Spa Rescheduling and Cancellation in Chat, Within Your Policy
“I can’t make Saturday at 3pm. Can I change to Sunday?” is one of the most frequent messages a spa receives. Each one takes a few minutes of a receptionist’s time, and the ones that arrive late at night often turn into no-shows because nobody answered. This recipe lets AeroChat move or cancel bookings by itself, applying your cancellation window exactly as you wrote it. Part of the spa and wellness workflows.
What happens today
The customer messages. The receptionist finds the booking, checks the calendar for Sunday, replies with options, waits, then moves it. If the request is inside the cancellation window, the receptionist has to decide on the spot whether to keep the deposit, and different staff decide differently. Customers notice. Uneven handling of fees and refunds is a common source of consumer complaints about the beauty and wellness trade.
The flow that works
- AeroChat identifies the customer from their WhatsApp number, or asks for the phone number on the booking when they write on Instagram or web chat.
- It finds the upcoming booking and confirms which one.
- It checks how far away the appointment is against your policy and tells the customer the rule that applies, before they decide.
- It offers new times with the same therapist, or any therapist if they prefer, and moves the booking.
- Requests for an exception go to your manager with the booking details attached.
Every customer gets the same answer on fees, and the policy is applied the same way at 11pm as at noon.
The recipe
Copy this into AeroChat
When a customer asks to change or cancel an appointment, follow these steps.
- Find their upcoming bookings in our bookings Sheet using the phone number they are messaging from. If they are not on WhatsApp, ask for the phone number and name on the booking, and only continue if both match.
- Confirm which booking they mean by repeating the treatment, therapist, date and time.
- Work out how many hours are left before the appointment and apply our policy. Example policy: more than 24 hours before, changes and cancellations are free and the deposit carries over or is refunded. Less than 24 hours before, the deposit is kept. Packages: a late cancellation uses one session.
- Tell them which rule applies before they confirm the change.
- To reschedule, check our therapists’ Google Calendars and our room calendars, and offer up to three new times when the same therapist and a room are free. If they are happy with any therapist, offer any free therapist. When they choose, move the booking in the calendars, update the row in the bookings Sheet and send the new confirmation.
- To cancel, remove the booking from the calendars, mark the row as cancelled, and confirm what happens to their deposit or session under the policy. If a refund is due, tell them our team will process it within 3 working days (example) and notify the team with the booking details.
- If they ask for an exception, for example illness or an emergency, do not decide. Say the manager will reply today and hand the conversation over with the booking details and their reason.
Never waive a fee, refund money yourself or promise an exception.
Change the window, the deposit rule, the package rule and the refund timing to match your written policy.
What to connect
- Google Calendar and your bookings Sheet, through the same Google connection as the booking recipe, with permission to read, move and cancel bookings.
- Spa and salon booking software, if your spa runs on it. A solo therapist or a small studio can run on Google Calendar. Larger spas usually book through spa and salon software instead. Zenoti, Phorest and Mindbody each publish an API for appointments, so AeroChat can check availability and make, move or cancel bookings there in place of Google Calendar. Describe your system in the recipe and paste in its API key.
- Your cancellation policy, uploaded to the knowledge base exactly as customers see it on your website or booking page.
- Your team for refunds and exceptions. AeroChat notifies the team inside the inbox. Refunds stay with your team, in Airwallex or whichever payment provider took the deposit.
Using a different system? If it has a public API, it connects to AeroChat the same way: describe what you want, paste in its key, and it runs.
Can’t find your tool? Message us in the chat on this page and we’ll tell you how it connects.
What you still decide
- The cancellation window and what happens inside it.
- Whether rescheduling and cancelling follow different rules.
- How late cancellations affect packages and memberships.
- Who handles exceptions, and the reply time you promise.
- Whether customers can switch therapist when moving a booking.
The result to expect
Change requests get handled the moment they arrive, including after closing. A slot freed the day before can be rebooked, while a no-show cannot. Fees and refunds are explained the same way to every customer, which matters in a market where refunds are a leading cause of complaints.
Your receptionist sees the moved bookings in the calendars and only deals with the exceptions. Measure it: the number of change requests handled without a person each month, and how many freed slots were rebooked.
Related: no-show reduction, booking with deposit, live chat handover.
Let customers move their own bookings
Paste the recipe with your policy, connect your Google Calendar, then message your spa’s number asking to move a test booking.
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On Shopify? Install AeroChat from the Shopify App Store.