Customer Cancelled Booking - Pay or Not?

cherylsurrey

A friend of mine has a similar business to yours and told me they do this.


When you take a booking, explain your cancellation policy and get them to sign it in front of you. Make it clear when they book what you expect of them, i.e. deposit and final payment, cancellation terms. Do this face to face not over the phone or via email. They found this personal approach really cut down on people cancelling last minute. Also definitely take a higher deposit £10 is far too low.

shegirl

Ok, sorry but it's the way you are doing things that is causing this to happen. 1-2 cancellations per month?! Are you not concerned by this.


Your deposit is far too low, people will book cheaply knowing they now have a back up should they not be able to hire or afford what they really want.


That or (possibly and) there are competitors your 'customers' are preferring over you.


You are attracting the wrong type of customer, either way, and you need to look at what YOU are doing to cause this to happen.

Mistral001

Marktheshark wrote: »

That the issue, you can not charge a penalty for breach of contract.
.

This is an important point.


A blanket charge of 50% does not look like a calculated figure of the actual amount of money the cancelation cost the OP. It could contain a penalty as well as the costs.


Pure penalties are not valid in a contract. When people talk about "penalty clauses" in contracts they really mean claims for damages (sometimes called liquidated damages). For instance if the contract was for £1000 and the cancellation actually cost the OP £300then that is all that the OP should be able to claim. The Op cannot claim £500 (50% of £1000) as £200 of that would be a penalty.

colino

OP you have already had good advice here, but I think your not getting the use and importance of deposits. You are agreeing to provide a service and they are committing to taking it. Charging only £10 is no commitment at all and that leads to people playing fast and loose with your time and money. Especially clear that they didn't even bother with a dead granny story, just, "Customer says they cannot afford to pay". Why book if they couldn't afford the full price then?