What's your trainer's lesson cancellation/rescheduling policy?

[SUNKIST090888]

My trainer’s currently in the process of rewriting her cancellation/rescheduling policy for the lesson program and is looking for examples of how other trainers handle this. I do a lot of her paperwork and told her I’d do some research on other trainer’s policies for her. Currently, she runs a training/lesson barn, so she has a lot of clients without their own horses and about 10 with their own. Her business is definitely more of a lower level lesson program (dressage, eventing, carriage driving, and low level hunters) and not the “I’m trailering in to my trainer’s barn or my trainer is coming to me” situation. She’s running into chronic reschedulers, who don’t seem to mind paying the fee, but it’s affecting other students in group lessons. She offers private ($45/45 minutes) and semi private (2-3 students, $35/an hour) lessons, and right now there are many students who are only interested in group lessons if at all possible, so if they are in a group of two and their lesson partner cancels, they are now receiving and paying a private lesson unless someone else can fill the empty spot.

Her current policy includes the following:

1. Students who cancel without notification/fail to show up are charged full price regardless of whether or not they choose to reschedule it.
2. Students who cancel for any reason (including emergency, sickness, weather (she offers indoor/horsemanship lessons if the weather is too bad to ride in)) with less than 24 hours are charged the regular lesson price. If the student is enrolled in a regular permanent lesson spot, they can choose to reschedule instead of cancelling but they must reschedule within the month it was cancelled (or within one week of the cancellation). If they are not enrolled (schedule “as available/as able”) they have to schedule a makeup within one week of the missed lesson.
3. Anyone enrolled in a regular lesson time slot must reschedule any missed lessons or they forfeit their permanent spot.
4. A $5 inconvenience fee will be charged to anyone who cancels or changes a lesson with less than a week’s notice.

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Some ideas she’s been considering have been upping the “last minute change” fee to $10 (she’s also considering $15) in order to make things fair to the students who were scheduled to a group but are now in a private (without losing any income herself), setting limits on the number of reschedules per month/quarter a student can have, and charging half-full price of a cancelled private lesson unless she can get someone else to fill the spot at the last minute.

My questions to you are:

1. How much does your trainer charge for lessons? Does your trainer offer group/private/semi-private, etc?
2. What kind of lessons (discipline, level, etc) does your trainer teach? Is this out of a lesson program, or do you/your trainer travel to the other?
3. How does your trainer handle cancellations/rescheduling?
4. What’s your (general or more specific) location?

Thanks in advance!
-Amanda

[MissAriel]

1. My trainer charges $65/lesson and they are private.
2. She provides primarily dressage lessons, but has a few clients with young horses just getting a sound foundation. She has a mix of training clients and lesson clients and is located at a mixed use facility with multiple trainers with their own clients as well as owners/boarders not in training.
3. She doesn’t charge for lessons she doesn’t give, but works hard to reschedule. It probably helps that her clients are either adults or older teens who are committed to showing up for lessons and working together to reschedule if needed.
4. I am located in San Diego, CA

[furlong47]

Lessons where I ride are $40/hour in a group or $40/30 minutes private. So even if the rest of the group cannot come for some reason, the single person left still pays the same amount.

If you cancel with less than 24 hours notice, you must reschedule within the week or pay the full fee. This doesn’t apply when the reason is illness. We have an indoor so normal types of weather aren’t a factor. I feel this policy is fair.

IMO I’d be turned off by having to pay for cancellations due to situations I can’t control (being sick enough to stay home from work, when weather (snow) is so bad it could be dangerous to drive, etc.)

I also appreciate being able to miss a week here and there without penalty as long as I give adequate notice (usually at least 2 weeks in advance). When going on vacation it can be hard to reschedule, as the week before and after are often hectic with preparing and catching up.

And I have on occasion had to cancel for a few weeks due to financial burdens (when my cat had a large medical bill, for example.) Being forced to reschedule or pay would be absolutely no help in that case.

I understand the trainer’s need to make money, but a cancellation policy that is too restrictive may work against them. I would not be a long term student in any barn that wasn’t willing to work with me somewhat when I need to miss a lesson or 2 with adequate notice.

