Can I Keep the Fee When a Client Doesn't Show Up?

• What Calendly, Acuity, Paperbell, Setmore and SimplyBook.me do when a client doesn't show up
• What the research says about no-show fees, including the evidence that cuts against this article
• What Ontario's Consumer Protection Act, 2002 asks of a written agreement, and where the law is unsettled
• Which facts you need on hand when a client disputes a fee

What the software does when a client doesn't show

Quotes and details come from each company's own pages, read 2026-09-29: Calendly and Stripe, Paperbell on no-shows, Setmore deposits, Setmore cancellation policy (notice settable up to one week), SimplyBook.me deposits and SimplyBook.me cancellation policy. Acuity's pages, read 2026-10-01: Charge a card, Collect payment after booking, Saving card details (Stripe or Square only, not with PayPal) and Limiting no-show appointments, which describes no automatic no-show charge.

Calendly says the policy is text: "Calendly will display your cancellation policy, but it doesn't restrict cancellations or reschedules based on the policy" (Calendly). Paperbell puts the category's limit in one sentence: "Paperbell does not have a way to automatically recognize whether or not a client showed up for a call" (Paperbell). The documentation describes two levers across the five: take money at booking, and limit cancellations by notice period (every tool except Calendly). Of the five, SimplyBook.me's pages are the ones that say what can follow a deposit: some clients "may contact their bank directly to get refund of deposits in which case there is little that can be done but such cases should be rare" (SimplyBook.me).

This is a search of vendor documentation, not of every product feature. A charge that fires without a click could exist in a tool or a plan these pages do not describe, or in a tool outside these five.

Do no-show fees even reduce no-shows?

This research turned up one randomised trial of a no-show fine. Danish hospital outpatients were randomly given a fine of DKK250 (about EUR34) for not attending or not cancelling. Of the 3,333 appointments randomised to the fine, 130 (5%) of those not cancelled went unattended. Of the 3,413 randomised to no fine, 131 (5%) did (Blaehr, Vaeggemose and Soegaard, BMJ Open, 2018). Of the 130 valid fines issued, only 27 (21%) were paid, and 81 of the unpaid ones stayed unpaid even after two reminder letters. The authors concluded that "at a baseline level of around 5%, fining non-attendance does not seem to further reduce non-attendance."

A second source points the same direction from a different angle. In a Haifa day-care study, a fine on parents who collected children late made lateness rise significantly, and it stayed up after the fine was removed (Gneezy and Rustichini, Journal of Legal Studies, 2000). The authors' explanation is that a penalty can turn a social obligation into a price someone is willing to pay.

Neither study tests coaching. The trial is a Danish public hospital with a 5% baseline, and the day-care study is 26 years old. A 2023 review by Leibner and colleagues describes earlier studies that point the other way: a $30 fine at a mental health outpatient clinic cut no-shows "from 20.1 to 9.27%" among active patients with more than two previous no-shows, and a second study found a 14% reduction that was not statistically significant. The review calls the research on fines limited and says it "has produced mixed results" (Leibner et al., Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 2023). The same paper anticipated that an Israeli proposal letting health plans take a co-payment at booking would have "minimal impact on no-show rates." So a fine does not reliably reduce no-shows, and no source here shows that prepayment does. Prepayment avoids having to collect the fee after a missed session, though refunds and bank disputes can still arise.

What Ontario law asks of the agreement

No Ontario statute or regulation found names solo coaching, and no court decision on a coaching no-show fee turned up. What follows is general law applied to a situation the legislature has not described.

The Act in force is the Consumer Protection Act, 2002. The 2023 Act is "NOT YET IN FORCE" (Ontario e-Laws, checked 2026-09-24). A consumer under the 2002 Act is "an individual acting for personal, family or household purposes" and not someone "acting for business purposes" (CPA 2002, s.1). The test is the purpose of the purchase, so who pays does not settle it. Coaching a company buys for an executive points toward business purposes, and sessions an individual buys for personal reasons point toward the definition. No source found settles the line for coaching.

For that individual, a session paid for today and delivered next Tuesday appears to meet the definition of a "future performance agreement." The Act says every one "shall be in writing, shall be delivered to the consumer," and a consumer "may cancel a future performance agreement within one year after the date of entering into the agreement" if they never received a compliant copy (CPA 2002, ss.22 and 23). The required contents include "the rights, if any, that the supplier agrees the consumer will have... in relation to cancellations, returns, exchanges and refunds" and "any other restrictions, limitations and conditions" (O. Reg. 17/05, s.24). A cancellation term that lives only in a booking page's small print may not satisfy those written-agreement and contents rules.

