Almost every coach has a cancellation policy. Almost none of them work. The reason is simple: the policy is a paragraph in a welcome email that nobody agreed to and nobody can act on. When a family cancels an hour before a Saturday session, you're not going to send an invoice for a fee they never authorised. So you eat it, and the policy quietly becomes a suggestion.
Below is a cancellation policy written for how private coaching actually works — sessions with minors, weather, seasons, the lot. Copy it, change the brackets, and paste it wherever athletes book. Then read the last section, because that's the part that makes it real.
How to adapt it to your business
Don't paste it as-is. Three decisions turn it from a generic block into your policy:
- Pick your window and stick to it.24 hours is the safe default. Go to 48 if your weekend slots are scarce and hard to refill, or 12 if you run a high-volume urban schedule. Just don't change it per client — consistency is what makes it defensible.
- Decide half-rate vs. full-rate. A late cancellation with somenotice is often charged 50%; a true no-show is charged in full. Package clients usually just lose the session credit, which is cleaner because there's nothing new to collect.
- Write your weather rule if you train outdoors.This is the clause generic salon and consultant templates never have, and it's the one your families care about most. State who decides, by when, and what happens to the session — reschedule or credit.
The clause that makes it enforceable
Look again at the last line of the template: "A payment method on file may be charged." That single sentence is the difference between a policy and a wish. Everything above it is just words until there is a card on file and a system that can apply the fee automatically, per a rule the client already agreed to when they booked.
Without that, enforcing the policy means personally asking a parent you like for money over a missed session — the exact confrontation the policy was supposed to spare you. With it, the fee is applied quietly by the system and you never have to have the conversation at all. This is the same mechanism covered in the system for getting paid before every session: the policy stops depending on your willpower and starts depending on the setup.
Make your policy enforce itself
CoachesVault puts a card on file at booking and applies your cancellation and no-show fees automatically — the policy you write actually gets collected, without you sending a single awkward text.
See how it worksWhere the policy fits in the bigger system
A cancellation policy is one layer of a larger defence against lost income. The full stack — a clear policy, a card on file, automated reminders, and enforced fees — is laid out in the no-show playbook for private coaches. And if you want the underlying payment setup that makes any of it possible, CoachesVault handles payments — cards on file, prepayment, and automatic fees included.
Write the policy today. Make it enforceable this week. The difference shows up the very first Saturday someone cancels at 7am.