Empower your staff to decide who is charged for no-shows
Cancellations are a big headache in the spa and salon business. They cost you money and mess up your schedule – and you can’t avoid them.
Obviously, cancellations are a necessary evil. But you can minimize the damage they cause. There are several steps you can take to do this, including taking a credit card deposit at time of booking and sending out email reminders. But there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Let’s have a look at the steps you can take to decrease the negative impact of cancellations on your spa or salon business.
Set parameters First things first, you must have a policy in place. There are situations in which you might waver from it, but it’s best to start with something and to set parameters.
Your policy can actually get quite granular. Consider different rules for different types of bookings. You want to maintain your cancellation policy, but still have some flexibility to show empathy and say “I totally understand that your car broke down.”
Ask yourself how long you reasonably need to fill treatment spots. Do you allow 24 hours or 48 hours? It might be easy to fill one massage that cancels eight hours in advance, but you will probably need longer lead times for a group cancellation of five or 10 people. Communicate that policy to guests; you can’t enforce it if they’re unaware of it.
Use available resources Use your own data to track revenue lost through cancellations. With Turn Away Tracking, you can track times with high cancellation rates, equate that to a dollar value, and look at trends.
Then, if you know people are more likely to cancel a Sunday morning appointment, you might charge a higher deposit for those specific reservations.
Empower your staff Your front desk staff should be empowered to make decisions such as who is charged for a no-show and who isn’t, and they should be supported in their decisions. Because if a front desk staffer says to a couple, “We are going to charge you $320 for this missed couples massage,” the client is not going to be happy and is going to ask to speak to the manager. If you want staff to enforce your policy you have to support them in doing so.
Exercise good judgement How hard are you going to enforce your cancellation policy if you’re losing $50 revenue on one 45-minute manicure, vs losing $320 on a couples’ massage? Our business is about guest experience, and you want your guests to be happy and to come back.
Guests are smart, and if you tell them you’re charging them $320 for a missed massage, they may cancel their credit card – and then you can be sure they’re not coming back.
Whatever your policy, there are going to be times when you have to take a hit, because your goal isn’t to punish people, but to get them to return. Providing customer satisfaction means being aware of the line where charging guests for no-shows negatively impacts building your customer base. At that point, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it – and only you can decide the answer.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
Promotional feature: Anne Semonin
Katherine Connolly, newly appointed global
director of retail and spa operations at Anne
Semonin, discusses her plans for the brand
Promotional feature: Thalion
Thalion is the first company to develop highly
specialised mineral therapies for clients, says
training manager Sophie Alemany
Research: Finishing touch
A new study shows that massage can
help muscle re-growth after an injury –
even when applied to the opposite limb
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
Empower your staff to decide who is charged for no-shows
Cancellations are a big headache in the spa and salon business. They cost you money and mess up your schedule – and you can’t avoid them.
Obviously, cancellations are a necessary evil. But you can minimize the damage they cause. There are several steps you can take to do this, including taking a credit card deposit at time of booking and sending out email reminders. But there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Let’s have a look at the steps you can take to decrease the negative impact of cancellations on your spa or salon business.
Set parameters First things first, you must have a policy in place. There are situations in which you might waver from it, but it’s best to start with something and to set parameters.
Your policy can actually get quite granular. Consider different rules for different types of bookings. You want to maintain your cancellation policy, but still have some flexibility to show empathy and say “I totally understand that your car broke down.”
Ask yourself how long you reasonably need to fill treatment spots. Do you allow 24 hours or 48 hours? It might be easy to fill one massage that cancels eight hours in advance, but you will probably need longer lead times for a group cancellation of five or 10 people. Communicate that policy to guests; you can’t enforce it if they’re unaware of it.
Use available resources Use your own data to track revenue lost through cancellations. With Turn Away Tracking, you can track times with high cancellation rates, equate that to a dollar value, and look at trends.
Then, if you know people are more likely to cancel a Sunday morning appointment, you might charge a higher deposit for those specific reservations.
Empower your staff Your front desk staff should be empowered to make decisions such as who is charged for a no-show and who isn’t, and they should be supported in their decisions. Because if a front desk staffer says to a couple, “We are going to charge you $320 for this missed couples massage,” the client is not going to be happy and is going to ask to speak to the manager. If you want staff to enforce your policy you have to support them in doing so.
Exercise good judgement How hard are you going to enforce your cancellation policy if you’re losing $50 revenue on one 45-minute manicure, vs losing $320 on a couples’ massage? Our business is about guest experience, and you want your guests to be happy and to come back.
Guests are smart, and if you tell them you’re charging them $320 for a missed massage, they may cancel their credit card – and then you can be sure they’re not coming back.
Whatever your policy, there are going to be times when you have to take a hit, because your goal isn’t to punish people, but to get them to return. Providing customer satisfaction means being aware of the line where charging guests for no-shows negatively impacts building your customer base. At that point, you have to ask yourself whether it’s worth it – and only you can decide the answer.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
Promotional feature: Anne Semonin
Katherine Connolly, newly appointed global
director of retail and spa operations at Anne
Semonin, discusses her plans for the brand
Promotional feature: Thalion
Thalion is the first company to develop highly
specialised mineral therapies for clients, says
training manager Sophie Alemany
Research: Finishing touch
A new study shows that massage can
help muscle re-growth after an injury –
even when applied to the opposite limb
Four Seasons Resort The Nam Hai in Hoi An, Vietnam, has put together a Global Wellness Day
(GWD) agenda with activations rooted in nature and shaped by four pillars of Joy – in
alignment with the day’s theme #JoyMagenta.
The Global Wellness Summit (GWS) will celebrate its 20th anniversary at the 2026 event in
Phuket, Thailand, later this year with the theme: The Science, Art and Soul of Wellness.
Auko, an all-inclusive development, is opening in Phong Nha in Vietnam in Q3 2026, with a
series of 30 tented eco-lodges and wellness hospitality operations by Lumina Wellbeing.
Therme Manchester’s 28-acre development, which will include interconnected glass pavilions
that measure 65,000sq m, will be the largest bathing and wellbeing attraction in the world once
complete, according to prof David Russell, CEO of Therme UK.
Naples Beach Club, a Four Seasons Resort, has opened a 2,800sq m spa called The Sanctuary,
with the design and concept inspired by the Native American people that populated Florida’s
Southwest coast – the Calusa.
Swire Hotels’ luxury hospitality brand Upper House has revealed it will roll out its two-day
House of Healing retreats at its three hotels in Hong Kong, Chengdu and Shanghai.
LVMH-owned beauty house Guerlain will launch up to five spas with partners a year as part of
its plan to expand globally, according to the brand’s international spa and wellness director,
Diane Davody.
A new global study by Kevin Kelly and Peter Yesawich, called WELLSurvey 2.0, has revealed
more than half of consumers in the UK, US and Germany would not choose numerous high-
profile wellness resort brands for a future trip.
Luxury hospitality and wellness pioneer Jeremy McCarthy has launched Leisure Alchemy, a
digital platform that will provide professionals with strategic guidance on how to build
transformational leisure experiences that drive profit.
In a world where imbalance often accumulates quietly, Wildsmith unveils its newest
wellbeing innovation: Silent Loads, an approach designed to meet the needs of modern spa
guests with precision and depth. [more...]
