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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]You have a 48 hour cancellation fee for big jobs and 24 hr cancellation fee for shorter jobs. Write up a simple contract and have them sign.  If they refuse, cross them off your list.

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As an MB, I have to recommend against this.  Most babysitters do not have a cancellation policy and I think it will turn off parents to have to sign a contract with you when no one else asks for this, unless you are an amazing babysitter who can demand things others cannot.  And practically speaking, how are you going to enforce your policy?  I personally would feel uncomfortable going after parents (no matter how in the right I was) to compensate me for a last-minute cancellation.  People are either considerate or they are not, the ones who are considerate don't need a policy to do the right thing and the ones who are not, a policy won't help.  I have kept babysitter appointments rather than cancel when it turned out we didn't need the help anyway and used the time to run errands, but it's possible that down the road, something comes up and we need to cancel the day before.  I would make it up to the sitter anyhow, but I would hope that a sitter would not insist on any compensation and give us a break the one time out of goodwill if she had a regular, longstanding relationship with us.  I do little things for our sitters like round up or tack on an extra $10 and prefer a good relationship where neither person is nickel and diming the other and we are considerate to each other.[/quote]

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