The Era of ‘No-Show’ Fees Is Here—and It’s Going to Cost You
We all have that friend who texts to say he or she is running late—after you were already supposed to meet. Now businesses have a way of putting those flakes in their place: They’re charging for not showing up.
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Getting a haircut used to be a low-tech operation at Harbor Barber, where stylists prefer scissors to clippers and appointments were scheduled by pencil and paper. But owner Greg Krupa had to go digital to stop no-show customers from trimming his profits.
These days, missing an appointment can cost customers up to $100—double the price of a normal haircut. Krupa doesn’t care if the new policy at his Huntington Beach, Calif., barbershop earns some negative reviews or costs him a few customers.
“We’re not like Supercuts, where I have to worry about your corporate feelings,” he said.
Once the domain of doctors’ offices and the occasional restaurant or hotel, fees for flaking on appointments are spreading to salons, personal trainers and beyond. More beauty professionals charge cancellation fees, reaching 16% on Square’s payment platform last year, up from 5% in 2021. Restaurants on reservation platform Resy that charged at least one cancellation fee more than quadrupled from 2019 to 2024.
Technology that streamlines booking and payments has made it easier to track late arrivals and no-shows. Many of the platforms are normalizing fees that help small businesses turn the tables on flakes.
Square, which advertises these features, allows businesses to charge up to $500 for cancellations. StyleSeat, a booking platform for cosmetologists, lets stylists and makeup artists choose flexible, moderate or strict cancellation policies, which can charge customers up to 100% of the service price for cancellations with less than 24 hours’ notice. Wyzant, a platform for tutors, asks users to set their cancellation policy as part of creating an account.
Barbershops, long dependent on walk-in customers and word-of-mouth referrals, have generally been slow to embrace technology. Songe LaRon set out to change that when he founded Squire, a digital booking platform for barbers, in 2015. He found simple tweaks like automating appointment reminders and collecting payment information up front could make shops more efficient by dramatically reducing no-shows.
Since January 2020, the share of barbershops on Squire that collect payment information in advance has increased 43%. As a result, shops see 45% fewer cancellations and 82% fewer no-shows, according to company data.
“Consumers nowadays are quite used to paying for services ahead of time,” said LaRon. “It’s the Uber-fication of the world.”
Before using Square at Harbor Barber, Krupa said his primary deterrent for no-shows was complaining loudly in front of other customers in the hope they would take the hint. With the new system, customers have become more cautious, since they know their attendance is easier to track, he said. He gives everyone one free pass, but after missing two appointments without notice, customers have to pay a fee to rebook. Customers with three no-shows risk being banned outright.
When disputes do arise over the fees, they can play out on social media. Earlier this month, Krupa said a woman with two million TikTok followers threatened to post a negative review about Harbor Barber after her son was turned away for showing up late. As far as Krupa is concerned, two can play that game.
“In fact, I’m probably going to do an upgrade to my website and add a little extra tab for my blackball list,” he said.
Some customers say the practice unfairly punishes them when life gets in the way of plans. Adding to the pain: They have little recourse when providers cancel on them.
Reagan Morey, a mother of three in Olympia, Wash., had already driven 20 minutes toward her dentist’s office when she got a call telling her that her cleaning was canceled—for the second time in a row.
“I spent time and energy and gas money trying to go to an appointment,” she said. “You guys charge a cancellation fee, but I don’t get to charge you one.”
Since the dentist is the only one in her area covered by her insurance, she had no choice but to reschedule. She understands that businesses need cancellation policies to protect their bottom line, but says more business owners should give their customers the same grace they expect for themselves.
You break it, you buy it
Cancellation fees took off starting in late 2020, when businesses hit hard by Covid-19 lockdowns began to reopen.
Businesses tend to tighten up cancellation policies during economic downturns, said Karen Xie, an associate professor of business-data analytics at University of Connecticut’s business school. That’s why many companies raised fees and shortened rescheduling windows during the pandemic.
Fines don’t always reduce undesired behavior. One famous case study by economists Uri Gneezy and Aldo Rustichini found that when a daycare center imposed a fee to stop parents from picking up their children late, late pickups significantly increased. Setting a price for tardiness seemed to make the practice more acceptable, and turn the staff’s time into a commodity, the 2000 report published in the Journal of Legal Studies said.
Gail Gallaher, a science and test-prep tutor in Pasadena, Calif., usually expects at least one or two of her 20 weekly sessions to be canceled. Most of her students try their best to make each session, but a few have a habit of canceling regularly. Her policy of charging last-minute cancellations or no-shows 50% or 100% of her normal rate helps keep prices lower for clients who keep their appointments, she said.
“If you want that flexibility without me being mad at you, pay me extra for that and we’ll be fine,” she said.
Rigid policies
Customers resent paying for services they don’t receive.
Michelle Van Der Water, a furniture designer in San Francisco, didn’t realize her hair salon had two locations and showed up at the wrong one for an appointment the day before her wedding last July. She called her stylist to let her know why she was running late, but as she got in her car to drive to the right location she received a notification that she had been charged a $75 no-show fee.
Her pleas to convert the fee into a credit for a future visit were unsuccessful. She filed a dispute with her credit-card company and got her money back within a few days.
“At the same time that you’re protecting your business, you do have to also make sure that your customers are happy,” Van Der Water said. “I would have been a great client if she had just been a little bit more flexible.”
She booked an appointment elsewhere at 8 p.m. and vowed to never put her payment information in an app again—until a few weeks later, when a restaurant required a credit-card number to secure a table.
Deciding when to impose fees can be tricky for businesses. Justin Schulman, who organizes and cleans homes in the New York City area, waives his $150 late-cancellation fee if clients need to change their schedule due to an emergency. He learned quickly that he and his clients have different definitions of the word.
Enforcing the policy with clients who canceled because they worked late or missed a flight has led to a few tense conversations, but most people end up paying the fee. They can’t schedule another cleaning until they do.
“Eventually,” he said, “they want their house clean.”
Write to Imani Moise at imani.moise@wsj.com
