Limo Cancellation and No-Show Policy Template: What to Charge and How to Enforce It

What should the notice tiers be?

Tiers should reflect what you actually lose. A cancellation the day before a Tuesday airport run costs little; the same notice on a wedding Saturday costs you the date. Use these as a starting structure and set your own percentages from your utilisation and your market.

• Sedan or SUV transfer — free cancellation outside a set notice window (commonly a few hours), part charge inside it, full charge on no-show.
• Hourly charter — free outside 24–48 hours, a stated percentage of the minimum inside that, full minimum inside a few hours.
• Event, wedding or party bus — deposit non-refundable after a stated date, sliding percentage by days-to-event, full charge inside the final week.
• Corporate account — a simpler tier by agreement, invoiced on the monthly statement rather than charged to a card.

When does a late arrival become a no-show?

A no-show needs a definition and a trigger, or it becomes an argument. Two numbers plus a required attempt to contact solves it.

• Free waiting window by service type — for example 15 minutes on a local pick-up, 30–60 minutes on airport arrivals from wheels-down.
• Waiting time chargeable per 15 minutes or hourly beyond the window.
• A no-show declared only after the window has elapsed and the chauffeur has attempted contact twice, logged in the app.
• Dispatch must authorise the release before the vehicle leaves, and the authorisation is recorded.

Copy-ready policy template

Adapt the bracketed values to your own rates and market, then have a local lawyer review it. Publish it on your booking page, in your confirmation email and in your account agreements.

• Cancellations must be made in writing by email or through your booking confirmation link; a phone cancellation is confirmed in writing by our office.
• Point-to-point transfers: cancel more than [4] hours before pick-up at no charge; within [4] hours, [50]% of the quoted fare; no-show, [100]%.
• Hourly charters: cancel more than [48] hours before at no charge; [24–48] hours, [50]% of the booked minimum; under [24] hours or no-show, [100]% of the booked minimum.
• Events, weddings and buses: the [25]% deposit is non-refundable once the date is confirmed; cancel within [30] days, [50]% of the contracted total; within [7] days or no-show, [100]%.
• Waiting time: [15] minutes free on local pick-ups and [45] minutes on airport arrivals from wheels-down; thereafter [rate] per [15] minutes.
• No-show: declared after the free waiting period has elapsed and two documented contact attempts. The full applicable charge and any waiting time apply.
• Changes: itinerary changes are accommodated where possible; changes that alter vehicle class, duration or date may be re-quoted.
• Weather and force majeure: where a trip is genuinely impossible or unsafe, we will reschedule at no charge or refund; unsafe conditions are assessed by our operations team.
• Corporate accounts: cancellation charges are invoiced on the monthly statement per the account agreement.
• Payment: cancellation and no-show charges are applied to the card on file or the account, and an itemised invoice is issued.

How do you enforce it without losing the customer?

Enforcement succeeds on evidence and tone. Show the accepted terms, show the timestamps, apply the charge, and offer a goodwill path for genuinely good customers — a one-off waiver you record, rather than a policy you quietly abandon.

• Capture acceptance of the terms at booking, with a timestamp, on every channel including phone bookings.
• Repeat the policy in the confirmation email and any reminder message.
• Keep driver arrival, wait and contact-attempt timestamps plus the GPS trail on the job.
• Issue an itemised invoice for the charge, not a bare card debit — unexplained debits become chargebacks.
• Log waivers as exceptions with a reason, so goodwill stays deliberate and reviewable.

How does the software support it?

In Limozoft, your cancellation terms attach to quotes and confirmations for e-acceptance, waiting-time rules sit in the rate card, driver arrival and contact attempts are timestamped in the app, and cancellation or no-show charges are raised as itemised invoices against the card on file or the corporate account — inside one-time setup from $399, then $10–$40/month by fleet size, with no per-trip, per-booking or per-driver fees.

That combination is also what wins a dispute: accepted terms, timestamps, GPS trail and an itemised invoice, exportable from the job record.