We charge one night room charge at the time of booking.  The deposit is refundable up to seven days prior to their arrival.  If the guests cancel with less than seven days notice, and the situation is beyond their control, I will allow them to use their deposit towards a future stay.

Hope this helps!
David Booth
-Innkeeper, Humboldt House B&B (Victoria, BC)

As our clients confirm their reservation, they pay 30% of the room rate to hold the reservation, either by credit card or transfer.  One night reservations are paid in advance.  If the reservation is cancelled more than two weeks prior to the foreseen entry date, the deposit is returned in full.  We do accept changes of date closer to the date as well.  

One night's deposit is required when a room is booked - the Guests are told that up to 2 weeks prior would be helpful, should they have to cancel. I have not kept a deposit yet......I just can't do it!  
It's called "a push-over"!

We have a cancellation policy that is well publicized on our website and on our confirmation to the guest after they have booked. This confirmation dictates the action that we would have the right to take if they cancel for whatever reason. BUT...this deters thinking twice about cancelling BUT... we have never had to charge for any cancellation, excepting one occassion when the guest asked us to charge a $25 cancellation fee once. We did not want to lessen the value of the booking by accepting a $25 fee and did not take it as they seemed genuine, other than determining the fee. They ended coming later. I like what Dave Booth wrote; that he will credit any charge to a future reservation... a soft touch I like. Fortunately we have been lucky and riding our fortune until we get stung or until we think there is abuse or disrespect involved. Bed and Breakfast goers are not your usual travelers and we treat them with soft gloves and like Marybeth have a hard time collecting. We have such a hard time collecting that since we opened we collect at the end of their stay, at check-out. That we are going to change next month and charge as they check-in only because we have had guest walk away thinking that they gave us their credit card and were automatically charged, even though we emphasized that we don't charge until check-out when they will be required to check-out with us....but that is a different topic. Each guest is different and we handle each problem on an individual basis, all in favor of the guest.

We have a cancelation ploicy, we have never charged.  We once have a lady made a reservation for 4 nights the day before arriving.  At noon on the day of arrival, she phoned to let us know her truck had broken down in the middle of nowhere, and she had two small kids with her.  Being a long weekend, she wasn't sure if she could get someone to repair the truck, so she just had to cancel the trip. This is such an unfortunate event for her, we just could not charge her anything and wish she would get home safely.  On another occasion, we had a lady cancel a couple of days before her arrival.  Although our cancelation policy is well laid out in our website.  However, at the time of booking, I forgot to verbally reiterate this, so I didn't charge her.

As we are 90% corporate we have to be very flexable with our bookings as companies change dates all the time.
Our policy is non refundable first night deposit but in moist cases
we try to accommodate the guest as it it usually the companies they are coming to do business with that let them down.
It seems to be working as we have a large returning guest list

Since we are in a more isolated area in Alaska,there is no possibility of drop-in or last minute folks.

We take full prepayment by check or money order for any reservation. No refunds unless all our rooms are re-booked.  If rooms are rebooked, fee returned minus $25 handling fee per room.

We did have one lady that was killed in an airplane accident so offered her entire family free rooms and arranged for free overnights with other B and B's in the area of the crash. Otherwise,we have had no cancellations 18 years.

We are small and have been hurt a few times by people cancelling late when we can't rebook. The following is the information provided on our website.

CANCELLATIONS:
A phone call is all that is necessary to cancel a reservation.
Cancellation requests by e-mail or voice message may not reach us in time.

Full Refund:
A full refund will be applied with 2 weeks notice.

Short Notice:
Less than 2 week notice will require full payment with a gift certificate for the full value to be used by arrangement with your hosts.

Last Minute:
1 week or less notice of your cancellation will require full payment.

Confirmation:
Your reservation is confirmed with your credit card. We prefer payment by check or cash. We will charge your card in the event of  short or last minute cancellation.

This is too lenient to prevent us from getting left in a lurch in some cases but we have issued gift certificates that have never been used also. We have not had much of a problem and are always willing to work with our guests on a case by case basis to come up with a fair solution.

We also have a separate policy for big events. We require payment in full at the time of the reservation or they may pay half down and the rest 30 days before their arrival. This is non refundable. They have to send payment with check or money order.

When we receive a request for cancellation we always offer option of the future booking. Deposit is applied towards the future booking with no additional charges. Nobody refused this offer yet.

We don't take a deposit, and we have a 7 day cancellation notice.  On the rare occasion that there is a cancellation that late, it usually comes with a tragedy of health.  So I don't push it and I let the fee go.  I do take their credit card number at time of reservation.  Lots of folks think I've already charged them, but I will comfortably explain that the credit card fees are less when I swipe.  For those who take off before I can swipe, I run the card on file (off topic, but adressing what Zeno mentioned).  When a cancellation comes from a guest error, I am better at making the cancellation fee stick by email than by phone.  I guess I wimp out.
  Now, I don't want to get into the fellow whose wife was told that their dog could not come in, she said it would stay in the car and I informed her that it could get cold and she said it would be fine.  Day of, it snowed and the husband called to cancel on account of the dog and there were heated words exchanged.  I did not charge his cancellation fee (there were insinuations of "letting folks know how unhappy he was) or credit it for later (as he wanted) because I did not want this couple as my guest ever.

The B Street House Bed and Breakfast in historic Virginia City, Nevada does not charge a deposit. We charge when a guest checks in. Our one-week cancellation policy is clearly stated on our website, but we have rarely charged guests who have cancelled within the one week time period. We do tell guests in this situation that there is no charge if we can sell their room, and happily this has been the case a few times. I appreciate the comments that other innkeepers have made that guests must be treated with kid gloves, carefully, etc. I think this is a good suggestion for those of us who tend to take our guests for granted. We have also issued gift certificates when we felt we have had to charge the guest for failing to give us any warning of the cancellation. Great question and thanks for letting us comment on this.

1. deposit equal to one night's stay taken on credit card at time of booking
2. changes to reservations - $25 fee (change date, shorten stay, change room, change credit card) almost always charged
3. cancellations prior to 7 days before check-in, refund deposit less the $25 fee
4. cancellations within the 7 day period...that's the rub.  We encourage a reschedule.  If a major health issue is involved, we return the deposit less $25.  I have my innkeepers escalate the situation to me (owner) and I usually give in.  But I think it helps guests feel like we are making an exception for them.  On very rare occasions, I will give a gift certificate for future use.
5. With business travelers that are regulars, or from a company that we regularly host, I refund the deposit and sometimes don't charge the $25 fee.  Government travelers on orders, I refund and don't charge anything.  They don't have control over their travel decisions.  They are always traveling midweek so they fill holes in my occupancy so I like to keep them coming back.
6. group reservations have more onerous cancellation dates (2 weeks to 2 months depending on the season)   Fortunately, I have never had a group cancel.

Property: 1906 Lodge at Coronado Beach (Coronado, CA)

For individual reservations:
Anytime after a reservation is made there is a $20 cancellation fee. Cancellations occurring within three days of arrival date are charged full room rate for any portion of the stay that we are unable to resell.
For group reservations:
Rooms are held until a month prior to arrival at no charge. Any unclaimed rooms at that time are released for general sale. We handle many groups for conferences, weddings, etc., and have only ever had one group cancellation, which was no charge.
The only pushback we ever get on the cancellation fee is from those who book through one specific travel partner.

At Los Patios de Montserrat if it's only one night, there's no refund. If it's more, we might give a future night for free instead, depends on the date and the way the guest asks for it. Although some guests just want the money back and even after giving them part back they still make horrible reviews. So we don't make any refunds anymore, just some free nights for the future instead.