Written for owners of hair salons, barbershops, beauty, nail, lash and brow businesses, spas and massage, tanning, tattoo and piercing studios and non-surgical aesthetics clinics in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
The short version
- Size any kept deposit to the slot.It should reflect your likely loss, not punish the client. A term that works as a penalty is not binding.
- Publish your cancellation policy before anyone books.Set 24 or 48 hours. Keep deposits for no-shows and late cancellations, except refilled slots and online or phone bookings cancelled within 14 days.
- Drop any 'no refunds on courses' term.It is not binding. Never keep a whole course because one session was missed.
Deposits, no-show fees, courses and memberships are all lawful when the terms are clear, shown before the client books, and fair. A term that works as a penalty, or tries to take away a client's statutory rights, is not binding.
A kept deposit must reflect your loss
A kept deposit or late-cancellation fee must be transparent, shown before booking and fair: it should reflect your likely loss, not punish the client. A deposit sized to the slot and kept on a no-show or a cancellation inside a published notice period is market practice, subject to the 14-day right for online and phone bookings below. Keeping it when you refilled the slot is likely unfair, and keeping all of a course for one missed session is not market practice. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Rights Act 2015 s.62 and Sch 2 Part 1 para 5; CMA guidance on unfair contract terms (CMA37)
With long notice, or if you rebooked the slot, keeping the deposit is likely unfair. Your published notice period should govern.
Online and phone bookings carry a 14-day right to cancel
A booking made online or by phone is a distance contract, so the client has 14 days to cancel. If the client cancels within them, refund everything they paid, deposit included, less a proportionate charge for any service already supplied at their express request. For an appointment inside that period, get that express request to start early. If you leave out the required pre-contract information, the cancellation period can stretch by up to 12 months. As of Oct 2026.
Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 regs 29, 30, 31, 34 and 36
Courses, memberships and prices
- Courses: a 'no refunds on courses' term is not binding. For example, a client who stops a £1,200 six-session laser course after two sessions because of burns can claim a price reduction on the unused sessions, and her claim for the burns goes through your insurer.
- Memberships paid by recurring payment, such as a monthly facial or laser membership or an unlimited blow-dry plan, will come under the new subscription rules: pre-contract information, reminders before a trial ends and before renewal, easy exit and cooling-off. As of Oct 2026 they are enacted but not in force; the government announced a January 2027 start (DMCC Act 2024 Part 4 Chapter 2).
- Headline prices must include unavoidable fees. For example, an app that shows £45 for a facial and adds a £5 booking fee at checkout should show £50 (DMCC Act 2024 Part 4 Chapter 1, in force since 6 April 2025).
A consultation and consent form records that the client understood the risks. It does not waive negligence. Liability for injury caused by negligence can never be excluded, and a term that excludes a client's statutory rights is not binding (Consumer Rights Act 2015 ss.57 and 65).
Contracts you sign with suppliers and partners
- A prescriber agreement where the prescriber never meets clients, prescribes remotely or takes a fee per vial: it breaches regulator guidance and voids your cover. Insist on face-to-face consultations and a written complications role.
- A lease without assignment rights, or with a user clause narrower than hair and beauty and aesthetics: you cannot sell the business with the premises or add treatments. Check its Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 status before you sign.
- A supplier deal with minimum annual purchases or an exclusive colour brand: price the shortfall penalty and the cost of switching education and stock before you sign.
- A booking platform that owns the client data or charges commission on returning clients: you pay again for clients you already won, and lose the list if you leave.
Asked in Greymill
They gave three days' notice and you refilled the slot, so the slot was not lost. A kept deposit should reflect your likely loss, not punish the client. A term that works as a penalty is not binding.
Terms more likely to hold:
Notice: 24 or 48 hours, shown before clients book
No-show or late cancellation: keep a deposit sized to the slot, unless you refill it
Earlier cancellation: refund it
Online and phone bookings: a 14-day right to cancel with a refund, deposit included (As of Oct 2026). For an appointment inside it, get the client to expressly ask you to start early.
Courses: 'no refunds on courses' is not binding, and never keep a whole course for one missed session.
Paste in your booking terms and I will redraft them in plain English.
Ask it about your own business
Paste this into Greymill with your own figures, and Contracts & Disputes works it through for your business.
I run a salon or beauty business in the UK. Here are my current booking terms: [paste the deposit, cancellation, no-show, course and membership terms], and how clients book: [online, app, phone, in person]. My usual deposit is [amount] on services from [price]. Check each term against the fairness and cancellation rules, tell me which ones would not hold up and why, and redraft them in plain English for my booking page.
More for beauty, hair and aesthetics in the UK
- Pricing a colour or treatment so it still pays after commission and VATPrice each service from product cost and the stylist's time, then check what is left of every pound once VAT, commission and product come out.Read the lesson
- December was busy, so why is there no cash in February?Voucher, course and deposit money is service you still owe, no-shows are column hours you never get back, and a 13-week cash view shows both before they bite.Read the lesson
- Rent-a-chair and VAT: could HMRC say every stylist's takings are mine?Chair rent is VAT-able, and if the salon in reality supplies the haircut, every self-employed stylist's takings count towards your VAT turnover.Read the lesson
- Adding microblading, piercing, laser or lip filler: what do I need before the first client?Every salon has safety duties, and a treatment that breaks the skin, uses a laser or involves a prescription-only medicine adds licensing, age rules and insurance duties that differ in each of the four nations.Read the lesson
- Commission-only stylists, self-employed barbers and card tips: am I breaking the law?How you pay and organise your team decides whether they are workers owed the minimum wage and holiday pay, and in Great Britain the tips law covers every tip your workers receive, card tips included.Read the lesson
- Filling the book from Instagram, reviews and rebooking without breaking the advertising rulesRebooking, reviews and social portfolios fill a salon's diary, and each comes with its own rules on photos, influencers, reviews and prescription medicines.Read the lesson
- A client has reacted, been burned or had a filler complication: what do I do today?The first hours after a reaction, burn or injectable complication decide the client's outcome and whether your insurance responds, so act in the right order and admit nothing.Read the lesson
Open the interactive lesson · Every beauty, hair and aesthetics lesson · What Greymill knows about the trade
Sources
The primary sources behind this lesson, checked Oct 2026.
- CRA 2015 s.62 and Sch 2 Part 1 para 5; CMA37 (Deposits, no-show fees, courses and memberships)
- CCR 2013 regs 29, 30, 31 and 36 (Deposits, no-show fees, courses and memberships)
- Government press release was published on 9 August 2026 and says the rules will come into force in January 2027 (Deposits, no-show fees, courses and memberships)
- DMCC Act 2024 Part 4 Chapter 1 and Sch 20 (Deposits, no-show fees, courses and memberships)
- CRA 2015 ss.49 to 51 (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- CRA 2015 ss.54 to 56 (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- CRA 2015 ss.57 and 65 (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- Limitation Act 1980 ss.5 and 11 (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- CPR r.26.9(1)(a)(ii)(aa) to (cc) and r.26.9(4) (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- CPR Part 45 (fixed recoverable costs) (Client complaints, bad results and injuries)
- ASA rulings on filters (2021) (Client and marketing hard cases)
- Landlord and Tenant Act 1954 Part II (Contract red flags)