Understanding No-Shows vs Late Cancels
Before diving into policies and fees, it's important to understand the difference:
No Shows: Customers who have a reservation but don't attend class. These must be manually marked during attendance and will deduct a pass credit. No Shows will also open a spot for waitlisted customers.
Late Cancels: Customers who cancel their reservation after your cancellation window has closed. This is more automated. If you enable the Late Cancel feature, customers can cancel right up until class starts, and the spot opens for waitlisted customers. Punchpass will automatically deduct a credit from the customer's pass.
We'll discuss the different options to charge a late cancellation fee below.
Creating Cancellation Policies
You've got to set a policy and stick to it! Here's what to do:
Set your cancellation window. What's reasonable for your studio? 24 hours is pretty standard. Go to the Online Reservations section (Manage > Settings > Online Reservations), to set the window that will automatically disallow cancellations outside your timeframe.
Enable Late Cancel (optional but recommended). While in the Online Reservations section, check off the 'Allow Late Cancel' checkbox and press Save. This allows customers to cancel right up until class starts, but their pass will be charged. This opens up spots for waitlisted customers and ensures you're compensated for late cancellations.
State your cancellation policy clearly on your website. You can add a custom message to the top of your schedule (Manage > Settings, select the Public Schedule section), within your class descriptions (Manage > Classes, and select the class), and even add a booking agreement to your Punchpass account.
Customize your reservation communications. With Punchpass, you can customize the message on the email confirmation that you send for reservations. For each course you create, you can turn on the option to send reservation reminders and customize the reservation reminders in the Customer Communications section (Manage > Settings, select the Customer Communications section) of your account settings.
Now you've laid the groundwork to start charging for no shows and late cancels! Please remember to take attendance for each class or turn on the option for Punchpass to automatically mark attendance so you can handle these as they arise.
Marking an Attendance as a No Show in Punchpass
When someone with a reservation doesn't show up for class, you'll need to manually mark them as a no show during attendance.
While taking attendance, you'll see all pending reservations
Next to the customer's name, click the 3-dots and select No Show
Alternatively, if you've already marked them as attending, click the dots again and select No Show
When you mark someone as a no-show, their pass will be deducted and they'll be marked as a no show for that class.
Here is a video to send to your instructors as a quick demo:
How Marking an Attendance as a Late Cancels vs No Shows Differs
If Late Cancel is active in Online Reservation Settings: When customers try to cancel after your deadline, they'll see a message explaining their pass will be debited for the attendance, but they can still cancel. The system automatically deducts their class credit from their pass as a penalty and opens up the spot immediately.
When marking an attendance as No Show: This also deducts a credit from the customer's pass. Reservations marked as No Show will move the reservation from the active list, so you can use this option for a full class to free up a waitlist spot.
Key differences:
Late Cancels can be done by customers themselves (if feature is enabled) OR manually marked by admins from the Class Details Page
No Shows must be manually marked by admin/instructor during attendance taking
Late Cancel is a global setting that applies to ALL classes and cannot be turned on/off per individual class
Both automatically send notifications to the customer and your company email address
Note: If a class has a waitlist and bookings are still being accepted, the waitlist process will NOT automatically kick off for Late Cancels if it's too late to reserve based on your Online Reservations settings.
Options for Charging Late Cancellation and Penalty Fees
Beyond deducting pass credits, you have several options to charge penalty fees depending on your customer's payment setup:
Charging Penalty Fees for Unlimited Memberships
Best for: Customers with unlimited memberships who pay via Stripe
If you're on a Punchpass plan with access to memberships and your customers pay for their memberships via Stripe, you can directly charge customers for no-shows and late cancels from Punchpass.
How to set up:
Define the penalty fee: From Manage > Settings, select the Taxes, Invoices & Revenue section. Define your penalty fee and press Save.
Mark attendance: From the class details page, press the Mark Attendance button and identify any customers as No Shows or Late Cancels.
Apply the penalty fee: Select the three-dot icon next to the customer name and press the Edit button. This takes you to the Edit Attendance page. To apply the penalty fee, press the Charge Penalty Fee button.
Confirm the transaction: A pop-up window will ask you to confirm the transaction. Press the Charge Fee Through Stripe button to continue.
For detailed guidance, see our Charging No-Show or Late Cancel Fees for Unlimited Memberships guide.
Charging a Late Cancellation Fee to a Saved Card
Best for: Scenarios where you charge an additional fee for late cancels
Create a late cancel fee pass in your Punchpass account (e.g., "Late Cancel Fee - $15"). Set this pass to not be for sale online to hide it from your list of active passes for sale.
Mark the attendance as No Show or Late Cancel as appropriate for the situation.
Review the customer's account to see if they have a saved card on file by clicking on the Info tab. More information on saved cards
Apply the late cancellation fee by assigning the pass to the customer account and selecting the Saved Card as the payment method. For those without saved cards, you can invoice them or collect payment in person.
Direct Stripe Charging
Best for: Studios comfortable working directly in Stripe
Log into your Stripe account and search for the customer using their email address
Create an invoice for the penalty fee
Set to "Autocharge customer" if they have a saved payment method, or send as a payment request
For detailed Stripe steps, see our Charging No-Show or Late Cancel Fees for Unlimited Memberships guide.
Reviewing No Show and Late Cancel Attendances
Navigate to Reports > No Shows & Late Cancels Report to see all of your No Show attendances for a specific timeframe!
