The short answer
- Pick one notice window and keep it the same for every family. Twenty-four hours is the common choice; twelve is kinder if you teach after school.
- Say what happens inside the window: the session is charged, or it is not. Both are workable. Ambiguity is not.
- Offer a makeup as a courtesy you schedule, not a credit families can bank indefinitely.
- Write the policy where the booking happens - in the first message, not only on a website nobody revisits.
- Apply it to your own cancellations too. A policy that only runs one way is the fastest way to lose a family.
Why the notice window is the whole policy
A cancelled hour is not an empty hour. You turned down other work to hold it, and at short notice you cannot refill it. The notice window is simply the line between a slot you could have re-sold and one you could not.
That is also why the window should match how you actually work. If families book you a fortnight ahead, twenty-four hours is generous. If you fill gaps the same morning, a longer window protects you more honestly.
Wording you can send today
Keep it to four sentences and put it in writing before the first lesson:
- State the window: please give me at least 24 hours' notice if you need to cancel.
- State the consequence: sessions cancelled with less notice are charged as normal, because the slot was held for you.
- State the courtesy: where I have a free slot that week I will offer a makeup, and I will always tell you if I cannot.
- State the symmetry: the same applies to me - if I cancel late, your next session is free.
The three exceptions worth naming
- Illness with a same-day message: most tutors waive the first one each term and say so in advance, so the waiver is a rule rather than a negotiation.
- School events you could have known about: ask for the term calendar in September and block those dates once.
- A run of late cancellations: that is a scheduling conversation, not a billing one. Offer a different weekly slot before you enforce anything.
The free tool for this
What an hour has to cost to pay you - What an hour has to cost to pay you. It runs in the page, asks for your own numbers, and sends nothing anywhere.
If you would rather not build it yourself
A policy only works if the session log agrees with it. Tutor OS keeps the dated record - sessions held, cancelled and charged - so the conversation is about a row in a file rather than two people's memories. Tutor Student, Session & Payment Tracker - Excel + Google Sheets (Tutor OS) is $19. See it on the shop, and there is a plain page about it here: what it holds.
Questions people actually ask
Should I charge for a cancelled lesson at all?
That is your choice, but decide before you need to. Charging inside a stated notice window is normal for private tuition; what families object to is a rule invented after the cancellation.
How do I introduce a policy to families I already teach?
Send it once, plainly, with a start date a fortnight away, and say it applies to you as well. Existing families accept a written rule far more readily than an unwritten one.
Read next
How to keep track of tutoring sessions and payments, What records should a private tutor keep?, How do I ask a parent to pay for tutoring lessons?, How to price group tutoring per student.