How to Take Booking Deposits at Your Salon
Collect deposits at the time of booking, protect your revenue, and handle forfeitures without awkward conversations.
Taking booking deposits is the single most effective way to reduce no-shows and protect your revenue on high-value appointments. The process is straightforward: you configure the deposit amount per service, connect your payment processor, and the system collects the deposit automatically when a client books. The steps below walk through the setup from start to finish.
Decide which services require a deposit and how much
Not every service needs a deposit. Focus on services where a no-show has a significant financial impact: long-duration appointments, high-cost treatments, or services where the stylist needs to prepare materials in advance (such as mixing colour or ordering extensions). For those services, choose a deposit amount — a fixed dollar amount or a percentage of the service value.
A deposit of 25% to 50% of the service value creates a meaningful deterrent without making clients feel they are being mistrusted.
Connect your Stripe payment account
Deposits are collected and held via Stripe. If you have not already connected a Stripe account to your OpenChair venue, do this before enabling deposits. The setup process links your Stripe account and configures your payout schedule. Once connected, all deposits are collected, held, and reconciled automatically.
Enable deposit requirements in your service settings
For each service that requires a deposit, enable the deposit requirement in your service settings and set the amount. Once enabled, clients will be asked to complete payment before their booking is confirmed. Bookings that are not completed within your timeout window are automatically released back to availability.
Write and display your forfeit policy clearly
Your cancellation and forfeit policy must be visible to clients before they confirm their booking. State the minimum notice period and what happens to the deposit if the client cancels inside that window or does not show. Keep the language simple: 'Deposits are non-refundable for cancellations within 24 hours or no-shows.' Display this on your booking confirmation page and in your booking reminder messages.
Your policy needs to be visible before the client confirms, not in a terms-and-conditions document they will never read. Put it in plain language on the booking page.
Communicate the policy to existing clients before you launch
If you are introducing deposits for the first time, give your existing client base notice before going live — a brief SMS or email explaining that deposits are now required for certain services and why. Clients who are told in advance react very differently from clients who encounter the requirement as a surprise at booking. Framing it as protecting your stylists' time is usually well received.
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