[CHT]

1. How much does your trainer charge for lessons? Does your trainer offer group/private/semi-private, etc? I charge the same rate regardless of size of lesson. ($40 for lesson horse, board includes weekly lessons, with additional for $20 each). I usually teach dressage as private and jumping as 2-3, but there may be 4 riders at times…or just one. I charge the one rate so I can decide how big I want the class or if I want a student to have a private or group.

2. What kind of lessons (discipline, level, etc) does your trainer teach? Is this out of a lesson program, or do you/your trainer travel to the other? I teach entry level dressage/hunter and Jumper. Boarders, lesson horse students and some haul ins.

3. How does your trainer handle cancellations/rescheduling? Generously. If someone is too much of a PITA then they are dropped from my schedule, but otherwise I trust them to be responsible and adult about the schedule. As boarders and lease riders pay for weekly lessons regardless of if they use them, this has not been an issue overall. I think my mostly adult clientele appreciate this, as some just can’t count on being able to make their lessons, and some have to give very last minute notice to cancel.

4. What’s your (general or more specific) location? Near Edmonton, Alberta.

[SnicklefritzG]

Too many rules is going to be a turnoff.
Too few rules and the inconsiderate/not fully committed people can take advantage.

Finding a happy medium is important both to protect your trainer’s pocketbook and program quality. Here is what I would recommend:

1. No shows are charged the full lesson price. Rescheduling is at the trainer’s discretion, subject to lesson slot availability.
   Note: This is an absolute must and most reasonable people are going to understand it. The student who doesn’t show up still has to pay for the lesson and they may or may not get their preferred slot next time depending on availability.

2. Lessons cancelled with less than 24 hours notice do not incur a cancellation fee provided that the lessons are rescheduled within one week. Lessons not rescheduled within that time will incur a $10 fee.
   Note: This lets people know that the trainer is willing to work with them if there is an emergency, illness or some other thing that comes up at the last minute. Phrasing things in positive terms is more appealing too. I’m sure that people who have an issue and will be out for more than a week will be ok with talking to the trainer about flexibility. Just don’t advertise it.

3. Lesson slot priority is given to students who are in a regular weekly program, whether for group or private lessons. Students must be able to make 75% (or some other number) of their scheduled lessons per quarter in order to keep their preferred lesson time.

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That’s it. No more, no less.
If someone is a chronic rescheduler who is throwing other people off track in their programs, then the trainer should have a private discussion with that person. If it were me, I would meet with that person privately (or with the parents if it’s a junior) and talk about how I enjoy teaching them (or their child), but the chronic rescheduling is impacting the rest of the program. Then say that if they aren’t able to maintain a regular schedule, that the best options for teaching them would be one of the following: (a) lessons at the beginning or end of the day or (b) being added to a larger group lesson.

[kdow]

[QUOTE=furlong47;7779821]

IMO I’d be turned off by having to pay for cancellations due to situations I can’t control (being sick enough to stay home from work, when weather (snow) is so bad it could be dangerous to drive, etc.)[/QUOTE]

Same here, particularly with the weather. Basically all of the barns around here are located such that there are likely to be days during the winter where I just don’t feel safe driving to the barn - I might even get part way before finding that the area the barn is in hasn’t been on top of plowing and salting, or the roads are very foggy plus slippery, etc. So even if there was something on offer if I couldn’t ride it wouldn’t do me any good because I wouldn’t be able to get there. If the trainer wasn’t going to be able to work with me some way on that issue, I’d probably just stop riding entirely for the winter and look to see if anywhere else was more road condition friendly.

I would be fine with a policy whereby the trainer could basically declare a “snow day” in the sense that if people are able to get there safely, fine, but if not then no cancellation penalty because of the trainer’s assessment of road conditions. Not everyone has a vehicle that can handle anything bad weather can throw at it, and horses are expensive enough without feeling like I need to buy a new vehicle just to get to lessons. But with a trainer that had a policy like that, if occasionally I disagreed about road conditions (maybe due to something near me rather than near the stable) and cancelled late myself, I’d feel better about paying a fee then. I don’t want to ride with someone who expects me to do something unsafe to get to the barn for my lesson No Matter What, yknow?

