Booking deposit

A booking deposit is an amount a customer pays to hold a time, most often at shops that sell the hour itself: salons, barbers, groomers, studios. The slot cannot be given to someone else once it is promised. A deposit, or a clearly stated cancellation window, is how the shop asks the customer to mean it. This page does not quote an amount. Whatever you charge, say it before they confirm, in the same message as the time.

The policy has to be boring and visible. When is it due, what is it applied to, and what happens if they cancel or simply do not come. Surprise rules create angry reviews, which cost more than the empty chair. Offer a way to reschedule inside the window you chose. People get sick. A policy that never bends becomes a story about you, not about the missed visit.

Deposits fit appointment businesses. They are a clumsy fit for an emergency trade, where the customer is not reserving a chair and may be calling three companies in ten minutes. Do not import a salon rule onto a no-heat call. If you are a contractor who only wants a deposit on a large scheduled install, that is a payment term on a sold job, which belongs in the estimate, not in the phone greeting.

Puffly can record a deposit as requested or waived when an appointment business books a visit, and it can email the payment link the shop already uses. It is not a card processor and this page does not quote a figure. The point of the record is that the front desk, or the owner tomorrow, can see whether the hold was paid, waived, or still outstanding. A note in a personal text does not survive a day off.

Use deposits to protect the calendar you published, not to punish. If no-shows remain high after the policy is clear and the reminder goes out, the reminder is the next thing to fix. Money does not replace a text the day before that makes canceling easy.