To think you should pay if you cancel?

[helpagirlout17]

DP is a tutor, he is also a full time teacher and tutors after school. This means all his teaching work gets pushed back so he can earn the extra income. He isn't cheap - we are in a huge grammar area for the best schools in England and he teaches Maths and Economics.

Anyway, a lot of people just cancel and don't even offer to pay.
I mean hours before he is due to drive round or maximum around 24 hours in advance.

Now the thing is, he is fully booked, already doing 7 hours a week. Lots of enquiries always coming in and a big waiting list. The people cancelling is unfair. He wants to put a policy in place - would you find it outrageous to pay for a tutor if you had to cancel?

(As I know this comes up sometimes, he's set up as a private company and pays taxes on the income)

It says a lot that a full time teacher needs to tutor to top up his income.

Tutor here
I have cancellation policy but I'm flexible with it. It depends entirely if I think they are taking the piss

Can he not consult the agency?

Google tutor contracts?

Why is he travelling - can they not come to him? It could mean more rapid turnover for him and less stress.

I would definitely pay my child tutor if I had to cancel!

@BarbourellaTheCoatzilla it's really not relevant is it - he's an outstanding rated teacher and a 5* rated tutor. He will 100% burn out soon but it's also not fair that people with comments like yours mean teachers work stupid hours outside of contracted hours.

@crosstalk no we can't have them at our house because it's small. We also have a dog that hates new people!

Standard to have a 24hr/48hr cancellation policy. This was the case when my parents paid for my private music tuition 20 odd years ago and that wasn't in a particularly academic area. I would send a letter with each student on the first lesson back explaining the notice they're expected to give if they need to cancel. Obviously he can exrecise some level of discretion with good clients, but it will help to weed out the timewasters. If he's worried about being held in traffic you could add a clause explaining he will make this time up at the end of a lesson. This is normally what happens with driving lessons etc.

DDs tutor had a 24 hour cancellation policy
Non payment of it led to place being given to someone else

At my Performing Arts school we have a no refunds policy (extenuating circumstances may allow non payment but are at the discretion of management) especially for 1:1 lessons, we were losing to much money with people just not turning up or cancelling at to late of notice for us to fill their slot or class place with someone else, so now it’s no refunds and payments in advance. To some this may sound harsh but people don’t understand if you don’t turn up I still have to pay the teacher who did show up.

My son's music piano teacher doesn't have an official cancellation policy but if we have to cancel at short notice, I say to keep the fee (I pay monthly).

I don't think it's fair for her to lose out when she doesn't have time to offer the lesson to someone else.

That was supposed to just say piano teacher, not sure why I included "music"....

Not a tutor myself nor have I used one but it seems fair and reasonable to have a cancellation policy. He could start the New Year by ‘formalising arrangements’ with families. All payments should be made in advance by bank transfer even if it’s on a weekly basis at least 48 hours before the lesson time. If payment has not been received at that time the lesson is automatically cancelled. I’m sure there will be a nifty app out there that can do all that automatically. When emailing details of new arrangements he could ask for a number to Whatsapp people in case he has a spare slot due to cancellation. If he’s able to fill the slot after the cancellation deadline then a lesson credit is given but if not they forfeit the money.

We had a number of different tutors. One we paid in advance and yes we would expect to pay if we gave less than 1 day notice. The other sometimes had to cancel on us last min and so she was not worried if we cancelled on her last minute although we very rarely did. I think 24hrs notice would be very fair.

My OH phoned my hairdresser this week as I was quite ill and he said he would call in to pay her. She totally refused but appreciated the offer, I don't mess her about for no reason.