A provider on Twitter was bemoaning the fact that her short window cancellation policy (48 hours) was screwing up her low volume touring schedule. Other providers noted that when they increased their cancellation fees and  lengthened the cancellation window, clients reported fewer cases of Covid and deaths in the family dropped dramatically! Could there be something to this?

COVID? Death? Lilah sees a correlation between booking a provider and major maladies.Now here’s where other providers seem to have discovered a cure:Not only a cure, but direct correlation:

It’s clear in this community that deposits aren’t for everyone, but maybe this new info about illness and mortality will change some minds…

Or not!

I bet if providers were forced to pay the cancelation fee when THEY cancel, they will suddenly feel better too. A lot better.

 
What do you say? What would the providers choose? Lose a little money for a lot of health or keep the money and feel unwell for a sesh?

 
You know two can play this game.

see the customer even if they're sick and then the customer will be sick, too.  You have failed to consider this third option in your binary approach to this question.  People who are legitimately sick should cancel their session, whether it's the provider or the customer.  This is another reason why deposits are never one-size-fits-all like the providers want.  

Um, hello? That was my whole point.  

 
The op provided a facetious discussion on how providers using higher deposits/cancellation fees have seen the covid (being sick) excuses diminish.  

 
I've taken this facetious discussion at face value, on purpose.  
And said, let's test it out on providers side too. Because the results are bound to stay the same when applied to providers many of which who can and do cancel at a whim.  

 
When there's money involved in play, people - like you have said - will also forego cautions when they are really sick, along with the fake excuses crowd.

END OF MESSAGE

I do not do deposits or cancelation fees and I think it has helped my business more than hurt it. If you have the slightest sniffle I want you to cancel. I do not want to get sick. There are also the fantasy bookers that have canceled on me several times and have offered to send me $50 or $100 which I decline. I give guys several chances and then I politely tell them to move on. I would rather have on my schedule someone who is going to show up and pay my whole fee than someone who is sitting on a slot on my schedule and thinks they can send me a few bucks and all will be well.

You're both wrong, on all accounts. What a accountability does is make both parties think more carefully about planning and risky activities that could affect the date. For example, I'm not going agree to party or stay out late the night before a date. I always fly in the night before a date for anything involving travel, since flight delays/cancellations are rampant. And I'm also more inclined to take care on trains/buses/planes, and I'm generally more selective on my risk vs reward for large events. Since my return in 2019, I've had to cancel only twice within my 48 hour cancellation window-once for a home flood, and once for covid. That's it.

On the client end, I find they're less likely to try to plan a date with me the same day they're flying into town, or on a day they know will be extra tied up with business meetings they can't control the timing of. When there's no skin the the game, it's easy to overlook the general cause/effect of how the rest of your life may impact your ability to simply show fully up. And clients act like a passenger in their own life and don't hold any sort of accountability for themselves avoid me entirely, which is precisely what I want.

Cancellation policies and/or deposits do not encourage people to show up sick. You usually don't know you're sick until you have symptoms, and it's pretty obvious when you show up with symptoms. (Few of us are regularly testing for Covid/other illness.) Totally disregarding the other person's health is a quick way to get blacklisted (for clients) reported on back channels, and lose the relationship. In my case, almost all of my business is long term regulars, so neither one of us wants to fuck that up.

It's a contraction. You meant to write "whose." That's the possessive form of who.

First of all, not matter what is going on......All providers should be charging a cancellation fee (Because their time is just as valuable as anyone else's.  

The stakes of a cancelation are different for provider and client. For a client, a cancelation may be disappointing or frustrating or inconvenient, but for providers it is our income. If requiring deposits reduces cancelations, it would imply that clients are booking appointments with the understanding that they can cancel if they change their mind because they have not invested in the date. Providers are investing in the date from the second we see the date request, so all cancelations have a sunk cost for us. A deposit mitigates this.

If a customer cancels an appointment because he has the flu you will keep his deposit because he cancelled?  Does that mean you would rather him keep the appointment and give you the flu, too?  

Yeah, I don’t doubt that a good proportion of sickness excuses are not real. But of course, people DO actually get sick. You cannot assume that ALL of them are fake. When I make an appointment I almost never have to cancel. However, last year I had an appointment with a lady, and a few days before I felt something coming on. Of course in the beginning you’re not really sure if it’s actually something or not, but a day before our meeting it was clear I had a sore throat.  Covid test was negative, but I had something, and I didn’t even want to pass on a cold. So I cancelled, telling her my symptoms—it was probably about 20 hours or so before. I thought she would appreciate not getting her sick and potentially keeping her out of commission for another 10 days (assuming she wouldn’t work sick either) but she blew up at me, became very irate and went on about how she had already rented a car and was on her way (a 4 hour drive away) and her room reservation was non refundable, and I was the only who had setup an appointment (one hour for 350). I assume she thought I was making it up, but when I asked if she still wanted to see me even if I’m sick she didn’t answer. I didn’t pay a deposit, and I still really wanted to see her in the future. I’m not sure she was telling me tho whole truth either but I finally sent her a $200 visa gift card, and she calmed down. I turned out to just have a cold, but the whole episode made me wonder how much ladies really care about getting sick, or if they would actually cancel if they get sick too.

Unfortunately it sounds like she really needed the cash. Rented a car to drive 4 hours plus a hotel room for only 350?  
Even a cheap car rental would be like 75 for a day, a cheap hotel room would be like 125, plus fuel, food, etc. she would have made like 100 for the day profit, so yeah, blowing up and you and you feeling obligated to send her 200 made her more money than seeing you.  
I do not think she wanted for you to get her sick, but again it sounds like she was desperate. For reference for one hour for an outcall I would request my base rate + $1 a mile travel time round trip, + the hotel.