Cancellation Rules
Updated September 18, 2026
Two settings decide what a customer may do about a booking they no longer want, and what it costs them. Both live in Settings → Booking.
Minimum Cancellation Notice
How close to the start a customer may still cancel.
| Choice | What a customer can do |
|---|---|
| Anytime | Cancel right up to the start |
| 1–48 hours | Cancel only earlier than that; inside the window the button is refused |
The default is 24 hours.
This setting used to do nothing. Before September 2026 the window was fixed at 24 hours no matter what you chose here. If you set it once and saw no change, that is why — set it again.
You Are Never Blocked
The notice period applies to customers only. You and your staff can cancel any booking at any time, including a minute before it starts. A trainer falling ill an hour ahead is the commonest real cancellation there is, and the system does not stand in its way.
Holding an Unpaid Slot
A third setting on the same page decides how long a time stays reserved while a customer is on the payment screen: Hold an unpaid slot for, anywhere from 5 to 60 minutes, 15 by default.
While the hold lasts, nobody else can take that time. If the customer never pays — closes the tab, changes their mind — the hold ends, the time goes back on sale, and no booking is left behind. Nothing is charged either way.
| Your studio | A sensible hold |
|---|---|
| Places in busy group classes | 5–10 minutes, so a seat does not sit empty |
| One-to-one hours, quieter days | 30–60 minutes, so nobody is rushed |
Tip: Do not go below 5 minutes even if your classes fill instantly. A customer whose bank asks for confirmation needs those minutes, and a hold that expires mid-payment means a refund rather than a booking.
The customer hears nothing while the hold lasts — the confirmation email is sent when the payment goes through, and that email is what tells them the booking is really theirs.
Membership Visit Return
Separately, Visit Return Rules decide whether a cancelled booking gives back the membership visit it used.
The two interact:
| Notice | Visit window | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| 24h | 24h | Every cancellation that goes through returns the visit |
| 24h | 48h | A customer cancelling 30 hours ahead cancels successfully but loses the visit |
| Anytime | 24h | Cancelling inside 24 hours works, and burns the visit |
Set the visit window above the notice period if you want late cancellations to actually cost something. Leave them equal if you only want to stop very late cancellations outright.
Choosing
A long notice period protects your schedule but pushes customers to no-show instead of cancelling — a no-show tells you nothing and fills nothing. A short one, paired with a visit window, lets people cancel honestly while still carrying a cost.
Tip: If you are unsure, allow cancellation freely and put the cost on the membership visit instead. You learn about the free slot either way, and only pass holders pay for lateness.
What the customer sees
Until 18.09.2026 the rule was enforced and shown nowhere: the customer learned it from an error at the moment they tried to cancel. It now sits on the last booking step, above the button.
Your own wording
Under the hours selector there is a "Your cancellation rules" field, one per language. This is for what the number cannot say: "later, please call us — we will move your booking". Up to 1000 characters, plain text, line breaks kept.
The preview below shows the sentence the system builds from your hours plus your text — exactly what the customer will read. The sentence appears without your text too, so the field can be left empty.
Tip: fill in the languages your customers actually arrive in. When a language is missing they see your main language rather than nothing.
Tick box or click
"Ask the customer to confirm the rules" decides how the terms are accepted:
| Off (default) | On |
|---|---|
| A line: "By confirming, you accept the cancellation rules above" | A tick box: "I accept the cancellation rules above", with the button disabled until it is ticked |
Pressing the button is legally valid acceptance, so leaving this off breaks nothing. The tick adds a step for every customer, but it is the clearer proof if a cancellation is ever disputed — and it becomes required once deposits or no-show fees exist.
Related
- Visit Return Rules — what cancelling does to a membership visit
- Manage Bookings — cancelling on the customer's behalf