“Miss, we went travelling last minute, so cancel Saturday’s lesson and we’ll make it up next week.” For a new tutor that’s a hard sentence to refuse — but the make-up lessons pile up to 30 a year, and eventually you can’t clear them. The problem isn’t that the parent is being unreasonable; it’s that you don’t have a cancellation policy.
A clear cancellation policy isn’t about punishing parents. It’s about spelling out the rules of the game up front so both sides get predictability. This article covers the 4 key clauses, plus why some industry standards are 24 hours and others are 48.
3 common mistakes
❌ No policy at all
You think it through case-by-case every time — and the result is: the smooth-talking, friendly parents push harder while the honest parents lose out. Trust collapses.
❌ Policy too strict (4 hours’ notice)
Parents feel you’re inflexible and decide against you right at the trial lesson. Private tutoring is a relationship business — don’t bring a corporate-policy mindset to it.
❌ Policy too loose (cancel anytime, make up anytime)
You end up in the same place as having no policy. It even creates admin overhead — you have to remember which student owes 1 make-up lesson and which owes 3.
4 key clauses (recommended)
1. Notice period (24 hours suggested)
Notice 24 hours before the lesson: you can reschedule or make it up. Notice after the 24-hour mark: it counts as taken — full tuition charged.
Exception: if the student is sick (with a photo of the thermometer / a doctor’s note), you can handle it case-by-case.
Why 24 and not 48? Most parents only decide the night before what’s happening the next day, so 48 is too strict and hurts trial conversion. 24 already gives you enough buffer to refill the slot — for example, by publishing it to a wait-list student.
2. Make-up window (30 days suggested)
A lesson cancelled with proper notice can be made up once within 30 days. Beyond 30 days: it lapses.
Why 30 days? Private tutoring is a short-term commitment. If an old lesson gets dragged out to a make-up 3 months later, the parent doesn’t even remember what was taught and the effect is poor. And the tutor can’t cram too many make-up lessons into the normal weekly cycle.
3. Tutor’s last-minute cancellation (unconditional make-up)
If the tutor has to cancel: offer a make-up slot unconditionally (on a day convenient for the student). If no suitable time can be found within 30 days: full refund.
A policy’s fairness has to be consistent on both sides. Otherwise parents will feel you have a double standard.
4. Public holidays (no lesson by default)
Public holidays are no-lesson by default, with the monthly fee deducted pro-rata. If a parent wants the lesson to go ahead, they need to confirm 7 days in advance and the tutor charges 1.2× tuition.
Holiday surcharge feels odd? It’s the industry standard. The business logic is consistent: you’re not taking the weekday off but opening a premium lesson — it’s paying for the service.
How to handle 3 common edge cases
Student takes sick leave 3 months straight
The policy says “make up within 30 days,” so enforce it — but keep communicating with the parent normally. If it’s a genuine long-term illness, talk it over: pause the monthly fee, delay the package expiry — but get written confirmation, don’t make verbal promises.
Parent asks “I’m travelling for 2 weeks, can I skip paying?”
Time-based pricing (monthly fee / package): pause + refund / extend the expiry. Lesson-based pricing (hourly): no lesson means no charge naturally, so that’s fine. But write down a pause notice period for each instance (7 days suggested).
Student cancels for the Xth time, but always sends a message 12 hours ahead
The policy allows it — don’t walk a tightrope with a family. But if the same student cancels 2+ lessons a month for 4 months running, that’s a commitment issue, not a policy issue. Have a positive conversation with the parent: keep going, or take a break for a while?
How to publish it to parents
- Write it into the private-tuition contract template
- At parent onboarding, use a single A4 one-pager covering it all: fees + cancellation + holidays
- When a student first takes leave, send a message to refresh the parent’s memory
Use a tool to track make-ups and cancellations
Manually tracking how many make-up lessons 5 students have left, and when each expires — a year later it’s absolute chaos.
TutorOwl automatically tracks each student’s leave, make-ups and expiry, and even generates the link for the parent’s view — high transparency, far fewer arguments.