I'm glad to see this thread because this is about to happen to me. I have a Mom about to go on mat leave and she's keeping her son here until he goes to JK in Sept. Then there will be a 4 month span with an empty space while I wait for her to start her new baby here. I asked her already if she would pay the equivalent of one week pay per month to hold the space and she said she thinks that is fair. Now I am just going to have to budget for the lower income next Sept.-Jan.

I have also held spots for a couple of months when new clients signed their contract but didn't want to start until they went back to work after their mat leaves this past fall. I asked them to pay $100/month as a holding fee plus the regular deposit. I wouldn't do this for more than a couple of months though.

Personally, I would not even consider talking to people looking for care in 2013, except for the Mom who is my client already of course. I always answer queries for people looking for care in a year with the response that they should wait until 4-5 months before they need a home daycare to start looking but they should put their names into daycare centres a year ahead.