No-Show & Cancellation Policies
Protect your business from revenue loss with configurable no-show fees, cancellation cutoffs, and policy enforcement that runs automatically.
AI-Powered Policy Enforcement
Bizily's AI automatically tracks policy violations, sends reminders before cutoff times, and can charge no-show fees to saved cards—no manual follow-up needed.
Why Policies Matter
Configuring Your Policy
Navigate to Settings → Booking Settings → Policies to configure your no-show and cancellation rules.
Cancellation Cutoff
Set how far in advance customers must cancel. Common options are 24 hours, 48 hours, or same-day.
Example: 24-hour notice required for cancellations
No-Show Fee Amount
Choose between a fixed fee, a percentage of the service price, or the full service amount.
Example: $50 flat fee OR 50% of service price OR full amount
Card-on-File Requirement
Require customers to save a card when booking. This deters no-shows and enables automatic charging.
Recommended: Always require card for new customers
Policy Acknowledgment
Customers must acknowledge the policy during booking. This creates a digital record for dispute protection.
Captures: IP address, timestamp, policy version hash
How Automatic Enforcement Works
Booking Created
Customer books appointment and acknowledges policy. Card is saved securely via Stripe.
Reminder Sent
AI sends confirmation reminder before the cancellation cutoff. Customer can still cancel without fee.
Cutoff Passes
After cutoff time, cancellations trigger the configured fee. No-shows are automatically detected.
Fee Applied
Fee is charged to the saved card. Customer receives receipt. You receive notification.
Marking Appointments as No-Show
When a customer doesn't show up:
- 1Open the booking from the calendar or bookings list
- 2Click the status dropdown and select "No-Show"
- 3Choose whether to charge the no-show fee or waive it
- 4If waiving, select a reason (first-time pass, emergency, etc.)
Waiving Fees
Sometimes you'll want to waive the no-show fee. Bizily tracks waiver reasons for your records and to spot patterns.
Give new customers a one-time courtesy waiver
Customer had a documented emergency
Customer contacted you, just missed the cutoff
Booking issue was on your end
Legal Protection
Chargeback Protection
When customers dispute no-show fees, you'll have documentation to support your case:
- Policy acknowledgment timestamp and IP address
- Hash of the policy text at time of booking
- Reminder messages sent and delivery status
- Booking history and customer communication
Best Practices
Start with a 24-hour policy. It's the industry standard and gives customers fair notice while protecting you from last-minute cancellations.
Always require card-on-file. Just having a card saved reduces no-shows by 60%, even if you rarely charge fees.
Send reminders at strategic times. A reminder 48 hours out and again at the cutoff time gives customers multiple chances to cancel properly.
Be consistent but compassionate. Enforce your policy fairly, but use the first-time pass for genuine first offenses.
Track your metrics. Monitor no-show rates in Insights to see if your policy is effective.