AIBU to charge for missed lessons?

[LucyGru]

I'm a private tutor.

I had 2 lessons booked today.
Class A - 3 students. 1 dropped out late yesterday. Then the other 2 cancelled 40 minutes before the class began.
Class B - 1 student. Never showed up.

These are all regular students and I've taught them for a long time. They're usually pretty reliable. I feel frustrated that I spent time planning their lessons and organising materials, and then missed my kids football match to stay home and teach - and all for nothing?

I have previously said I will charge full price if the lesson is cancelled within 24 hours. Is that reasonable? I feel uncomfortable about it.

Definitely not being unreasonable to charge full price, it's your policy which you've clearly stated previously.

No, charge them!

Completely reasonable.

I get a lot of migraines and I do have to cancel at short notice sometimes. I would just say sometimes these things are genuinely unavoidable - people do get ill, cars break down. But personally I am much more comfortable paying in these situations than not. I don't want the guilt of leaving you out of pocket as well as having missed your child's game.

It is normal to charge so I would have people read and sign a form on enrolment so it's clear

You need signed terms and conditions that make this clear. Of course
You're not being unreasonable

I'm more surprised it's even 24 notice that you require - I'd have expected a set fee per lesson, paid termly (ie in advance) without an option not to pay if you don't attend.

Get them to pay 50%deposit when they book, the rest paid on the day, along with deposit for next lesson. That way you'll not lose out too much if they fail to turn up or cancel, and they're less likely to go elsewhere.

Completely reasonable, my children have various academic tutors and teachers for sports, music and one has a therapist. 24 hours notice is absolutely standard. If I cancel within, for whatever reason, I pay.

One doesn't fuck about with people's livelihoods. It's very poor behaviour.

I would definitely charge all of them and would drop the one who simply failed to turn up without even letting you know, unless there was a very good reason and an apology.

Feel free to charge them but you need to think about why this has happened. My immediate thought is that these are term time lessons that have run into the holiday period. Presumably you have separate arrangements for the holidays? For so many usually reliable people to drop out at the last minute, something has gone wrong with communication.

I take private pilates classes and it’s a 12-hour cancellation policy. I’ve had to cancel a few times for various reasons and once missed three sessions due to an emergency appendectomy. I just paid. It’s not fair on the instructor and I signed a contract. I also want to keep going, so yeah I just pay.

This is tricky because unless you have a signed agreement they don't really have to pay - although it would be nice if they did. You also don't want to piss them off as regular, valued clients. It's also very common for this to happen in the holidays.

In the case of a no show/no explanation send a message querying what is going on as there may have been a genuine emergency or whatever. Hope that they will offer to pay.

If they cancel the night before I'd not charge. 40 minutes before is cheeky. I'd send a message explaining you have had to make childcare arrangements for the lesson etc and that you need more notice. Hope they will offer to pay.

Fingers crossed

You need to charge for missed lessons to train them to respect your time.

Just invoice it as normal and expect to be paid.

Why do you value yourself so low? A man would never not charge for cancelled lessons.

Similar line of work and I would charge. Minimum of 24 hours notice to cancel. If there were genuine reasons to cancel such as a family emergency then absolutely I would apply discretion but with so little notice, I am assuming they just couldn’t be bothered! So charge x

I pay for my son's tutoring half term in advance- and if we cancelled we'd lose the money, understandably so. If the tutor cancels, she rolls over the session to the following term (ie I pay for one less week). Charge in advance is my advice

It needs to be clear that in advance that you charge for missed sessions or have a 24hr cancellation policy etc.

We pay monthly in advance for tutoring but it's only term time. No payment = no lesson. They can't give the slot away at short notice. They offer a few holiday sessions which you agree to separately but if you sign up you still pay well in advance and it's non refundable. Everything is laid out before you join. By joining you agree to their policies.

I am required to pay a termly set amount for ds' tutor group. If he misses a session then that's tough. Even 24 hours notice will still get very bitty and frustrating if they do it a lot.

I'd be shocked at anyone who didn't have that policy in place.

Charge them, I'd charge in advance myself

Exactly the same for us. Health, sports, tutoring, cleaners.

Charge them. I presume you have a contract which states this! You’re a business not a charity.

If you don't charge then you won't be able to charge these particular students in future again if they cancel at the last minute or simply don't turn up so they may do it more often.
Having said that, if this is a regular term time slot and it's now the holidays, I think you should consider how it works. We've had various tutors over the years. One charged for one session a week during the holidays but allowed you to miss (and not pay for) four sessions over a year provided you gave at least a week's notice. He was also very flexible around times so our usual Wednesday 4.30pm slot might be a Tuesday at 9am one week and a Thursday at 2pm another week in the holidays. Another would say a month or so before the holidays when she was free and you could book however many and whatever slots you wanted. A third was term time only (and didn't do the last week of the Christmas & Summer terms as her opinion was the children were too distracted by then that it wasn't worth it).