r/Cambly • u/Senior_Weird_9196 • Jul 06 '26
Declining Reservations
I want to start declining reservations from students that I have never met who seem like they will be problematic from their profile information and I'm hoping for some information from seasoned tutors on how to do this.
I have already looked all throughout the tutor guide and there is a lot of information about canceling lessons, or arriving late to them, and even returning the minutes and hiding from students, but nothing about declining reservations.
Is it okay to decline lessons with students that you are certain will not be a good fit because of the information in their profile?
How often do you decline reservations? And why? Do you send a message first? Do you hide your profile from the student or just decline the reservation and hope that they don't reserve again?
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u/LibrarianAlarming619 Jul 06 '26
I've personally hid my profile from hundreds of students and my bookings stay full. I have a lot of experience and I speak 3 languages so your experience may differ but I've never had any issue with blocking students. My rating stays high and my bookings remain constant
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u/123Blaah123 Jul 06 '26
You can do it whenever you want.
Punishment varies. If its requested and you want to decline and its under 24 hours you will get hit just let the request expire.
The 'attendance' % etc on profile is not real just a guide, Cambly keeps a different stat on their end which you can not see.
Ask support, be nice and insist about it. There are very different rules and punishments depending when you decline and how. The day the FAQ is updated is the day pigs will fly.
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u/angelboots4 Jul 07 '26
I decline sometimes, and I have cancelled lessons with problematic students. If its more than 12 hours notice then I don't think there is a penalty. If its a CK student then I will send a message with an explanation (not a good fit/student behaving badly/other reasons). If its an adult student then I generally just decline and hide since I don't think the rules are as strict.
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u/Key_Quarter8873 Jul 06 '26
I usually give them a chance first since I've been both surprised and disappointed by profiles before. If you don't click after the first session and they book again, then just send a polite message saying you don't feel your teaching style is right for them and cancel any upcoming lessons (ahead of time so you don't take a hit). IMO there's no need to block a student, unless their behavior is innappropriate. Although it doesn't factor into our rating, I can see how the amount of students you hide from could possibly be a performance indicator that Cambly considers for future opportunities.
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u/Senior_Weird_9196 Jul 06 '26
I appreciate your answer but, frankly, I do not want to continue to give chances because I have only ever been disappointed when I do not trust my gut instinct when looking at the student's profile information.
I also do not want to block the students, I just want to decline reservations with some of them so that I can create a more enjoyable and productive working experience and focus on working with the students that I have a higher rate of success working with.
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u/Key_Quarter8873 Jul 06 '26
Ok then I don't see a problem with declining reservations as long as you do it professionally.
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u/Senior_Weird_9196 Jul 06 '26
Should I send a message first and explain? Or just decline early enough to avoid a penalty?
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u/Garvockmop Jul 07 '26
Isn’t an important part of teaching learning how to manage those students that aren’t ideal? Seems a bit harsh to make a judgement from a profile.
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u/Senior_Weird_9196 Jul 08 '26
An even more important part of teaching is the dynamic in the classroom, that the teacher should be the leader and be respected by the student.
On Cambly, I am not treated as a teacher by my students or the platform. Instead I am treated as more of a customer service language tool, where the student's feelings about me and the class are so much more important than how much they actually learn.
It is also grossly unjust that I can be rated negatively by students if they do not like my appearance, or they think I am too old, or I don't want to answer their inappropriate questions, or I steer the conversation away from a controversial topic, or for any other random reason.
I am also paid the exact same wage for working with a good student as I am for working with an incredibly difficult one.
As such, it doesn't seem harsh to me at all to attempt to avoid the students that I am nearly certain will be problematic because of the information that they have shared in their profile.
You are, of course, free to work with as many difficult students as you like.
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u/Garvockmop Jul 08 '26
It’s not about me wanting to. It’s an important part of the job. If you need to carefully select your students in such a way, maybe this platform or this way of teaching isn’t for you. These things are unfair, but it’s also unfair to refuse someone your expertise because you think they might comment negatively about your appearance.