Sections 22 to 26 apply only where the client's total payment obligation exceeds the prescribed amount, which is $50 (CPA 2002, s.21; O. Reg. 17/05, s.23.1). A second regime may cover the same agreement. The Act's "personal development services" include services provided for "health, fitness, diet or matters of a similar nature," and the personal development rules in sections 29 to 36 reach agreements where "payment in advance is required" and the amount passes $50 (CPA 2002, s.29; O. Reg. 17/05, s.27). They add a written-agreement rule, a bar on accepting payment without a compliant agreement, and a right to cancel "without any reason" within 10 days of the later of receiving the written agreement and the day all the services are available (CPA 2002, ss.30 and 35). Where one agreement is both a personal development services agreement and a future performance agreement, the regulation switches off sections 22 and 23, so the personal development rules govern (O. Reg. 17/05, s.16). No source found says whether health or wellness coaching falls inside the personal development definition. If it does, a policy that requires payment at booking is the kind of arrangement these rules address. Bookings made online may also fall under the regulation's separate provisions for internet and remote agreements (O. Reg. 17/05, ss.18 and 19), which this article does not analyse.

The fee's size matters too. A 2017 article in the Journal of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers (published by Thomson Reuters Canada, with the PDF hosted by Osler) says the essence of liquidated damages is "a genuine pre-estimate of damage," and that a stipulated sum is unenforceable if it is a penalty. The journal's editor's note adds that "the lack of clarity and the inconsistencies in the Canadian common law" leave the area unsettled (St. Aubin and Sebastiano, (2017) 1 J.C.C.C.L.). Its application to a coaching agreement would need separate legal analysis. As an illustration from a different regulated profession, Ontario's regulator of psychotherapists allows charging for "late cancellations, missed appointments, or deposits" and requires fees "reasonable in relation to services provided" (CRPO Practice Standard 6.1). The standard binds psychotherapists and does not set what a coach may charge.

The International Coaching Federation asks for "a signed coaching agreement" and says it protects both sides (ICF). The ICF pages read for this research set no rule on what a missed session may cost or what notice to require. The ICF's full standards and member documents were not searched, so a rule could sit there.

One more point belongs with an accountant. A forfeited amount can carry GST or HST consequences under section 182 of the Excise Tax Act (CRA P-218). CRA's own memorandum on deposits dates from 1991 and carries a warning about its age, so no tax fraction is quoted here.

Where Airtym fits

Airtym's FAQ says clients pay when they book, through Stripe, and that the host keeps the payment if a client doesn't show up (Airtym FAQ). That describes how the product handles the money. Whether the host is entitled to keep it depends on the agreement and the law above. The written term is still yours to write and to put in front of the client before they pay, in any tool.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I keep the fee if a client doesn't show up?

Possibly. The sources point to a written term the client saw before paying. Payment at booking avoids chasing the fee later, but Ontario's consumer agreement rules may apply, depending on how the agreement is classed, and the client can still dispute the charge. No Ontario source addresses coaching directly, so a lawyer's read of your own terms is worth having.

Do any scheduling tools charge a no-show fee automatically?

Not in the documentation of the five checked: Calendly, Acuity, Paperbell, Setmore and SimplyBook.me. Some take payment at booking, and every tool except Calendly can limit cancellations by notice period. Acuity lets you charge a stored card by hand, from the appointment. A feature missing from published pages could still exist elsewhere.

Does a no-show fee reduce no-shows?

Not reliably. The one randomised trial found 5% of non-cancelled appointments unattended with the fine and 5% without it, and only 21% of fines were paid (Blaehr et al., BMJ Open, 2018). A 2023 review calls the evidence mixed (Leibner et al.). The studies concern hospital attendance and late day-care pickups, and none tests coaching.

Does Ontario law require a written agreement?

Possibly. If the booking is a future performance agreement above $50, the Consumer Protection Act, 2002 requires a written agreement delivered to the consumer, who can cancel within a year without one. The agreement must state whatever cancellation rights you offer, and it need not promise any. If the coaching counts as a personal development service and payment in advance is required, above $50, the personal development rules apply to that agreement instead of the future performance cancellation rule. Purchases made for business purposes fall outside the Act's consumer definition, and whether these provisions reach a given coaching booking depends on the purchase and the agreement (CPA 2002; O. Reg. 17/05).

What should I have ready if a client disputes the fee?

The term they agreed to, when they agreed to it, when they paid, and what you told them before the session. All four belong in your signed agreement and your booking record, kept where you can find them when a client disputes the fee.

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