Cancellations, Deposits and Weather: Writing a Policy That Survives a Storm

A client books a 20x40 for a Saturday in June. On Thursday the forecast turns and they cancel. They want their deposit back. You have turned away two other bookings for that date, the tent is loaded, and the crew is scheduled.

Who is right depends entirely on what you wrote down in March.

Weather cancellation is the most emotionally charged conversation in this business, because the client feels they are being charged for something outside their control — and in a sense they are. A clear policy, explained at booking, is what keeps that conversation from becoming a dispute.

What the deposit is actually for

Clients frequently understand a deposit as a partial prepayment they get back if plans change. From your side it is compensation for holding a date and turning away other work.

Say which you mean, in plain language, at booking. A deposit described as non-refundable, compensating us for reserving equipment and crew and declining other bookings for this date is understood very differently from one described only as "a deposit."

Most disputes are not about the money. They are about a client believing something different from what you believed, and neither of you having said it out loud.

Build a tiered structure

A single all-or-nothing rule is hard to defend and hard to enforce. Tiering by notice period reflects your actual cost and reads as fair.

The logic is straightforward: the more notice you get, the more likely you are to rebook the date, so the less you have lost. Far out, a deposit may be transferable or largely refundable. Close in, you have lost the date entirely and committed crew and equipment.

Set the tiers around your real rebooking window. If most of your bookings come in three to four weeks ahead, then a cancellation five weeks out costs you very little and one at four days costs you the whole job. Price the tiers accordingly and explain that reasoning — clients accept a policy far more readily when the logic is visible.

Consider tightening the tiers for peak dates. A Saturday in June is not the same asset as a Wednesday in March.

The weather clause specifically

Weather cancellation needs its own treatment because it invites an argument about whose fault it is.

Draw a distinction between two situations that feel similar to a client and are completely different to you.

The client cancels because of forecast. They have decided not to proceed. Your ordinary cancellation terms apply — you held the date and turned away work regardless of why they changed their mind.

You determine it is unsafe to install or to continue. This is a safety decision under your wind action plan, not a client cancellation. Say explicitly what happens: whether the fee stands, is partially retained, or converts to a credit.

Being generous here is usually the right commercial call. A client who loses their event to genuine severe weather and is treated well tells people; one who feels charged for a storm tells more people.

Offer a reschedule before a refund

The most useful clause in most policies is the one that avoids the refund conversation entirely.

Offering to transfer the booking to another date — within a defined window, subject to availability — keeps the revenue, keeps the client, and turns a loss into a scheduling problem. Most clients prefer it, because they still want their event.

Define the boundaries: how long they have to use it, whether it holds through peak dates, and whether any price difference applies.

Your own cancellation

Rarely written, occasionally needed. Equipment gets damaged on the previous job; a truck breaks down; a crew member is injured.

State what happens if you cannot perform: refund in full, attempt to substitute equipment, or assist in sourcing an alternative supplier. Having this written makes a bad situation orderly and demonstrates that the policy runs both ways — which incidentally makes the client-side terms easier to defend.

Explain it at booking, not in the paperwork

A policy buried in terms the client never read is functionally no policy at all when the argument starts.

Spend one minute at booking saying it aloud: here is the deposit, here is what happens if you cancel, here is what happens if the weather turns, here is our reschedule offer. Then send it in writing.

Clients almost never object at booking. They object when they hear it for the first time under stress.

Encourage a rain plan

The best outcome is the event that goes ahead. Encourage clients to have an indoor fallback or a contingency, and where sensible offer the equipment that removes the reason to cancel — sidewalls, heating, and flooring that keeps a wet site usable.

An operator who solves the weather problem sells more equipment than one who simply enforces a cancellation fee.

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