How to reduce no-shows at your salon or studio

More than the price of the service. The time you held for that customer cannot be sold again, and rent and wages keep running. Before you switch anything on, do the sum with your own numbers.

Example: a beauty salon, a €40 treatment, two people a week who do not come. That is €80 a week and about €346 a month (80 × 4.33). With one-hour treatments it is also eight hours of work a month you could have sold to someone else.

To find your own figure, open Bookings, go through the last three months and count the bookings with the status No-show. That number tells you how much you can spend on SMS and whether a deposit makes sense.

A lot of missed appointments are simply forgotten. A reminder is the cheapest fix, and the email one is in every plan: Resovu sends it to each confirmed booking 24 hours before the start, with a link to cancel or reschedule.

From the Starter plan you can add an SMS at a time you choose (1–72 hours before) through your own BulkGate or seven.io account. If the sum above came to €346 a month, a few euros of SMS pay for themselves when they save one or two appointments.

What exactly goes out and how to pick the SMS time is covered in Which automatic messages customers get.

The deadline says how long before the start customers can still cancel or move a booking themselves; after that only you can. Without it people can cancel ten minutes before the start and you have no time to offer the slot again. Set it in Settings → Booking → Cancellation policy as the Cancellation deadline in hours (0 means any time). For customers to cancel from the email link, Allow booking cancellation must be on.

From the Professional plan you add Cancellation fees in tiers. A tier means: if the customer cancels less than this many hours before the start, keep this percentage. A common setup:

• more than 48 hours before the start: free
• 24–48 hours before: 50 % (tier 48 hours, 50 %)
• less than 24 hours before: the customer can no longer cancel or move the booking (Cancellation deadline 24 hours)

A €50 booking paid by card and cancelled 30 hours before then costs €25, and the other €25 goes back to the card automatically. A tier cannot start later than the deadline: Resovu will not save a tier that would only apply once customers can no longer cancel.

A fee can only be kept from money paid online in advance – a card payment or a deposit. If the customer pays on site, no fee is taken automatically. That is why cancellation fees work best together with prepayment or a deposit.

Write the terms so customers get them on first reading, with numbers instead of "in time" and "late". For example: "Cancelling is free up to 48 hours before the start; 24–48 hours before we keep 50 % of the price. You can move the appointment up to 24 hours before. After that it can no longer be cancelled or moved and the payment is not refunded." Before the customer confirms, the cancellation page shows the fee and the amount that will be refunded.

A softer option is Credit instead of a refund (Starter plan and up, switch Issue credit for timely cancellations): a customer who cancels in time gets a personal discount code worth what they paid. Card payers choose between the code and a refund; for bookings paid another way the code is issued automatically. The money stays with you and the customer has a reason to return. Details in the help article Cancellation policy and fees.

Ask for a deposit where an empty slot hurts most: long treatments, expensive services and appointments with a queue. On a 15-minute €15 service it is more likely to put people off than protect you.

Deposits come with the Business plan and are set per service under Deposit / No-show protection: a percentage of the price or a fixed amount. Example: a €120 colour with a 30 % deposit means €36 at booking and €84 on the day.

Customers pay the deposit by card through Stripe, or by bank transfer with a QR code if you turn on Take the deposit by bank transfer in Settings → Payment methods. Resovu takes nothing from transfers. Card payments carry the Resovu fee for your plan (0.2 % on Business) plus Stripe's actual fee.

• Customer cancels in time: a card deposit is refunded automatically, minus any cancellation fee.
• Customer does not come: click Forfeit deposit in the booking detail and you keep it.
• Transfer deposit did not arrive: Resovu does not cancel the booking itself; you get a notice and decide.

Not on Business? On lower plans you can still ask for the full price in advance: by card online (switch off Cash if you want every booking paid ahead), or by bank transfer with Require payment up front, which holds the place only until a deadline you set. An unpaid booking is then released on its own.

Someone who cannot come and has no easy way to change the time often just does not turn up. If they can move it with one link, you keep the booking and the freed time goes back on sale.

In Settings → Booking → Cancellation policy keep Customers can change the time themselves on (it is on by default). Customers then click Choose another time in the confirmation email, the reminder or the customer portal.

• They can move the booking until the cancellation deadline, so the same deadline covers cancelling and rescheduling.
• Only times at the same price are offered and appointments stay with the same staff member; nothing is refunded or charged.
• You get an email about each move if Cancellation notification is on in Settings → Notifications.

The waitlist emails people as soon as a place frees up, so nobody has to ring round. Turn it on from the Professional plan in Settings → Booking → Waitlist.

For classes, customers sign up for a full session. When a place frees up, the first in line gets it held for 25 % of the time left before the start, at most 12 hours – a class in 8 hours gives them 2 hours. Less than 3 hours before the start everyone is emailed at once.

For appointments, customers sign up for a service, days and time of day when no free time suits them. When a matching time frees up, everyone waiting is emailed and whoever books first gets it. You see who is waiting under Bookings → Waitlist. More in the help article How the waitlist works.