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Cancellation Protection: Everything you need to know
Cancellation Protection: Everything you need to know
Ilaria Montrone avatar
Written by Ilaria Montrone
Updated over a week ago

We know how disappointing it can be when a client doesn't show up for their appointment with you. That's why we've introduced Cancellation Protection - a setting on Treatwell Pro that allows you to charge your clients when they don't make their booking.

Cancellation Protection for Offline Bookings

It's also possible to implement Cancellation Protection for your direct bookings too - meaning you don't have to lose out when your offline clients don't show up for their appointment.

When you create an appointment in your Calendar, you'll notice a shield icon in the list of icons under your client's name. By clicking on it, you can choose two ways to implement Cancellation Protection:

1) You can ask the client for their credit card details when they're in your salon or over the phone, and you can enter them by clicking “Add credit card information” and completing the credit card form.

2) You can also choose to send them an SMS which will contain a safe and secure link where they'll be able to write their details themselves.

You'll be able to see which clients still haven't provided their card details from the list of "Bookings pending protection", which can be found by clicking the shield icon on the top right corner of your Calendar. Once a client inputs their card details, they'll disappear from the list and their booking will be confirmed.

Your clients will have 24h to add their card details to confirm their booking with you. If they don't do so in time, the link we sent them will expire. If that happens, there is no need to worry! You can still choose whether you'd like to delete their appointment (by clicking on the ❌) or confirm it anyway (by clicking on the ✅). Bear in mind that if you do choose to confirm it, we won't be able to protect that transaction as no card details were provided.

Please note: For security reasons, your client's card details will be deleted by 5am the following day after their appointment.

Charging the client

Once activated, to receive the payment for a no-show, you'll need to manage the appointment via the Calendar.

By cancelling the appointment and clicking "Client didn't show up", you'll be able to select whether you'd like to charge the client or not.

If a customer has multiple appointments booked on the same day, the conditions of the first appointment will determine the policy for subsequent appointments. Here are the possible cases:

  • if the cancellation protection is applied to the first booking, it will also be valid for the other appointments on that day;

  • if the cancellation protection is not applied to the first appointment, it will not be applied to the other bookings on that day either.

You can charge any amount up to the full cost of the booking by selecting "Custom" and typing the amount you'd like the client to pay, or you can select one of the percentage quantities (100%, 50%, or 25%).

Please note: for appointments booked online and prepaid you will only be able to charge 100 per cent of the amount of the service, you will not be able to choose smaller percentages.

You'll also be able to see all your cancelled or no-show appointments in the "Cancellations and No-shows" list in the "Daily Overview". This will show you all of your cancelled appointments, including those where the client didn't show up and those where a charge was requested. You and your client will be notified by email whether or not they've been charged and whether the payment was successful.

Please note: To avoid the payment getting declined, we recommend you encourage your clients to use their credit cards for Cancellation Protection bookings.

How can I activate Cancellation Protection?

Get in touch with our Customer Experience team if you'd like to activate online Cancellation Protection for your venue.

Please note: Offline Cancellation Protection for direct appointments is only available for Advanced and Premium Treatwell Pro plans.

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