code of Economic Law.

A surf lesson on Saturday 14 June, a pottery workshop on 3 March or a team outing on an agreed day all fall under it. The Dutch consumer authority ACM gives the example of a ticket for a specific date. A class pass or membership without fixed dates does not fall under it; the cooling-off period applies there.

How high can cancellation fees be?

Fees have to be reasonable, the ACM writes. Under Dutch law a clause that charges a sum on cancellation is presumed unreasonable, except as far as it is a reasonable compensation for loss suffered or profit missed (article 6:237 (i) of the Civil Code). In Belgium, compensation that is “clearly disproportionate” to your loss is unlawful (article VI.83, 24°). Check the rules of other countries where you sell.

In practice, reasonable means the fee follows your real loss. Four months before a camp you easily resell the place, so you charge little. Two days before a workshop with eight places that hardly ever works. You have also already arranged the clay and the teacher.

Which cancellation policies can you choose?

Three set-ups cover nearly every lesson or activity. Pick one as your default and use another per activity where needed.

Set-up	Fits	What the guest pays on cancellation
Flexible	single lessons and workshops with a waiting list	free until 48 hours before the start, then everything
Moderate	most courses and activities	25 percent from 28 days, 50 percent from 7 days, everything within 48 hours
Strict	camps, multi-day trips, groups with fixed costs	50 percent from 60 days, 75 percent from 28 days, everything from 7 days

When you take a deposit, you can charge “the deposit” in the first period instead of a percentage. Guests find that easiest to understand.

What do you do about a no-show?

A no-show is a guest who booked and stays away without cancelling. Write in your terms that a no-show counts as a cancellation in the last period. With the three set-ups above that means the full price. If you take payment up front, there is nothing left to collect.

The best way to prevent no-shows is a reminder a few days before the lesson, with the time, the address and what to bring. A guest who reads it and cannot come will usually still cancel, and you can offer the place to someone on the waiting list.

What if you cancel the lesson yourself?

In surfing, sailing and diving that happens because of the weather. Decide beforehand what the guest gets: a new date, a refund, or the choice between the two. Put it in your terms and in the confirmation, so on a stormy morning all you do is send an email.

Cancellation terms in Superota

In the settings you choose a template: Flexible, Moderate or Strict, with the percentages from the table above. You can change the four boundaries (by default 60 days, 28 days, 7 days and 48 hours) and the percentages. Per period you choose a percentage of the price or “the deposit”. An activity follows your company’s terms or gets its own.

The guest sees the table on the last booking step and in the confirmation. By default every booking keeps the terms the guest saw, even when you change them later. When you cancel a booking, Superota works out what the guest pays under those terms. You accept that proposal or adjust it. When a lesson does not go ahead, you move each booking to another date.