TL;DR:<\/strong><\/p>\n Every workable policy rests on four moving parts: how much notice you need, what you charge when you don\u2019t get it, whether you take money upfront, and what happens with late arrivals and no-shows. Set these badly and you\u2019ll either lose revenue or spend your week arguing with clients. Set them well, and the policy quietly does its job in the background.<\/p>\n Notice windows<\/strong> should scale with how hard the slot is to fill. A 15-minute blow-dry that\u2019s easy to rebook can live with a 12-hour window. A three-hour colour correction or a bridal trial, booked weeks out and almost impossible to fill at short notice, justifies 48 hours. A 24 to 48-hour window is a common default for appointment-based work.<\/p>\n Fee structures<\/strong> come in three flavours, and each carries a trade-off:<\/p>\n No-shows are where policies most often get challenged. Charging the full service price is common, but it\u2019s open to challenge because you avoid some costs when the service isn\u2019t delivered. A fee pegged closer to your genuine loss is far easier to justify if a client pushes back or disputes the charge with their bank.<\/p>\n Late arrivals deserve their own rule, separate from no-shows. A short grace period, say 10 to 15 minutes, followed by a shortened service or treating the visit as a no-show past a set cutoff, keeps things fair without punishing someone stuck in traffic.<\/p>\n Deposits are usually a portion of the service price, rising with the cost of the appointment and how hard the slot is to rebook. A \u20ac25 haircut rarely needs a deposit at all. A \u20ac350 microblading session or a multi-hour bridal package usually does: a 20% deposit on that \u20ac350 session is \u20ac70, enough to show commitment without looking like a penalty.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no single EU table of permitted cancellation fees. EU directives set a common baseline, and national law and courts fill in the details, so treat what follows as the European starting point rather than the full picture for your country.<\/p>\n The Unfair Contract Terms Directive (93\/13\/EEC) covers standard terms you write yourself and don\u2019t negotiate with each client, which is exactly what a cancellation policy is. Such a term is unfair if, contrary to good faith, it causes a significant imbalance in the parties\u2019 rights and obligations to the detriment of the consumer, and national law makes unfair terms non-binding on the consumer. The Directive\u2019s indicative list of terms that may be unfair includes two that matter here:<\/p>\n In practice that means keeping the fee proportionate to your real loss, returning the deposit in full when you cancel or move the appointment yourself, and writing the policy in plain, intelligible language. If a written term is ambiguous, the interpretation most favourable to the consumer prevails.<\/p>\n The Consumer Rights Directive (2011\/83\/EU) adds information duties. For a distance contract, which an appointment booked and paid online can be, the client must get clear information about the service, the total price and the payment arrangements before they are bound. When an online order places the client under an obligation to pay, the key information has to appear clearly and prominently directly before they place the order, and they must explicitly acknowledge that the order implies an obligation to pay. The Directive also says that if a trader infers consent to an extra payment from a pre-ticked box, the consumer is entitled to get that payment back. Whether a particular fee counts as an extra payment is a question for your lawyer, but the design lesson is simple: let the client tick the box themselves.<\/p>\n Online bookings can also bring the 14-day right of withdrawal for distance contracts into play. For service contracts the period runs from the day the contract is concluded, and the Directive has specific rules for services that start within those 14 days, as well as exceptions. How this applies to a deposit for next week\u2019s appointment depends on how your booking is set up and on national law, so it\u2019s worth a short check with a lawyer.<\/p>\n Practically, that means: write the policy in plain language, get affirmative consent before the appointment is confirmed rather than hiding it behind a footer link, keep a note of any attempt to fill a cancelled slot, and log any exceptions or waivers you grant so you can show the policy is applied consistently.<\/p>\n A chargeback starts when the client disputes a card payment with their bank. The bank decides under the card scheme\u2019s dispute rules, and you respond through your payment provider with evidence, within the deadlines the scheme sets. Dispute reasons, evidence requirements and time limits differ between card schemes, so follow your provider\u2019s guidance on each case.