supastar

geminitanning

You can require a booking fee to hold the appt. I've heard some charge $10, some charge half the cost of the spray. This is non-refundable- if they show up, that money goes towards their spray, if they don't, they're out $X.

Esglow

This is what I do -took about 2 years to finally do this, but my only regret is that I would have done it sooner- My spray tan is $35 and I require a $15 dollar retainer fee in order to book the appt. - here is the wording my workers use when taking a retainer fee ...
How to explain the $15 dollar Retainer Fee-Quickly!
Be sure to explain this before charging their card!
We require a $15 dollar retainer fee in order to book an appt. This can be done w/ a credit card or you can walk in and pay it. But, we will not be able to put you on the books until it is paid. When you come in for your appt. you will pay the remaining balance. We require a 2 hr cancellation. If the appropriate cancellation is not given – we retain the $15. If you DO cancel properly, we leave it on your acct. for a later date to be used!
(Either way they do not get the $15 back.)
Hope this helps! I know it seems scary to take charge like this, but time is $ and I have children now and it is not fair to them or me to come and wait for an appt. that never shows when I could be with them- can you imagine if we did that to a client?!!!

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Erica/Love My Tan

delany

It is part of the industry. I tried the cc deposit concept and my appts went WAY down. I even tried scheduling software that would take the cc info for me...customers refused to book appts through it. It sucks, I hate it, but have learned to deal with it. I have a sunless studio as well.

My show rate went up immensely once I started using online scheduling though. They have control of their appt times and they get 2 emails about their appt.

toasted1

no deposits at our salon...

@delany what type of scheduling software do you use?

Thanks

delany

schedulicity! I LOVE it! The company rocks!

toasted1

Thanks!

besthands

Ya, no shows suck! But in the grand scale of things with the pay you recieve for the tiny amount of time you spend doing the work its a no brainer to just suck it up and push on. The no shows are usually the same people over and over again so if you really want to make a point, just raise the cost of the tan for them only. It works!

delany

Oh if they no show, and have no fantastic excuse, i ban them. Let them waste someone elses time.

geminitanning

I usually give 1-2 chances. After that, I tell them because of missing appointments, they have to pre-pay for half the service, non-refundable. I think I've only had to do it once or twice.