How to stop no-shows? Take a deposit up front
Nobody thinks twice about skipping a booking that cost them nothing. Put even a tenner down, though, and they almost always show.
Where it hurts
No-shows are a quiet drain. The slot's gone, the chair or the van's sat empty, and there's nobody to bill for it. On a fully booked day that's real money walking out before it arrives.
The awkward bit is asking for money before you've done anything. Done clumsily it feels like you don't trust people, and some will bristle. Done properly it's just a normal part of booking, the same as anywhere they've booked a table or a haircut lately.
And here's what most template policies get wrong: for consumer bookings you can't keep an arbitrary deposit or charge a flat no-show fee just because it's written down. Government guidance is clear that a charge should reflect what you actually lost, that you're expected to take reasonable steps to fill the slot, and that a term buried in small print won't hold up. A policy that ignores this doesn't stop no-shows; it starts chargebacks.
What I'd build
I'd add a deposit or a card hold at the point of booking, through Stripe or GoCardless, knocked off the final bill and working with Calendly, Microsoft Bookings or whatever front end you use. The terms are shown plainly at booking and agreed with a tick, and that agreement's kept on record, because a saved-card no-show charge only sticks if the customer clearly agreed to it beforehand. When someone cancels or no-shows, the slot's offered to your waitlist straight away (the law expects you to try to fill it, and a filled slot costs you nothing). Any no-show charge lands on your desk to approve, sized to what you actually lost, with a drafted note to the customer ready to send.
What changes
- Fewer no-shows once people have money down
- Terms agreed at booking and kept on record, so charges actually stick
- Empty slots offered to a waitlist before any fee's considered
- You approve every no-show charge, sized to what you actually lost
Facts on this page last checked 12 July 2026, against gov.uk.
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