<\/p>\n Two EU payment rules shape what happens before a dispute even starts. First, the Payment Services Directive (PSD2, 2015\/2366) requires strong customer authentication when a payer initiates an electronic payment, so a client paying a deposit online usually confirms it in their banking app or with a similar check. Your payment provider handles this step. Second, for a payment initiated by the business, such as a no-show fee charged to a linked card, PSD2 gives the client a right to a refund if the authorisation didn\u2019t specify the exact amount and the charge exceeded what they could reasonably have expected. Showing the fee as a concrete amount at booking makes that argument much harder to win.<\/p>\n When a dispute does arrive, the case usually rests on a few records:<\/p>\n Enforcement lives or dies on what happens before the appointment, not after the cancellation. Build the workflow in this order:<\/p>\n Phone appointments need the same rigour as online ones. Train team members to read the policy aloud, note the client\u2019s agreement in the appointment record, and avoid negotiating exceptions on the spot, however sympathetic the excuse sounds; that\u2019s what your documented waiver process is for. In Altegio, a payment policy applies automatically only to online bookings, so for an appointment created in the Appointment Calendar the administrator adds the policy and sends the client a payment link with a deadline to pay the deposit or link a card.<\/p>\n Pro Tip:<\/strong> Keep a one-line script for pushback: \u201cOur policy is [X hours] notice or a [Y]% charge, and it\u2019s the same for every client. It\u2019s how we keep appointments fair for everyone.\u201d Consistency, not sympathy, is what protects you in a dispute.<\/em><\/p>\n You don\u2019t need a lawyer to write a first draft. You need language that\u2019s specific, consistent and repeated at every touchpoint.<\/p>\n Policy summary (booking page and policy text):<\/strong> \u201cCancellations and reschedules made more than 24 hours before your appointment are free of charge. Later cancellations and no-shows are charged 50% of the service price.\u201d For a \u20ac120 colour appointment, that 50% fee is \u20ac60, so state the amount in euros wherever you can, not just the percentage.<\/p>\n Acceptance line (phone script or your own terms):<\/strong> \u201cBy booking, I agree to the cancellation policy above and authorise [business name] to charge the stated fee for a late cancellation or no-show.\u201d In Altegio\u2019s online booking widget the consent checkboxes appear automatically when a payment policy is active, so you need this line only where you collect agreement yourself.<\/p>\n Reminder message:<\/strong> \u201cYour appointment is on [date] at [time]. You can cancel or reschedule free of charge until [deadline].\u201d<\/p>\n No-show message:<\/strong> \u201cYou were marked as a no-show for your [date] appointment. In line with our cancellation policy, a fee of \u20ac[amount] has been charged. Contact us within 48 hours if you believe this was recorded in error.\u201d<\/p>\n Keep the tone plain, not legalistic, and state the fee in every message so nobody can say they weren\u2019t told.<\/p>\n A policy nobody sees at the right moment is a hope, not a policy. Payment policies in Altegio<\/a> put your terms into the online booking<\/a> flow itself, for any appointment-based business: beauty, wellness, clinics, auto, fitness and more. You set the policy once per Location in Administration mode under Digital Payments > Payment Policy and choose one of three modes: No payment policy, Deposit or Card guarantee.<\/p>\n What the client sees and agrees to.<\/strong> Before the appointment is booked, the widget shows the deposit or the fees as concrete amounts, the free cancellation window and a link to your full cancellation policy text. The client ticks two checkboxes: agreement to the charges under your cancellation policy, and agreement to storing the data needed to process them. Altegio attaches a snapshot of the policy in force to that appointment, so changing your settings later doesn\u2019t change what an existing client agreed to.<\/p>\n Online cancellations and reschedules.<\/strong> While a policy is active, clients can always cancel or reschedule online. Inside the free window nothing is charged, and a reschedule moves the deadline along with the appointment; in Deposit mode a timely cancellation leaves the deposit on the client\u2019s balance for their next visit. After the window closes, the policy applies automatically: in Deposit mode the deposit goes to the business, and under card guarantee the late cancellation fee is charged from the linked card. Without a payment policy, you decide in Online booking > Settings whether clients may cancel or reschedule online and set a cutoff of up to 48 hours before the appointment.<\/p>\n No-shows and waivers.<\/strong> When a client doesn\u2019t arrive, an administrator decides in the visit window whether to charge the fee, waive it or keep the deposit on the client\u2019s balance. Waiving needs the Allow receptionist not to charge setting and the matching permission. If nobody decides by 23:59 on the day of the visit, Altegio applies the no-show fee from the saved policy automatically. If a card charge fails, Altegio retries it up to three times and then records the fee as a debt on the client\u2019s Payment Policy account.