We always take payment on the day of the visit, or invoice it afterwards (if the teacher has forgotten the cheque!). This is much easier for sites that get lots of schools as keeping a track of refunds would be a nightmare, especially if you have low staff numbers.

Re: the non arrival of schools. We had problems with schools who asked to reserve several spaces whilst they checked bus availability etc. They then get back to us, speak to another member of our part-time staff, and confirm one place whilst forgetting to cancel the others. I got around this by telling our reception staff that we can only reserve one place for each school, unless of course, they are bring several groups over a period of time.

In terms of last minute cancellations and 'no shows' - charging for this is something that I have considered doing, but I think that for Bannockburn there are too many risks. We generate a large income from school visitors and have a very good reputation - can we afford to compromise this? Many of our schools are repeat visitors, who we don't want to alienate. Also, is there the possibility that the 'no show' has happened as a result of a clerical error by us, rather than the school ie a member of staff has not cancelled the booking in our diary? I think that all of this has to be taken into consideration when thinking about charging for cancellations.

Regards

Evelyn

Dear members,

Talking of how schools book for education sessions - so many schools asked for refunds because they didn't bring the amount of children on the booking form that we now ask schools to bring a cheque on the day of their visit paying for the exact number of children they bring with them.

Does anyone else do this? Those that charge schools for the amount of children booked with no refunds, do you get any complaints?

Anne-Marie Gill
Education Officer
Bexley Heritage Trust
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Hall Place and Gardens
Bourne Road
Bexley
Kent
DA5 1PQ
01322 526574