Los Angeles, CA

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Los Angeles, CA
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A cancellation policy with no holes in it

Twelve questions: this cancellation policy generator writes your full policy, a short booking-page version and a sign-off sheet. Free, no sign-up, nothing leaves your browser.

How do your clients pay you?1 of 12

decisions answered

How do your clients pay you?
Some months have five lessons. What happens then?
Business or instructor name
Do you write as I or we?
Who do you teach?
How much notice do you need?
How much notice do you need?
Give that much notice and the lesson is
What if they cancel with less notice than that?
With less notice than that, the lesson is
Late cancellation fee

This tool never suggests a fee. Whatever you type is what gets written.

What if nobody turns up at all?
If nobody turns up, the lesson is
No-show fee

This tool never suggests a fee. Whatever you type is what gets written.

Do you offer make-up lessons?
Do you offer make-ups?
How many per {PERIOD}?
Where do make-up slots come from?
Where are those times listed?
I offer an alternative within
What happens when you are the one who cancels?
When you cancel, the lesson is
Is illness different?
Is illness different?
How many excused per {PERIOD}?
Who decides a snow day?
Who decides a closure?
Which district do you follow?
A closed lesson is
What about holidays and breaks?
What about holidays and breaks?
How long do you wait for someone running late?
You wait
How does someone stop lessons?
How much notice to stop?
Sessions already paid for and not taken are
Last thing: how should it sound?
How should it sound?
What do you teach?
Extra clauses for what you teach
Pause a package for injury, up to
Term runs from
to
Effective date
Contact for policy questions
Nothing decided yetAnswer the first question and this fills in.
  • Notice windowNotice window: not said
  • Cancel in noticeCancel in notice: not said
  • Late cancelLate cancel: not said
  • No-showNo-show: not said
  • Make-upsMake-ups: not said
  • Make-up slotsMake-up slots: not said
  • When you cancelWhen you cancel: not said
  • IllnessIllness: not said
  • WeatherWeather: not said
  • HolidaysHolidays: not said
  • Late arrivalLate arrival: not said
  • Stopping lessonsStopping lessons: not said

Your policy

Here is what the tool produces

Marlow Piano Studio Cancellation and Make-Up Policy Effective 09/01/2026. Your weekly lesson time is reserved for you and billed as monthly tuition. This policy covers what happens when a lesson does not go ahead. This policy sets out what happens when a lesson is canceled, missed or cut short, and how make-up lessons work. Monthly tuition is a flat monthly rate, not a per-lesson charge. Some months have four lessons and some have five. The rate is the same either way. Notice We ask for at least 24 hours of notice to cancel or move a lesson. Cancel with at least 24 hours of notice and the lesson can be made up under the make-up rules below. Cancel with less than 24 hours of notice and the lesson is charged in full. We may still offer a make-up when our schedule allows, within the cap below. Miss a lesson without telling us and it is charged in full and is not made up. Make-up lessons We offer up to 2 make-up lessons per school year. When a make-up is due, we will offer you at least one alternative time within 14 days. If none of the times we offer work for you, we have met our make-up obligation by offering them. When we cancel When we cancel a lesson, we reschedule it at a time that works for both of us. Lessons that we cancel never count against your make-up allowance. Illness We excuse up to 1 lesson per school year for illness, whatever notice you were able to give. Weather and closures We close when Evanston/Skokie School District 65 closes for weather. A lesson lost to a closure is credited to your account. Holidays and breaks We do not teach on holidays and break weeks, and you are not billed for them. Arriving late Lessons end at their scheduled time. If you arrive late, the lesson still ends when it was due to end. We wait 15 minutes. After that the lesson counts as a no-show. Stopping lessons To stop lessons, give us two weeks of written notice. You are billed through the notice period. Any lessons you have paid for and not taken are refunded. Questions about this policy: [email protected] This is a draft policy, not legal advice. Have it reviewed before you publish it.

What your policy does not say

  • Notice windowNot said

    You have not said how much notice you need. Every cancellation becomes a negotiation about whether this one counted.

