No-show cost calculator

How this calculator works

The arithmetic is deliberately simple, so you can check it. Appointments per week is multiplied by 52 and divided by 12 to give appointments per month. That figure is multiplied by your no-show rate to give missed appointments, then by your average appointment value to give the monthly loss. The yearly figure is the monthly one multiplied by twelve.

It deliberately excludes three things that would flatter the number: slots you refill from a waiting list, walk-ins that absorb the gap, and deposits or cancellation fees you already recover. It also ignores the staff time spent chasing, which is real but not a number we can estimate for you. Treat the output as the gross cost of the gap, not your net loss.

What is the average no-show rate for a salon or clinic?

Honestly: we could not find a primary source we would be willing to cite for a salon-specific no-show rate. The figures circulating online — usually 10% to 20% — trace back to vendor blog posts that cite each other rather than to any published study. We would rather tell you that than repeat a number with a confident tone.

What that means practically is that the default 10% in the calculator above is a starting point, not a benchmark. Your own booking system knows your real rate, and it is the only figure worth planning against.

Do reminders actually reduce no-shows?

Yes, and this one does have real evidence behind it. A Cochrane systematic review of seven randomised trials covering 5,841 participants found that mobile text-message reminders improved attendance at healthcare appointments compared with no reminder, with a risk ratio of 1.14 and moderate-quality evidence. The same review found text reminders performed about as well as phone-call reminders, at lower cost per attendance.

Note what that figure is not. A risk ratio of 1.14 is an improvement in attendance, not a 30% to 50% cut in no-shows, and it cannot be converted into one without knowing your starting attendance rate. Those larger percentages appear widely in this industry's marketing without a study attached. The defensible claim is that reminders help, measurably, and that the size of the effect depends on where you are starting from.

Why do so many enquiries arrive when nobody can answer?

Missed appointments and missed messages are the same problem seen from two ends. Booksy reports that more than 40% of salon bookings are made outside business hours, which is also when a reschedule request is most likely to go unanswered and become a no-show.