[copper1]

Sell lessons in a block that need to be paid ahead of time. Buy 4 , 5th one is free type pricing. Lessons block must be used in a certain length of time; Reschedules must be made up in a certain time frame that you have set. That way you are paid, no matter whether student shows up or not and if it is a semi private or small group, the rider(s) that did turn up score a private or smaller group:win-win. No refunds!
When I was teaching with school horses I did charge 1/2 price for no shows since an effort was made to get a horse ready or someone else didn’t get to ride because the horse was booked. If I was notified in a timely manner then no charge. Now that we only do riders on their own horses and I am not using my own time or my workers time to get horses ready I do nothing about no shows and I have very few, if any of those.
I at one time had one rider who was habitually very late for lessons, as much as 1/2 hour or more and he got whatever lesson time was left in that hour and still paid full price. Another one turned up late, not at all or on the wrong day/time-those riders I encouraged to take up some other sport, or at least another barn!

[Linny]

As an adult student, I make every effort to be there for every lesson. I very rarely cancel and my trainers over the years have known that. As such, I appreciate a.) not having to pay an upcharge when my lesson-mates aren’t there and I end up with a private lesson and b.) a bit of flexibility when I do have to cancel or reschedule.

I know how difficult it is to schedule schoolies. Facing a no show after spending an hour working around issues like a 6’ tall beginner and a fearful re-rider and a couple of half leasers etc really stinks, apart from the lost income.

I sometimes think that barns institute new cancellation policies which impact everyone when what they really need to do is deal with the few that are causing issues. If a certain rider is always making changes, address that individual.

Here in upstate NY, there are always “snow days” and I like the idea of not punishing students who are otherwise dependable when the weather is dangerous. If the local school districts are closed then call it a barn snow day. (Adults who ride while kids are in school won’t be able to ride those days because kids will be home, not their fault…)

If you sell lessons in a package, the client has pre-paid and IMO, it is not fair to dis-allow make up lessons if they cancel. If I pay for a block of 6 lessons and have to cancel the 6th for some reason, I want to be able to reschedule. Obviously, the new day/time will have to meet both our schedules and the availability of a suitable mount, but since I paid for that lesson six weeks ago, I’d like to get it.

[SUNKIST090888]

Thank you all for the replies. I will certainly pass them along!

I should probably clarify about the lesson cancellation/rescheduling due to weather: if the weather makes it difficult to get to the barn (ie: ice, snow, hurricane - we’re located in central NC, so we don’t get a lot of extreme weather, nor is it ever really considered too hot to ride at the times that she offers lessons), then she will cancel/reschedule lessons as wanted (if the student wants to cancel, no charge, or if they want to reschedule, it’s whenever the student wants to (not time limit). If the trainer cancels for any reason, the student is not charged. It’s the situations where a student chooses not to ride in the rain (and chooses to reschedule instead of doing an indoor lesson (she has a LOT of younger students who would greatly benefit from these lessons, and most of them choose that option in the case of bad weather), etc and reschedules at the last minute that she charges for. She also has a lot of parents who prefer the “it’s too hot/too cold for my child to ride” route and want to “just skip it” instead of rescheduling.

She does have several chronic reschedulers, and it does become a problem after awhile. She also has several students who will call the day (or 2-3 days) before their lessons stating that they forgot their kids were going to be doing X_ activity and “lets just skip that lesson” instead of wanting to reschedule it, and with the way she runs her lesson program and the availability of certain “prime” lesson times, it affects her plan for the day (the horse that was supposed to have a lesson is now possibly going to have too many days off) and the person who originally wanted that spot when it was full has now made plans and STILL cannot take that lesson even though it has now become available - thus, she loses income.

[SnicklefritzG]

“She does have several chronic reschedulers, and it does become a problem after awhile.”

If that is what motivated the original post, then the trainer needs to speak privately with these people. When you run your own business, you have to be a bit self-centered sometimes.

Without knowing what those people are like, I would recommend trying to cast this in positive terms initially so as not to put them on the defensive. Perhaps suggest to the trainer that they say something like “Since your lessons are often rescheduled, let’s talk about a way to create a program that works.” The trainer should have in their mind what they think will work for them so it is ready to use as an example. I could imagine something like this:

“I enjoy working with your child and [insert some positive comment about their riding], but if their lessons are being rescheduled on a regular basis we will need to think about creating a new program for them that will work. When a student is on a regular schedule, then it allows specific horses to be reserved for that lesson. I would like to be able to use certain horses for your child. When lessons are rescheduled at the last minute, I can’t always find someone else to use that horse for that slot. That can make it difficult to keep the horse on a schedule that keeps it fit and ready for the next lesson.”