  • Cancel in noticeNot said

    You have not said what notice buys. If it buys nothing, nobody will give it.

  • Late cancelNot said

    You have not said what happens inside your notice window. The first person to test it sets your precedent.

  • No-showNot said

    You have not said what happens when nobody turns up. Expect to be asked for a make-up anyway.

  • Make-upsNot said

    You have not said whether make-ups exist. Every family will assume they do.

  • Make-up slotsNot said

    You have not said where make-up slots come from. Subject to availability with no bound is an open obligation.

  • When you cancelNot said

    You have not said what happens when you cancel. Expect to refund or reschedule on demand.

  • IllnessNot said

    You have not said whether illness is different. It will be treated as different anyway, one case at a time.

  • WeatherNot said

    You have not said who decides a snow day, or who pays for it.

  • HolidaysNot said

    You have not said what happens to holiday weeks. The first December will settle it for you.

  • Late arrivalNot said

    You have not said how long you wait. You will wait, and the lesson will run over.

  • Stopping lessonsNot said

    You have not said how someone stops, or what happens to money already paid.

Nothing is stored. Reloading this page starts over.

How the cancellation policy generator works

Nothing here is generated from scratch. Every sentence in your policy comes out of a fixed library of clauses, and a rule engine picks which ones apply from how your clients pay you and what you answered. Same answers, same words, every time.

One stack of clauses on the left, three connector lines fanning out to a full policy, a booking page and a sign-off sheet on the right.
One clause set feeds all three documents, so they're built from the same sentences.

One clause set, three documents

Your website version, your booking-page version and your sign-off sheet are three views of one clause set, so they can't drift apart while you aren't looking. That matters in a document people argue about later.

It argues with you

Then the engine reads your answers back and hunts for places where two of them can't both be true: a make-up promised under a policy that says you don't do make-ups, a no-show that costs less than a late cancellation, a notice window with nothing attached to it. When it finds one, it names both answers and says what to change, and the policy waits until you've picked.

Twelve decisions, counted

Last, it counts: twelve decisions, answered or not said, each silence with its consequence spelled out. If you already have a policy, that's the part worth opening the page for.

Who this is for

Private teachers and studio owners. Piano and guitar teachers, dance and swim schools, tutors, personal trainers, martial arts coaches, gymnastics and driving instructors: anyone who sells a booked slot rather than a product.

Maybe you're about to publish a booking page or open registration, and the policy field is empty. Or a parent asked "so do I get that lesson back?" and there was no sentence to point at.

Either way, it's the same job. Decide once, in writing, what happens every time a lesson doesn't go ahead, including when you're the one who cancels.

The twelve decisions a cancellation policy has to answer

Each of these gets settled sooner or later, either in your policy or by whoever tests it first.

Notice window

How far ahead a client has to tell you.

You have not said how much notice you need. Every cancellation becomes a negotiation about whether this one counted.

Cancel in notice

What giving you that notice actually buys them.

You have not said what notice buys. If it buys nothing, nobody will give it.

Late cancel

What happens when the message comes too late to fill the slot.

You have not said what happens inside your notice window. The first person to test it sets your precedent.

No-show

What happens when no message comes at all.

You have not said what happens when nobody turns up. Expect to be asked for a make-up anyway.

Make-ups

Whether a missed lesson comes back, and how many times.

You have not said whether make-ups exist. Every family will assume they do.

Make-up slots

Which hours a make-up can go into, in a week that's already full.

You have not said where make-up slots come from. Subject to availability with no bound is an open obligation.

When you cancel

What the client gets when the cancellation is yours.

You have not said what happens when you cancel. Expect to refund or reschedule on demand.

Illness

Whether a sick week is treated like any other cancellation.

You have not said whether illness is different. It will be treated as different anyway, one case at a time.

Weather

Who calls a snow day, and what a closed lesson costs.

You have not said who decides a snow day, or who pays for it.

Holidays

What a break week does to the bill, and to the lesson count.

You have not said what happens to holiday weeks. The first December will settle it for you.

