Job Discussion Forums

Bucky420 · Joined: 21 Apr 2009 Posts: 20

Just what the title says. What is your cancellation policy when it comes to private classes? Do you charge students for a same-day cancellation?

earthmonkey · Joined: 18 Feb 2005 Posts: 188 Location: Meguro-Ku Tokyo

I've never charged for late cancellations. But I have on several occasions given a oft-canceling student's time slot to another student who seemed less likely to miss lessons (or paid more). One reason I never chose to charge is that I wanted to be able to cancel a lesson myself if something came up or I'd had a particularly hard day.

I think it is fine either way as long as the student knows up front what your policy is and that it's also applicable in reverse.

Apsara · Joined: 20 Sep 2005 Posts: 2142 Location: Tokyo, Japan

I have never charged for a cancelled lesson. Unless you have your students paying in advance, i.e. on some kind of monthly system, I think you would have a hard time collecting the money- it would at the very least be extremely awkward as I can't imagine them being happy about it.

I would rather keep the student's good will (and have them taking lessons for longer) than try to collect for lessons I hadn't taught. Private students will often quit with little notice and being forced to pay for lessons they hadn't taken would be as good a reason as any.

As above, this also gives me the flexibility to cancel, which I have very occasionally done when I have been sick.

flyer · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 539 Location: Sapporo Japan

Bucky420 · Joined: 21 Apr 2009 Posts: 20

I see your point and "the goodwill" is actually the main reason, why I've been hesistating about the cancellation policy. It would also be a little bit awkward for me to accept the money, hwever, I've had some bad experiences with the cancellations recently, so I've been wondering to charge at least half of the lesson fee(which is very reasonable, by the way) for same-day cancellations. From what I know, that's also typical policy at the English schools, as I'm always getting paid a full fee if I'm teaching private lessons for some eikaiwa and the student cancels on the same day.

flyer · Joined: 16 May 2003 Posts: 539 Location: Sapporo Japan

ok, why do discuss it with the students and come to an agreement. All out in the open.

Shonai Ben · Joined: 15 Feb 2003 Posts: 617

starteacher · Joined: 25 Feb 2009 Posts: 237

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

We have our students pay up front. If they miss a lesson we make it up by adding 15, 20 or 30 minutes to other lessons. There's a Japanese word for it, but I don't know what it is.