We seem to be plagued with last minute cancellations. Very frustrating as I am sure you know. Our current legal agreement is very soft in terms of penalty. I feel strongly that we should now have a progressing scale of penalty closing in on the date of the event. At The Graduate Center, meeting space is at a premium.
Deposits are non-refundable.
Of course there are exceptions, as in the case in an emergency, wherein the University would have to cancel or with a good client, then we would roll over the deposit to their next event. We charge a small cancellation fee to events that are cancelled within 30 days of the scheduled date of the activity. Sometime back an event was scheduled to celebrate the birthday of a local person who was formerly a well known speaker of the U.S House of representatives. The day prior he fell gravely ill and the event was cancelled. I waived the cancellation fee.