Then discuss with them the options. Could be things like:

1. putting the chronic rescheduler at the end of the day.
2. putting them in a group lesson where the others aren’t impacted in a negative way if that one person doesn’t show up.

[high_hat]

I teach both private and semi-private lessons. Everyone pays for lessons at the beginning of the month.

1. A no show is just that and doesn’t get rescheduled or refunded.

2. I ask for 24 hours notice of a cancellation. If it is an emergency I take that into account.

3. If the horse is in training I really don’t do ‘make-ups’ I ride the horse if the owner can’t come to a lesson for some reason and has given me proper notice.

4. If the lesson missed is a semi-private and I can’t find someone to fill the spot the other rider gets a 45 min. lesson instead of an hour long one.

5. I keep a list of people ‘owed’ make-ups. I start at the top and work my way down when someone has cancelled to find someone for that slot.

6. Make-ups don’t expire. Most of the time there is no way I can add a lesson in unless someone else cancels. Other times the person who has missed the lessons can’t ever do a make-up.

7. Once reschedule there are no options to further re-schedule.

8. If you have missed lessons in one month you still have to pay the full fee for the next. The missed lessons just roll over.

I’m with the other poster that says too many rules don’t make for good clients. I have spoken with people who ‘abused’ the system and have even been known to suggest this isn’t the right program for them.

My clients don’t want to miss their lessons and do everything they can to come. I do not want to punish them for those times they can’t come to the barn.

I feel it is much better to deal one on one with people than trying to construct a document that covers every eventuality.

[ElisLove]

In all honesty, for the last 13 years or so (with 3 different instructors) I have not had a coach that seemed to have any kind of cancellation policy. (I can’t remember before then as I was too young)

To answer the questions

1. How much does your trainer charge for lessons? Does your trainer offer group/private/semi-private, etc?
   My lessons have ranged from 45-60. I have had a trainer that does group/private/semi-private, a trainer that did group and private but all lessons were the same price (but the group lessons were longer), and one trainer where I only do privates (I am her only student at the barn I am at as I am too poor to be part of her regular barn. I believe all her lessons are the same price regardless). Always billed at the end of the month.
2. What kind of lessons (discipline, level, etc) does your trainer teach? Is this out of a lesson program, or do you/your trainer travel to the other?
   Hunter/jumper, Gold level (A-rated). 2 trainers I stabled at their barns, current one comes to me. I have never been in a lesson ‘program’ but at one barn I did 3 lessons a week in general, another barn I did 2-3 lessons a week, and currently I am lucky to get 1 lesson a week (due to my poorness and my trainer is busy doing more showing and training of her full training students which is totally understandable and fine with me)
3. How does your trainer handle cancellations/rescheduling?
   See above
4. What’s your (general or more specific) location?
   Western Canada

[SUNKIST090888]

Thanks for all the advice! I agree that too many rules/constrictions isn’t a good idea either. I’m collecting all the info you’ve given me and will be passing it along after she has some time to recover from today. I’m not 100% sure, but I think she has spoken to the chronic reschedulers about it and a few of them are better about it, but it’s becoming more and more common among a lot more of her students who don’t seem to mind paying the fee to reschedule. The most common reasons are “I forgot I had this” or “my child misbehaved at school I will be cancelling this lesson” or “I forgot to tell my husband/wife/babysitter that Sally had a lesson today…we can’t make it up we’re too busy so we’ll just skip it see you next week” - she is definitely willing to work with anyone who has to cancel/reschedule due to true emergency or illness. Last week she had about 11 reschedules, 2 of them being back-to-back private lessons on a Saturday (busiest lesson day) with the same student (she can only ride on Saturdays, and had a makeup from last week, and only rides in private lessons). My trainer ended up not being able to fill the two private lesson spots, and ended up having a break from the end of her 4:00 lesson until 6:15 because the last lesson scheduled couldn’t come any earlier.

