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No-show cost calculator
An empty chair costs the same as a full one. Here is how much.
A no-show costs the full value of the slot, because the overhead is already paid. At 200 appointments a month, 15% lost and $90 per slot, that is 30 empty slots — about $2,700 a month, or $32,400 a year, in time nobody could sell twice.
How this is calculated
Appointments per month × the share that no-shows × what one slot is worth. The comparison applies the per-saved-slot price to the same number. Task definition and sources: the Cost of Work Index.
Put this calculator on your own site
Copy and paste. Works on WordPress, Shopify, Wix or plain HTML — it resizes itself to fit.
Who does this work
HelenIn training
Confirms tomorrow’s visits and refills every cancelled slot from your waiting list.
$1.50 per saved slot — Planned price — not charged yet.
Questions
Why does a no-show cost the full price of the slot?
Because the cost side of that hour has already happened. The room is rented, the chair is staffed, the equipment is on. An unsold hour cannot be moved to next week and sold twice, which is what makes empty slots more expensive than most owners expect.
What no-show rate should I use?
Your own, from your booking system. The calculator starts at 15% because that is a common order of magnitude for appointment businesses, but it is a starting point, not a statistic — change it to what your diary actually shows before quoting the result anywhere.
Do reminders actually reduce no-shows?
A reminder helps most when it arrives early enough that the slot can still be re-filled. The saving in this calculator is not the reminder itself — it is the slot that gets sold to somebody else because the cancellation came in with time to spare.