Learning Hub · Policies
Day Sitting Cancellation Policy
What does this policy do?
A day sit is care in the client's own home that starts and ends on the same day. This policy sets how much a client is charged when a confirmed day sit is cancelled, by how many days before the day the cancellation is made. Until you save a rule here, your day sits follow the shared Boarding & Daycare Cancellation Policy (its card is called Pet Sitting Cancellation Policy for a business with pet sitting and no boarding licence), and the editor shows those shared rules under a note saying so. Your first save writes a separate day sitting policy. From then on day sits follow this one, and a change to the shared policy no longer reaches them. Saving here never changes the shared policy, writes no revision to your client agreement and sends no notice to clients. The card is listed under Day Sitting on your Policies page, a category that appears once you have a day sitting service — but the card itself is only listed while you also have a live home visit service, so with no visit service the category is empty and is not shown.
How the charge tiers work
Each rule says: if the client cancels within so many days of the day, they pay a percentage of the day sitting fee. The days are counted from today to the day being cancelled. When a confirmed booking is cancelled whole, its first day is the one counted and the rule found applies to the booking's whole day sitting fee. When more than one rule covers a cancellation, the tightest window wins, so a same-day rule beats a seven-day rule. A cancellation earlier than every rule is free. The percentage is taken from the day sitting fee only; transport and add-ons on that day are cancelled at no charge, and the fee carries VAT as the booking does.
Same-day cancellation
A rule set to 0 days is applied when the cancellation is made on the day itself. The editor leaves a 0-day rule out of its preview and the card's rule count, and Save needs at least one rule with days above 0, so add a same-day rule beside a longer one.
A new rule starts at 2 days and 50%
Add Rule gives you a rule of 2 days and 50% to edit. The boxes are marked 0 to 365 days and 0 to 100 per cent, but neither the editor nor the save checks the numbers, so check them yourself. Save stays off until at least one rule has days above 0 and a percentage above 0.
Beyond all rules
A cancellation earlier than your longest window is free, and the preview shows where that begins.
One day at a time
A client cancels a single day of a day sitting booking with Cancel Date in My Bookings, or the whole booking with Cancel Booking. A day already past, or a booking checked in or completed, cannot be cancelled there. A cancelled day leaves the booking with its fee recorded, the other days stay as they were, and the booking is only cancelled when its last day goes.
A pending request is free
While a request is still pending, a day you have not confirmed is cancelled for nothing, whoever cancels it. Cancelling a whole pending request charges only the days you had already confirmed, each by its own notice.
Sickness
When the reason given is pet sickness and your shared sickness policy is active, its tiers are used instead of these — even when this policy is switched off — and its exclusion periods and vet certificate rule go in the email. There is no separate sickness editor for day sits.
Exempt clients
The shared policy's exempt list covers day sits only while they still follow the shared policy. This editor has no exempt list, so once you save your own day sitting rules an exempt client is charged like anyone else on a day sit.
What the client sees
When a charge applies, the client is told before confirming how many days away the day is, the percentage and the amount, with a note that transport and add-ons are excluded. Afterwards they get the Booking Cancelled email with the charge or "No charge" and the reason (the sickness email instead when the sickness policy applied), unless you have switched that email off in Email Notifications or cancelled with the email switch off. For a paid day, what they paid less the fee goes to their account as credit; no money is refunded automatically.
What you can do
From Bookings you cancel the whole booking: the dialog quotes the policy, lists every rule as a button to apply, offers Cancel without charge, and a switch decides whether the client is emailed; for a booking with more than one day, Cancel All applies the policy by notice. From a client's bookings on the Clients page you cancel one day as the client would, with the quote and the same email switch. You can undo any cancelled day there or from the Daybook's Cancellations list; the client can undo their own for a day after today. Undoing puts the day back and takes back the credit it gave.
Your team
A day cancelled on the day itself is recorded as a same-day cancellation; an earlier one is recorded against the business, pays the team member nothing for that day, and the fee stays with the business. The same-day cancellation pay switch on a team member's page only reads a walker set on the date or the booking's assigned walker; a sitter set through Assign sitter is not read by it, so a same-day fee on such a day pays the sitter their usual rate or percentage on the fee. From the Daybook's Cancellations list you can edit the fee and the team member's share for any cancelled day, and the business keeps the difference.
Who can offer day sitting
Day sitting is part of Pet Sitting. A day sitting service can be created on the Pet Sitter plan, on Starter or Walker with the Pet Sitting add-on (or with pet sitting switched on for the business), and on Pro. A Starter or Walker that also holds the Boarding add-on does not get it from the Pet Sitting add-on, and the Boarder plan is refused one.
Where the client meets these rules
Your client agreement shows the shared cancellation text, not these rules, and the booking form shows no cancellation terms. The client meets these rules when they cancel. Gaia reads this policy only once it is saved: until then she tells a client that no day sitting cancellation policy is set, even though the shared one applies; once saved she can tell them these rules when they ask about cancelling a day sit.
Tips
Open the card before you change anything: the ladder shown is what day sits follow today. Save it as it is if day sits should keep the same terms, and remember the two are separate from that moment.
Keep the ladder short — one or two notice windows, and a same-day rule if you want one. The preview sorts the windows and shows where free cancellation begins, though it does not show a same-day rule.
Use the switch beside Save to turn the policy off without deleting its rules; the card then reads "Inactive — no day sitting cancellation charges apply", and day sits are charged nothing under it — they do not go back to the shared policy, though a sickness-reason cancellation still follows your sickness policy.
If a day sitting client should never be charged, this editor cannot exempt them; the shared policy's exempt list only reaches day sits while they still follow the shared policy.
No money is refunded automatically. A cancelled paid day becomes account credit less the fee; a refund is a separate step you take yourself.
Home visits and day sits are different services with different policies: a visit follows the Visits Cancellation Policy, a day sit follows this one, and your boarding and daycare bookings go on reading the shared policy as before.
Learning Hub • Day Sitting Cancellation Policy