I will definitely suggest that you are recommending fewer rules and handling the problem students individually. I’m also wondering if the location could have anything to do with the varying opinions? There are three lesson barns in our area (they all focus specifically on low level hunters) and their cancellation policies are available to view online. All three of them have extremely strict policies (ie: you are only allowed two reschedules every 6 months or they are forfeited, if you have to miss more than 2 lessons in a row and don’t pay for them you lose your lesson spot, etc). I believe they do have a high turnover rate though, and they have a waiting list because they only offer lessons at very specific and limited times. My trainer does NOT want a high turnover rate (she has only lost clients who have moved or decided they couldn’t/didn’t want to ride anymore).

Thanks again!

[trubandloki]

Those rules sound horribly complicated to me.

I have never had a trainer charge me extra if the people I ride with do not show up and I end up with a private. It is not my job to keep the people who ride in my lesson timely so why should I be penalized for them not showing. What normally happens is a shorter lesson, which is addressed (if the rider questions why the shorter time) by explaining that since they rode alone they accomplished quite a bit more over a shorter time.
I am just floored that your trainer charges the people that show up extra in that situation.

The policy I am familiar with for cancellations is simply if you do not give 24 hours notice you are charged for the lesson.
If you need to or want to reschedule you can if/when there is an available spot. How much effort one does to squeeze someone who is rescheduling is depends on the person. The person who cancels twice during prime riding times does not get as much flexibility as the person who is always there on time but had a school concert in the way of their regular riding time.

[Mango20]

I think it’s unfair to charge the person who signed up for a semi-private a private rate when the other rider doesn’t show up.

[SuckerForHorses]

1. How much does your trainer charge for lessons? Does your trainer offer group/private/semi-private, etc?

$35.00 for private 30 minute lesson
$65.00 for private 60 minute lesson
She offers semi-private and group lessons, but I’m not sure about cost because I never do those.

2. What kind of lessons (discipline, level, etc) does your trainer teach? Is this out of a lesson program, or do you/your trainer travel to the other?

Dressage. I trailer my horse to her barn when I want a lesson.

3. How does your trainer handle cancellations/rescheduling?

Anything cancelled within 24 hours of the scheduled lesson time you are expected to pay her the full price. (i.e. if my lesson is at 9:00 AM on Saturday, if I cancel it anytime after 9:00 AM on Friday, I still owe her full price for that lesson). If I cancel before that 24 hour mark, no money is owed to her, and we reschedule based on the next time that it will work for both of us.

4. What’s your (general or more specific) location?

Vermont

[SuckerForHorses]

[QUOTE=Mango20;7780920]
I think it’s unfair to charge the person who signed up for a semi-private a private rate when the other rider doesn’t show up.[/QUOTE]

I agree with this. It’s not the other rider’s fault if the other party doesn’t show.

[french_fry]

My trainer’s policy is very simple and (I think) very fair.

My trainer does not typically charge for canceled lessons. However, she basically has a three strike rule. If a client begins to show a pattern of last minute cancellations and has 3+ same day cancellations in a short period of time (I forget exactly what it is - I have never had an issue with missing multiple lessons) she warns them that going forward she will begin charging them in full for lessons canceled within the 24 hour window.

With this policy she manages to protect herself but does not unnecessarily penalize the clients who make every effort to be there consistently but occasionally life happens and there’s a last minute illness or issue.

That said, she has a packed teaching schedule (she teaches in-house on both private horses and the lesson horses) and she doesn’t really need the flakier clients so I don’t think she feels a compulsion to bend over backwards to try to reschedule last minute cancellations with repeat offenders.

[SnicklefritzG]

[QUOTE=french fry;7781208]
My trainer’s policy is very simple and (I think) very fair.

My trainer does not typically charge for canceled lessons. However, she basically has a three strike rule. If a client begins to show a pattern of last minute cancellations and has 3+ same day cancellations in a short period of time (I forget exactly what it is - I have never had an issue with missing multiple lessons) she warns them that going forward she will begin charging them in full for lessons canceled within the 24 hour window.

With this policy she manages to protect herself but does not unnecessarily penalize the clients who make every effort to be there consistently but occasionally life happens and there’s a last minute illness or issue.

That said, she has a packed teaching schedule (she teaches in-house on both private horses and the lesson horses) and she doesn’t really need the flakier clients so I don’t think she feels a compulsion to bend over backwards to try to reschedule last minute cancellations with repeat offenders.[/QUOTE]

I think that is a very simple and sound policy. Maybe the OP’s friend should do this.

[trubandloki]

I second the likes of the policy that French Fry posted.