To charge for a tutoring session cancelled with less than 12 hours notice?

[Fivemoreminutes1]

I’m a tutor and don’t earn a huge income. Pupil’s parent has cancelled due to family illness. Lesson was supposed to be this evening. Cancelled half an hour ago. As a parent, would you expect to be billed for this? I’ve got to make ends meet somehow.

Tutor here.
For me it would depend on the person and how long they've been with me and what they're usually like but it's not unreasonable to expect payment

Definitely charge. I have paid up in similar circumstances. Do you give your clients terms and conditions at the start?

Yes or rearranged possible. Kind of depends too if you have ever done it to them. My DD's singing teacher was always great about last minute but then he did it to us a fair amount

If you have time then you could give them the option of a double length session next time or forfeiting the cost of today’s lesson. That would be a nice gesture but shouldn’t be an expectation.
It’s pretty standard for music teachers and tutors to charge per term in advance for this reason. You just can’t make a living if half your students cancel at short notice and don’t pay.

What does your contract say?

I don’t think you should charge unless they’ve agreed to a late cancellation fee as part of the tutoring agreement.

Agreed. I like my tutor and she's reasonably priced too. When i cancelled due to illness she offered no payment and I sent it anyway because she's well within her rights to expect it.

but if I was v tight for cash I might have been grateful.

We always paid for music lessons if missed due to sickness. Holidays with lots of notice were sometimes negotiable but its not often that you can fill one random slot for one week.

Of course they should pay. And if they refuse, I hope you can replace them.

Depends on your terms and conditions but generally yes, that’s short notice so I’d expect you to charge

I'm a dog walker so similarly self-employed - you can't charge people for late cancellations unless they've signed a contract agreeing to do so.

And even then it has to be fair.

Depends on what you mean by ‘family illness’. If, for example, their sibling has been admitted to hospital I think you’d have to be pretty heartless to charge. Do you have a contract which includes cancellation terms (you should have!)? Can the issue be resolved by teaching them on Teams? I think you should offer that as an alternative if you are going to charge, and possibly moving the lesson time if you’re able to.

To add to what I said here, I'd also never charge for family illness - especially if it was a one-off. Just as I don't charge it the dogs are sick and can't walk.

I do charge if people forget to tell me they don't need me, or if I turn up and the dog isn't even there (which has happened more times than you'd think!).

It’s not heartless to charge. They still have the same income, they can pay.

The lack of business sense on this thread is outstanding.

Legally you can only charge them if its in your terms and conditions of which they've had a copy of. Better still a signed contract.
More fool you if you don't have a contract in place.

It’s not heartless to charge. They still have the same income, they can pay.

Not necessarily. Most parents don't get paid if they have to take time off for sick children or sick parents.

Sometimes you have to play the long game when you're self-employed. Yes, it sucks that people cancel last minute and you occasionally lose £50 but in the long-run good customer service and a bit of kind-heartedness can go a long way.

Thanks for the comments so far. I don’t know for sure what the family illness is, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it means that the mother has had a bad night sleep!

They should have offered payment IMO. Regardless of any contract (which is unusual for tutoring anyway), we all have a responsibility to behave decently.

I'd weigh up how long this pupil has been with you and what them/the family are like generally and how much you want the business or subsequent referral. Are they supportive and help with getting stuff done? Is the pupil engaged with the learning and is s/he motivated to overcome whatever problem the tutoring is there to fix? And then I might ask for half.

We spend a fortune on music lessons - they are usually made up another time or money refunded on the following half terms bill.

It helps we are on time pay promptly etc. And sickness is a rare event but although i offered to pay we've really appreciated her flexibility and its meant we've stuck with her/often asked for extra sessions in summer if she's been free etc.

It’s up to you. There are trade offs.

I don’t charge for cancellations, no shows, or lessons that I close early due to the student being too tired, or ill to learn.

The downside is that I regularly have unused, unpaid time spots I can’t always fill. I used to bump up the number of slots I’d like to teach. On occasion nobody would cancel and my working day was a little longer than I’d like it to be. So now I take a money hit than an extra time working hit.

The upside is I have a long list students on the waiting list for a spot on my regular schedule. So if a student cancels regularly, last minute or otherwise, I can drop them and open the time slot to the next on the list. It’s created a sense of scarcity, so parents don’t tend to cancel unless they really have to. I’m generally flexible, so if a family is going through a hard time I’ll keep the slot for them and absorb the cost. I find that helps when the roles are reversed and I’m the one who needs understanding when life rain happens.

I know people who operate the other way around, with strict no show/late cancellation policies and they are far happier with that set up than they would be with mine.

Work out which trade offs suit you better and go with a clearly defined system that won’t leave you feeling out of sorts. We are all different and the system which creates a sunnier landscape for you personally to work within is the one you should pick. Because it has to work for you in the long term, not just for the here and now.

Family illness could mean anything from someone being admitted to hospital for an urgent/critical problem to the family/pupil can't be arsed today. Rather convenient. I personally would have written rushed to hospital with X as maybe appendicitis. If it was actually something like that.

It really depends what is in your contract. If that permits you to charge, another option would be offering them the session over zoom/teams instead and if they reject that (with no adequate reason) then charge.

Our tutor doesn’t charge us in these circumstances but we have quite a flexi arrangement and have used her for years

Tutor here. If less than 24 hours notice is given I still charge for the session as I’m unlikely to be able to get another student to fill that session. This requirement is in my terms and conditions.

If this isn’t already in your terms I’d amend them and get your students/parents to sign a new contract