Late arrival

How long you hold the room before the lesson counts as missed.

You have not said how long you wait. You will wait, and the lesson will run over.

Stopping lessons

How much warning you get, and where money already paid ends up.

You have not said how someone stops, or what happens to money already paid.

Teacher questions about cancellation policies

How much notice should I ask for?

This tool starts at 24 hours. That is a product default, not a recommendation or a market benchmark. The practical question is how long it takes you to fill an empty slot. A waiting list may make a shorter window workable; a slot that rarely fills may call for 48 hours or a week.

Do I have to offer make-up lessons?

No, and plenty of good teachers don't. What you can't do is stay quiet about it. A policy that never mentions make-ups leaves every family assuming they exist, and you'll spend the term deciding case by case, which is how one parent's exception becomes the next parent's argument. Say no in one sentence. Or say yes with a cap and a rule about where the slots come from.

What should I charge for a late cancellation?

That's yours to decide, and this tool won't suggest a number. It won't put a default in the box either, because a number sitting in a field is a suggestion. What it does check is the order. Whatever you charge for a late cancellation has to be less than or the same as what you charge for a no-show. Otherwise the cheapest thing your client can do is say nothing at all.

What happens if I'm the one who cancels?

You pick one: reschedule it, credit it, refund it pro rata, or send a substitute. Whichever you pick, the tool adds a second sentence saying those sessions never count against the client's make-up allowance, and it won't let you turn that sentence off. Writing the remedy down removes one obvious source of dispute.

Is the policy this makes legally binding?

We don't know. A generator cannot decide whether a policy is legally binding. What comes out of here is a draft, and every copy of it carries a line saying so. Consumer-protection and contract rules can come from federal and state law, and state rules vary. A signature does not settle how a dispute will go. Have someone read it first.

How do I get people to actually follow it?

Put it where they can't miss it. The short version goes on the booking page or the registration form, the full one lives on your site, and the sign-off sheet gets signed before the first lesson rather than after the first argument. Enforcement is mostly a filing problem. What you say in the message afterwards is a separate craft, and a separate tool.

Does this work for dance, swim or personal training too?

Yes, and it branches on how you get paid rather than on what you teach, which is exactly the part that breaks a borrowed template. A group class on a term can't offer an individual make-up, so it offers a drop-in credit into another class at the same level instead. A prepaid package counts sessions, so a missed one has to come off the count or come back as a credit - a decision a monthly-tuition studio never has to make.

Cancellation policy templates, and where they run out

Search for a music lesson cancellation policy template, a dance studio makeup policy or a personal trainer cancellation policy template and you'll find variations on the same paragraph: give 24 hours' notice, or you're charged for the lesson. It's a fine sentence, and it settles one of the twelve questions a cancellation policy has to answer.

The other eleven are where the arguments come from. Does a make-up exist at all, and how many? Where does the make-up slot come from, given that your week is already full? Then there's what happens when you're the one who has to cancel, whether a snow day is billed, credited or already inside the term fee, what a five-lesson month costs when tuition is monthly, and what happens to money already paid when a family stops.

Those answers interlock, and that's why a template written for a prepaid package quietly breaks when a monthly-tuition studio copies it. The wording for a term enrollment says things a drop-in class pack can't honor. Nobody notices until a parent asks a question the borrowed paragraph can't answer.

So the generator asks all twelve, writes the clauses, checks them against each other and tells you which ones you left blank.

Sources and last checked

Clause library v1.1, last checked 09/08/2026.

We wrote the clauses ourselves, one set per billing model, one for each of the twelve decisions. None of them copies wording out of anybody else's policy.

There is no count here of how many teachers use a 24-hour window. We had one, and we took it out: we couldn't stand behind the list of policies it was counted from, and a number you can't trace is worse than no number.

The seven questions above are the ones people actually type. They came from live search autocomplete and from the FAQ headings on other scheduling and studio-policy pages.

Nothing on this page names a statute, a state rule or a legal threshold, and nothing here is legal advice. It checks your answers against each other. It doesn't check them against the law where you teach.

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