Protecting yourself from no-shows
An empty chair costs you the booking and the slot you turned away. BookUp gives you three tools for it, and they work
together: you capture a card when the booking is made, then charge a fee if the customer doesn't turn up or cancels too
late.
The order matters. Without a card on file there is nothing to charge, so card capture is the part to get right first.
Card capture
Card capture takes the customer's card details at checkout without charging them. Nothing leaves their account at the
time of booking — you're holding the card so a fee can be charged later if it comes to that.
This is what makes the rest of this article possible. A no-show fee with no captured card is a fee you can't collect.
Bookings still waiting on card details sit under Bookings → Awaiting Card Capture, split into two lists that need
different responses:
The Awaiting card capture screen with an Awaiting customer list and a Lapsed list
Awaiting customer — the link has been sent and there's still time. Nothing to do unless the booking is close.
Lapsed — the appointment time passed and no card was ever captured. Open the booking to check out, mark as no-show, or
cancel.
Check this list regularly. Anything sitting in it is a booking you have no protection on.
No-show fees
Turn on Take No-Show fees in Settings → Payments. You then pick a Fee type:
Payments settings showing Take No-Show fees and Take Late Cancellation fees switched on with their fee types
- Flat fee — a fixed amount, whatever the booking was worth
- Percentage — a proportion of the booking
- Full amount — the whole booking value
Charging a no-show fee is a decision, not an automatic charge. Mark the booking as a no-show, and it appears under
Bookings → No-Shows with the fee ready to go. From there you choose Charge no-show fee or Waive fee.
The No-Shows list showing clients, fee due and fee status
The Fee status column tells you where each one stands — charged, still to collect, or No card on file. A second tab,
Client rankings, shows which clients no-show the most.
That's deliberate. Some no-shows have a good reason behind them, and a regular of six years who gets stuck in traffic is
not the person to automatically bill. The list gives you the decision, one customer at a time.
If a charge doesn't go through you'll see The charge failed and can Retry charge. If no card was ever captured you'll
see No saved card to charge — which is the case card capture exists to prevent.
Late-cancellation fees
Turn on Take Late Cancellation fees in the same place. Unlike no-shows, this one charges automatically when a customer
cancels inside your cancellation policy window.
It uses the same three fee types.
Two tiers
You can charge more the later they cancel.
The late cancellation settings showing the standard tier and a Very late cancellations tier with its own window
The standard tier uses your cancellation policy window — the screen tells you what that currently is. On top of it, a
second tier for "very late" cancellations has its own Window, Fee type and amount.
So you can set something like: cancel within 24 hours and pay 50%, cancel within 2 hours and pay the full amount. One
rule for "you've cost me the slot", a harder one for "I now can't possibly refill it".
Set the second tier's window shorter than your cancellation policy window, or it will never apply — there'd be no gap
for it to catch.
What you need in place
For any of this to result in money actually collected:
1. Stripe connected, with charges enabled
2. Card capture on, so there's a card to charge
3. The relevant fee switched on in Settings → Payments, with a type and amount
4. For no-shows, someone to mark the booking and press charge
Miss any one of these and you won't be able to collect the fee.
Where to see the damage
Your Dashboard tracks No-shows and Lost revenue from no-shows over the period you're viewing, so you can see whether the
problem is getting better or worse rather than guessing.
Dashboard tiles showing No-shows and Lost revenue from no-shows
Per client, BookUp keeps a rolling count of no-shows and the revenue lost, which is what tells you the difference
between someone who had one bad week and someone with a pattern.
If a client keeps doing it
Fees are one answer. Two others are worth knowing:
Require a deposit from them. Deposits are set per service, and Deposit (new clients only) targets first-timers
specifically — the group most likely to not show, without penalising your regulars.
Block them. If someone repeatedly wastes your time, blocking stops them booking with you at all. You can record a
reason, and unblock later if you want to.
Getting the balance right
- Turn card capture on before the fees. Without it, the fees can't be collected and you've set a policy you can't
enforce.
- Tell people. A fee nobody was warned about generates a dispute; a fee stated at booking changes behaviour, which is
the actual goal.
- Charge deliberately. The No-Shows list exists so you can judge each one. Waiving a fee for a good customer usually
buys more than the fee was worth.
- Watch Awaiting Card Capture. Bookings sitting there are the ones with no protection.
- Consider deposits for new clients rather than fees for everyone.
If you can't see the no-show or late-cancellation settings at all, they're switched on per business. Contact support and
we'll enable them.
Related articles
- Setting up your services and service groups
- Setting your opening hours, shifts and availability