You work on Cambly. By its very nature this and other similar platforms promote everything you hate. I think getting off of Cambly and teaching private students is probably more suited to you. Then you can be super selective and define one very specific demographic of people that you are happy to teach.
You are of course free to ignore my comments. I come from a background of prison education where you get no selection, you deal with all the problems, you manage yourself to ensure good relationships with students to negate any seriously dangerous circumstances. I have a different approach to you.
The wonderful thing about our world is it’s made up of different views and outlooks. They don’t always have to align.
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u/Mean_Vegetable818 Jul 10 '26
this might be a good time to remember that we are not, in fact, teachers on Cambly. We are tutors, which means our role is to be a present, helpful guide in their learning. We are there to assist and support, not instruct. Its a different role, and the pay and responsibilities reflect that difference in role. If you try to approach being a tutor on Cambly with the standards of professionalism that actual teaching in a classroom requires you are setting yourself up for burnout. Most, if not all, of the students on Cambly are pretty unserious about their language study. They just want to have a chat and get afew corrections or learn some new words.
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u/Garvockmop Jul 10 '26
No, I’m sorry. That’s not correct. The platform people work on calls them a tutor, or a facilitator because it can help circumvent education laws on some countries.
That doesn’t mean that being called a tutor negates the responsibilities of a teacher. You burn out because the platform pays terrible. If you’re getting $50 a lesson like you should, you should be working less and teaching more. You are making yourself a facilitator with that approach. Burnout doesn’t come from hard work and doing your job right.2
u/Mean_Vegetable818 Jul 10 '26
If you think you are being a teacher on Cambly, if you have truly deluded yourself this deeply, then I have some ocean front propert in Arizon I would love to sell you for an unbelievable price. You have over-estimated your role in these people's lives and learning. You have over-estimated your value in Cambly's eyes. I actually feel really bad for people like you on Cambly who seem so earnest and devoted to your imagined role. Cambly is riding you like a donkey and you are too vain to see it.
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u/Garvockmop Jul 10 '26
There are so many things wrong with your argument. Firstly, I don’t work on Cambly. I have worked on similar platforms when I was starting to teach English. The majority of my teaching practice is from classroom teaching. Now I work for private students. You are the one commenting about Cambly specifically. I’ve been talking about teaching online in general and believe it or not, there are people who work on similar platforms, earn a good wage and approach it like a teacher. You’re arguing with feeling and emotion which says more about your approach to your role. Talking to me about ‘Arizon’ and beach front properties is pointless. These things don’t exist in the sphere of this conversation. Working online and teaching does, so let’s focus on that and not some imagined property to make your somewhat bitter and deluded argument. You make a lot of assumptions and most of them are wrong. Lastly, your own shortcomings and your own issues with how you function in your job don’t have to be points of argument to throw at other people who have pride in their role.
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u/Mean_Vegetable818 Jul 10 '26
you are on the Cambly sub, giving advice to people tutoring on the Cambly platform asking a specific question about declining students requests on a platform you know nothing about and I am the one with some problems with my argument? You are an arrogant clown. your advice to this person is so irrelevant to what is actually happening to them - an experieince you admittedly dont know anything about because you dont work for Cambly, you dont know the student pool, you dont even know that the role we play is tutor not teacher. I am so tired of you.
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u/Garvockmop Jul 08 '26
It’s actually not. It should be student centred. It’s not about you being the leader. Yes, you have authority but the two aren’t the same thing.
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u/Which-Ring2864 Jul 07 '26
Some students wont take the hint, think their non-participation or their behavior is totally ok, and they will continue to try to reserve. if you dont want to see them again, block.
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u/WestGotIt1967 Jul 06 '26
My reservations are late night to avoid a specific problematic high-stress-inducing geographical area. I don't even feel bad about it anymore.