To be annoyed at cancelling pet sitting booking at short notice?

[MellowYellow552]

I run a pet-sitting company. A woman posted on a local forum asking for recommendations and my cousin spotted it and sent her my details. She got in touch and asked for pricing, then booked me for a week, starting this Friday. I know the woman as I used to work with her some years back now. She then messaged today to say that her neighbour had seen the post, that her daughter wanted to do it as she is saving up for something and she was sorry to be cancelling.

Really cross at this and I won't allow her to make any future bookings. Am I wrong in this? I get some time back next week, which I suppose is a bonus!

You need to take deposits.

You should charge a short notice cancellation fee or non refundable booking deposit. You might have turned down other jobs for this one.

I'd chalk this one up to experience but add that in for future bookings.

What’s your usual cancellation policy?

Yep, you need to take a deposit or payment two weeks prior to starting date.

You are running a business, I would expect a % non refundable deposit based on x days notice, and a % payment based on how soon the booking was due.

Deposit and cancellation policy especially if you are losing a booking because of this.
I would only allow her to make future bookings if you put a cancellation policy in place.

It was really cheeky of her. But you should take a deposit or make folk pay upfront.

I assume you have a cancellation policy, has this never happened before?

This sounds a bit like someone panic booking given it's such late notice so I can understand why she would quickly book with you and then have another option. You're not unreasonable to be annoyed but from your description it sounds like it all happened very quickly. It's not as if you've turned down other pets in order to hold her place.

Start taking 50% deposits which need to be paid by one week before the sit commences.

Just send her a text - that’s fine, but she still needs to pay you.

Even if you don’t have a deposit scheme or cancellation policy (which you now know you should) - she might just do something - ok, it’s unlikely if she’s cheeky enough to think it’s OK to cancel at short notice without offering some compensation. But it might make her think twice? It’s not as if you are worried about losing her business.

On the understanding that if you don’t ask, you don’t get - what’s the worst that can happen - you lose her business? If she were to badmouth you, she’d have to own up she had cancelled at short notice and didn’t expect to have to pay anything - and everyone knows that’s not how things work these days.

Sometimes being bold works and you are already reconciled to taking a 100% loss.

You need deposits and cancellation fees.

I think when you've been screwed over you become more diligent about taking deposits and implementing cancellation policies in future. I'm in a different line of work but new clients have to pay me with 24 hours of booking or I don't hold their slot. Thereafter there's a 24 hour cancellation policy in place. I'm sorry you've experienced this poor behaviour.

New clients should be paying the full cost at time of booking at a minimum. If you don’t want to make all clients pay at time of booking then you should still be taking a deposit of 10 to 25%.

Annoying but I voted YABU if she’s only acting within your rules of booking. I would start taking a deposit.

You are absolutely not unreasonable to be annoyed. Out some policies in place around cancellation and inform your clients about them in advance.

If you don't have a Deposits and Cancellation Policy already learn from this and get one asap

Thanks all. I tend to work on word of mouth and repeat bookings, but as I have a price rise coming on 1 June, it's a good time to review the policy. I gave her the benefit of the doubt as a former work colleague. Thanks.

happens to us sometimes we run a pet sitting and walking too best take deposits and issue a contract saying what the minimum cancellation times are or otherwise pay full price

Just amend your policy to deposits or a cancellation fee and put it down to an annoying experience, and if you want just always be full if they ask again.

It must be annoying for you, and yes I would also say you should take a non-refundable deposit to secure the dates. You could have turned down 2 other people for that period and now you've got an empty diary.
We pay a 50% non-refundable deposit for kennels when we book in. You wouldn't be unreasonable doing this.

I think something like this, although annoying, has been a lesson learnt to you to start working on cancellation policies

Thanks for all the constructive comments. I've been working on a cancellation policy, and someone has popped up to book the gap left by the cancellation anyway. Thank you.