When accepting bookings for our term-time lessons and holiday courses, one question does get asked quite often: “Can I make partial bookings for less than the full course?”
The short answer is unfortunately not. We do not offer partial bookings or ad hoc lessons. We would love to be able to offer this and fully understand why this request is made. However, as a business, we have to prioritise bookings that cover the full length of the course. Say a client booked three days of a five-day course. The following day another client may request the same spot for the full five days. We would obviously be losing out on business in this scenario. Not only this, but the instructor would lose out on a fuller shift, and we would inevitably end up paying more for pool hire fees.
Exceptions To The Rule
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule, as detailed in our previous FAQ “Holiday Course Bookings For Less Than The Full Week”. Sometimes we have some remaining spaces after 12pm on the Friday before a holiday course starts. Depending on demand, we can offer bookings for less than the full course for one of these spaces (minimum booking of 3 lessons). We are usually fully booked, so it is likely we won’t have anything to offer. However, please feel free to contact us to check. If we have space, we are happy to have you join us!
For term-time enquiries, the only exception would be if you contact us after the term has started. Of course, we do not expect you to pay for the lessons that have already taken place. So we only charge for however many lessons remain in the term. Generally, we stop taking bookings for the current term after the half-term break. However, we can continue to book 1:1 lessons throughout. We may also have a 1:2 lesson that would really like a partner, or a parent and baby class that doesn’t have enough students in it. So if you are unsure, just give us a shout and we can take you through your options!
If you are swimming in a 1:1 lesson, and cannot swim for the full term, we could also offer for you to find someone to take over your slot for any lessons you are unable to attend. However, we do need the full details of that student to be on our system prior to the lessons taking place. We also are unable to offer any refunds once the first scheduled lesson of the term has taken place.
We hope this clarifies things! Should you have any further queries, do not hesitate to get in touch!