Originally Posted by Cat Herder:
I am sorry she is giving you a hard time. It is straight from the playbook, though. Every. Single. Time. 
That is why I don't charge a deposit. No issues when they leave. 99% of the time they leave the day I give notice so I simply have them pay Monday mornings in advance for the week. If they leave Friday, I lost nothing. If they leave Wednesday, they lose two days stay.
I hope your next client is golden, you deserve it. 
Yeah, I go back and forth on deposits! This particular family contacted me in February 2018 and wanted 2 spots held for them until September, so I needed some sort of assurance. I used to not do a deposit and started doing one when a family out of nowhere just said the kid wasn't coming anymore, and it had nothing to do with me, just finances. It really screwed up my whole month, financially. It's like you can't win either way!
Thank you. I'm not taking any new clients and working towards closing in the next year or two, so I'm hoping this is the last time I have to deal with stuff like this!!