I like to be flexible, because as a teacher I like to build relationships with my students and have good rapport with them, so I think about the long-term consequences.

My general policy is to be notified 24 hours in advance, but I tell my students that if they have anything come up less than 24 hours before our lesson, they can let me know and we'll figure something out. Generally speaking, I will give a student a few shots if that happens. After two or so shots, if it keeps happening, that means the student is unaware of their own schedule, and I would talk to them about it and ask them to maybe be more realistic about their availabilities.

I hold myself to the same standard and tell my students that I hope they would be understanding if anything ever comes up last minute on my end. But if it happens more than a few times, I would understand if they complain, and I would hold myself accountable regardless and try to be more realistic about my availabilities.

In practice, whenever something comes up, I notify my students right away and change my schedule accordingly.

If a student doesn't show up and doesn't notify me, I give them one chance and reschedule without charging, but after that, I expect better commitment to make up for it.

If the student doesn't show up giving a reason, then I think it's up to the teacher to charge for this lesson or reschedule it. But if the teacher decides to charge it, then the student shouldn't complain because he didn't show up and as you said, the teacher could have taken another student or taken the time to do something productive than waiting for the student. 

But if the teacher doesn't show up then it's obvious that the lesson has to be rescheduled or refunded to the student. 

In my case, as a teacher and a student on Italki, I prefer to talk and analyse each case. Sometimes I'll charge for a missed session and sometimes I'll reschedule, it all depends on the situation, I think. 

Hello Jennifer

I have a cancellation policy of 24h, but if the student need change the time after the 24h already passed and send me a msg saying "I can't do this time, can we do tomorrow or later?" How they didnt let me waiting without any information I do the lesson in the time they can do it. 

For example yesterday (day 10) I gave the lesson of tomorrow (day 12) because the student made a mistake in the calendar and he didnt want for yesterday. He send me a msg some hours before and I had that slot avaible, some days I can do it and others I can't because I have 4/5 lessons in a row. 

When I miss a lesson I always try to say to the student before I can't do it. Sometimes it pass more than 24h but sometimes I have an emergency in the job and I can't do the lesson so I send a msg saying "Tomorrow I can't do the lesson" or "Tomorrow I can't do in that time". Sometimes we do the lesson in same day but in a different hour (how usually I have a large difference of hours sometimes isnt so serious / harmful. They understand I have other job. 

When a student miss the lesson will depend a lot. Sometimes they gave me the money because they had an emergency and didn't they warned me with some with some advance and sometimes we reschedule. Depend of the situation.

When usually I ask for the money it's when the student say to me he / she can't find me and I said the student exactly same thing. I try always add the student when I got the request, so it usually give some time. I ask for the email of skype for try add him /her and he ignore me. After the student put disputed lesson saying I wans't on skype for doing the lesson. This really makes me angry. Because I try to talk to the student saying I can't find him, I wasted my time and he is rude. If I try to add and he tries to add me and we can't is because something goes on.

@Jennifer N. - I'm a student. If the teacher doesn't show up, I have the option of requesting the credits back, or requesting the class be rescheduled. If a teacher doesn't show up for a first meeting, which happens about 20% of the time, I almost always ask for the money back. The reasons they give are pretty funny; it's almost always irresponsibility on behalf of the teacher. In the rare case that there is a legitimate excuse, I reschedule.

For the request to be honored, the teacher has to accept it, or it has to expire (14 days). So please tell me, what is this grey area you're talking about? Are the rules completely different for teachers?

@Lexie - Why is it ok for the teacher to get the credits if the student doesn't show up, but not ok for the student to get the credits if the teacher doesn't show up? This is a double standard.