How to take booking deposits and cut restaurant no-shows

A party of six that doesn’t turn up on a Saturday costs you a full table of covers you could have sold. A deposit, or a card saved at booking, makes guests far more likely to cancel properly and gives you something back when they don’t.

Before you start

Connect a payment gateway first. Deposits are taken through Stripe or PayPal. See How to connect payments and set up taxes.

Step 1: Open deposit settings

Go to Settings > Payments & pricing > Payment configuration and open the Deposit configuration tab.

Step 2: Choose how guests pay

Under Payment mode, pick one:

• Charge immediately: the guest pays the deposit when they book.
• Save card, charge later: the card is saved securely, with no charge at booking.

If you save cards, choose a Charge policy:

Charge policy	What happens
Charge before reservation	The card is charged automatically a set number of days before the booking (1 to 7).
Charge on no-show / late cancel	Nothing is charged unless something goes wrong.

Then decide whether to turn on Charge on no-show and Charge on late cancellation. A late cancellation is one made after the deadline in your booking widget’s cancellation policy.

Step 3: Set the deposit amount

Under Regular deposit, leave Apply deposit to all bookings on and choose a Deposit calculation method:

• Flat fee: the same amount for every booking.
• Party size tiers: a different amount for each range of party sizes, up to four tiers. For example, one amount for 1 to 4 guests and a higher one for 5 to 8.
• Percentage of average cover: a share of the average cover value you set in General > Location details.

Step 4: Add extra deposits for busy times or special tables

Two more deposits can be added on top of the regular one:

• Special seating deposit: for special seating areas, such as a terrace or private room.
• Weekend deposit: for weekend bookings.

Turn on the ones you want and set their amounts.

Step 5: Check the preview and save

Live calculation preview shows what a party pays under your rules for a regular booking, a special seating booking and a weekend booking. Check it looks right, then select Save changes.

Managing deposits on a booking

Open any booking from Reservations to see its deposit. From there you can:

• select Charge card to charge a saved card now
• select Waive deposit to cancel the deposit for that guest, for example a regular you trust

When you mark a guest as a no-show, a saved card may be charged the no-show fee, depending on your charge policy.

Tip: Tell guests about your deposit in your booking widget’s Terms & conditions, so it doesn’t come as a surprise. See How to set up online table bookings.