Taking deposits from guests

Deposits (restaurant)

Deposits need three pieces in place:

1. Stripe Connect ready under Settings → Payments.
2. Deposit rules on the venue or dining configuration (amount per person, online vs phone, minimum party size, weekend-only options; exact fields depend on your setup).
3. Communications templates for deposit request, confirmation, and reminder when you use them.

Guest experience

When a slot needs a deposit, guests complete Stripe before the booking is confirmed.

Card holds instead of deposits

Prefer not to take money up front? Choose Card hold as the deposit type in your booking rules and set a no-show fee per person (£). Guests still add their card to book, but nothing is charged; the card is simply stored securely. If a party does not arrive, mark the booking as a no-show and an admin can charge the fee from the booking. Card holds follow your Cancellation notice (hours) setting: cancel before the notice period and the card is released, cancel late and the fee can still be charged from the cancelled booking. Otherwise the card is released automatically 14 days after the booking. If you do not see the Card hold option, it is not switched on for your venue yet; contact support.

Staff-created bookings

Staff flows follow the same online payment rules when guests pay on the web; phone bookings may follow different rules if you configured that split.

Refunds and cancellations

Cancellation hours control whether automatic refund messaging applies. Match your template wording to what you actually do in-house.