Prevent cancelling or rescheduling in the run-up to the event
complete
Bastien Vairet
Can you cancel a doctor's appointment at the last minute?
You can't do that, because it's impolite. Sometimes it's justified, sometimes not.
24h or 48h before the appointment, it's up to the host to decide whether cancelling or rescheduling is possible, not the guest.
Please, I think this feature is really basic and important for anyone who gives their time online.
Derrick Reimer
updated the status to
complete
You can now use the "Prevent last-minute changes" setting on scheduling links to set a cutoff, after which the scheduler will no longer be able to reschedule or cancel the event. Applies to events scheduled after enabling the setting. https://docs.savvycal.com/article/129-prevent-last-minute-changes-to-events
J
James Conroy-Finn
I want to push back on the prioritisation here. The cancellation-lock feature has 12 votes; recurring bookings (opened around the same time) has 18 and remains unplanned. The lower-demand feature being planned over the higher-demand one needs justifying on its own merits, and I don't think those merits hold up.
On the feature itself: preventing cancellation doesn't make anyone turn up. If someone can't make a meeting, they can't make it — removing the cancel button just means I sit there for an hour with a no-show instead of getting the time back and a clean calendar. That's worse, not better. The doctor's-appointment analogy in the original request conflates politeness with mechanism: politeness is a social problem, not one solved by removing UI affordances. And payment for cancelled time is what contracts are for, not booking software.
Meanwhile recurring bookings causes weekly friction for anyone running regular paid sessions with clients. Bumping and rescheduling is genuinely painful, and the booking experience for clients on a recurring cadence is worse than it needs to be. I've never had a client cancel three minutes before a meeting. I deal with the recurring-meeting gap constantly.
I'd genuinely like to understand the reasoning for the ordering. If there's something I'm missing — strategic, technical, customer-segment — I'd find that useful to hear. As it stands it looks like a lower-effort, lower-impact feature is being prioritised over one with clearer demand and clearer value for people who use SavvyCal to manage paid client time.
Bastien Vairet
James Conroy-Finn you haven't understood this request. What we need here is an option that you, as the organizer, can choose to enable or disable, which states:
- If the guest cancels less than x days/hours before the event starts, they can request to cancel, but the cancellation request is pending on the organizer's end
- If the organizer deems the request legitimate, they approve the cancellation
- Otherwise, they can decide that the guest will not show up but has not honored the appointment, and there should be a new status for the event, which would then be "no-show" rather than "canceled."
The need is easy to understand: when you’re selling your time online, it’s extremely frustrating to go to bed at night with three appointments scheduled for the morning and wake up with zero appointments scheduled for the morning, because your clients canceled the appointments between midnight and 2 a.m., thinking, “I’d rather sleep in.” Except that I, too, would have preferred to sleep in!
As for feature prioritization, the number of votes isn’t everything: you must take into account the development team’s perspective—they may or may not like certain proposals, and they may also decide to prioritize some over others simply for organizational reasons, development logic, or just because one feature is easier to develop than another.
I’m seeking Derrick Reimer's support and confirmation on both aspects: the definition of this feature and the issue of feature prioritization.
Bastien Vairet
James Conroy-Finn you haven't understood this request. What we need here is an option that you, as the organizer, can choose to enable or disable, which states:
- If the guest cancels less than x days/hours before the event starts, they can request to cancel, but the cancellation request is pending on the organizer's end
- If the organizer deems the request legitimate, they approve the cancellation
- Otherwise, they can decide that the guest will not show up but has not honored the appointment, and there should be a new status for the event, which would then be "no-show" rather than "canceled."
The need is easy to understand: when you’re selling your time online, it’s extremely frustrating to go to bed at night with three appointments scheduled for the morning and wake up with zero appointments scheduled for the morning, because your clients canceled the appointments between midnight and 2 a.m., thinking, “I’d rather sleep in.” Except that I, too, would have preferred to sleep in!
As for feature prioritization, the number of votes isn’t everything: you must take into account the development team’s perspective—they may or may not like certain proposals, and they may also decide to prioritize some over others simply for organizational reasons, development logic, or just because one feature is easier to develop than another.
I’m seeking Derrick Reimer's support and confirmation on both aspects: the definition of this feature and the issue of feature prioritization.
J
James Conroy-Finn
Bastien Vairet I responded to the request as written: "prevent cancelling or rescheduling in the run-up to the event," host decides whether it's "possible."
What you've described now — a pending-approval queue and a new no-show status — isn't in the original text. It's a different feature that I don't see any mention of in this page (maybe I'm missing something you can see on your end?). I'm happy to engage with it on its merits, but that doesn't seem to be the feature people are voting for here.
On the approval step specifically: I don't need it. A guest wanting to cancel can message me to ask — email handles that fine when it comes up. And, more importantly for me, it doesn't change whether they turn up.
The feature I would get behind would be gating rescheduling. I regularly have someone book, get my acceptance, then move the slot to a time that isn't convenient (even if it's not explicitly blocked out), with no validation step on my end.
Bastien Vairet
James Conroy-Finn You’re being rather rude in your refusal to understand that what you don’t need is of no concern to me. What matters to me is what I need. And it often happens that clients cancel their appointments just minutes before they’re scheduled to start, thinking it’s no big deal and not bothering to send a message.
I don’t accept this situation, and I’m requesting a feature to prevent it. We can then discuss how this feature should be designed: with or without approval, with or without a new status, etc.
But I’m not the only one facing this problem, and if the Savvycal team has considered it, it’s probably because it makes more sense than what you’re trying to say with your convoluted, stunted sentences.
Bastien Vairet
Is it finally coming Derrick Reimer? This morning I got up an hour earlier than usual for an appointment that was canceled three minutes before it was due to start.
Derrick Reimer
Bastien Vairet: Yes this is in the near-term plans. Sorry that happened! Though that person probably would have not attended regardless of whether cancellation was "allowed" or not, hopefully it would have helped discourage that!
Bastien Vairet
Derrick Reimer In fact, I am selling my time, so being able to clearly display a message stating that cancellation is not possible and that billing will still take place makes a huge difference. She would certainly not have participated, but at least she would have understood that she would never be reimbursed.
Bastien Vairet
Derrick Reimer it would also be useful to be able to display a custom message when someone tries to reschedule or cancel an appointment and it is not possible.
Derrick Reimer
Bastien Vairet: That makes sense!
Jack Hannah
if you're only offering pre-selected options (e.g. 24hr, 48hr, 72hr), I would include a 1hr option. for virtual meetings, I don't mind rescheduling last minute, but I do want some notice so I can plan my work around it
even better if I can set it myself, e.g. 1-99 in minutes, hours, days, or weeks
Bastien Vairet
Jack Hannah I agree
Joe Reifer
An extremely important feature for coaches, therapists, and other professions that have a cancellation policy that requires a certain amount of notice. Thank you!
Derrick Reimer
updated the status to
planned
Adam Collins
Derrick Reimer Thank you for marking this feature as "planned". Do you have any further info about when it will be implemented?