Resources Guide · Cancellations
A cancellation policy parents actually respect.
Having no cancellation policy is itself a policy: whatever you can bring yourself to enforce, decided at the worst possible moment, and differently every time. Families don't resent clear rules; they resent surprises and unfairness. Writing the policy down protects everyone, you included.
The three numbers
Every workable policy comes down to three numbers. First, the notice window, meaning how far ahead a family can cancel for free. Twenty-four hours is the standard, twelve is generous, and forty-eight is defensible for scarce private slots. Second is what a late cancel costs: inside the window, the credit is consumed or a fee applies. Third, the no-show. A no-show costs the full credit, no discussion, because the court hour was gone whether the player stood on it or not.
Say it before it costs anyone anything
The policy belongs wherever the booking happens: the booking page, the purchase screen, the welcome message. Stated up front, a rule reads as professionalism. Revealed only after a violation, the same rule reads as a gotcha. Most of the friction in a coaching business is information that arrived too late.
The template
"Cancellations more than 24 hours before a session: the credit returns to your pack automatically. Within 24 hours: the credit is used, because the slot can no longer be filled. No-shows use the credit. Weather cancellations are always on me, never on you, and those credits come back in full. If something real happens, an illness, an injury, a family emergency, tell me and we'll make it right."
That last sentence is the whole design. Strict rules are what make the grace legible.
In Upswing
The rule, applied for you
Set the window and the no-show cost once. Upswing enforces both at booking time, so a late cancel never turns into a negotiation.
Let the system be the bad cop
Coaches under-enforce because enforcement is a conversation, and most of us would rather keep the relationship than the $40. The structural fix is to let the booking system apply the published rule on its own, so the rule stops being a confrontation you have to start. Then, when you do choose to waive a fee, it reads as a favor from you rather than proof the policy was never real. The system stays strict so you get to stay gracious.
When the system holds the line
On Upswing you fix the notice window and the no-show rule a single time, and the booking flow applies them the moment a family cancels. Cancel in the window and the credit comes back; cancel late and it's consumed, exactly as the published rule says. The coach never has to be the person who brings it up.
Questions
Sick kids: really charge the credit?
No, and say so up front, the way the template does. A same-day illness exception, used in good faith, costs you a few credits a season and buys the policy its legitimacy.
First offense from a good family?
Waive it, tell them you waived it, and let the system's record make clear it was a waiver. You get full goodwill credit and the policy stays intact.
Different rules for clinics vs. privates?
It's reasonable: a clinic absorbs one absence, while a private slot is a total loss. If you do split the rules, keep the same shape, window then late cost then no-show, so families track one logic instead of two.