<\/p>\n Records and refunds.<\/strong> The Client accounts tab in the client card shows the balance, top-ups, debits, amounts in hold and fees, with a history of every operation: date and time, amount and who performed it. Refunds aren\u2019t automatic. If you cancel an appointment yourself or a client who cancelled in time won\u2019t rebook, a team member processes the refund manually, as described in the Client Refunds article of the help centre.<\/p>\n Notifications.<\/strong> There are no separate policy notifications. Altegio adds the policy information to the email notifications the client already receives and to the visit information page they open from the link in SMS or WhatsApp messages. Automatic reminders go out at most 24 hours before the visit, so with a 24 or 48-hour window, the confirmation email is what carries the policy before the deadline passes.<\/p>\n Payments run through your connected provider, and Altegio doesn\u2019t charge its own commission on top. If you use Adyen through Altegio<\/a>, payments with EEA consumer cards cost 0.99% + \u20ac0.20 each. For a closer look at the card guarantee flow, read our guide to payment policies, card guarantee and Adyen<\/a>.<\/p>\n If your terms go beyond something straightforward, get legal advice before you publish them; Altegio handles the enforcement mechanics, not the legal drafting. To test the workflow against your own notice windows and fees, start a 7-day free trial<\/a>.<\/p>\n A fee that reflects your genuine loss from the cancellation rather than a flat penalty. Under the EU Unfair Contract Terms Directive, a disproportionately high compensation sum may be unfair, so tie your fee to the notice given and how likely you were to fill the slot.<\/p>\n Many appointment-based businesses use a 24 to 48-hour window, with longer appointments and harder-to-fill slots justifying the longer end of that range.<\/p>\n You can set it, but it\u2019s the riskiest position. A full charge ignores costs you avoid when the service isn\u2019t delivered, and a disproportionately high sum is exactly what EU unfair-terms rules target. A fee closer to your actual loss is easier to defend if challenged.<\/p>\n Yes. Show the policy before the appointment is confirmed, let the client tick the box themselves and keep the record. That record is your strongest evidence in any later dispute.<\/p>\n Yes. With a payment policy active, clients can always cancel or reschedule online, and the free cancellation window decides whether the deposit is kept or a fee is charged. Without a policy, you choose whether online changes are allowed and set a cutoff of up to 48 hours before the appointment.<\/p>\n No. Card guarantee needs Adyen and is available only in EU countries. Deposit mode works with any payment provider supported in your region.<\/p>\n This article is general information, not legal advice. Consumer and payment rules differ between EU countries, so check your cancellation terms with a qualified lawyer in your country.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" How to set a fair 24\u201348 hour cancellation policy under EU consumer law, word it clearly and enforce it with deposits or card guarantee in Altegio.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":30309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":""},"categories":[298,301,310],"tags":[974,78,286],"class_list":["post-30330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ugyfelek","category-penzugy","category-jogi","tag-card-payments","tag-finance","tag-online-booking"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n
\nWhat should go into your cancellation policy?<\/h2>\n
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What are the legal limits on cancellation fees in the EU?<\/h2>\n
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![\"Cancellation](\"https:\/\/alteg.io\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/cancellation-policy-booking-01-1.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nHow do chargebacks work, and what evidence helps?<\/h2>\n
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How do you enforce a cancellation policy without losing clients?<\/h2>\n
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Cancellation policy examples you can copy<\/h2>\n
How Altegio payment policies handle cancellations and no-shows<\/h2>\n
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FAQ<\/h2>\n
What counts as a reasonable cancellation fee?<\/h3>\n
How much notice should a cancellation policy require?<\/h3>\n
Can I charge 100% for a no-show?<\/h3>\n
Do I need client consent before charging a cancellation fee?<\/h3>\n
Can clients cancel or reschedule online in Altegio?<\/h3>\n
Does card guarantee work with any payment provider?<\/h3>\n
Read next<\/h2>\n
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