Deposits that stop no-shows without scaring clients

A no-show costs you the slot, the prep and the client you turned away for it. A deposit costs the client nothing they were not already going to spend — it moves part of the bill to the moment they book. The job is to set it high enough to filter the people who book three salons and turn up at one, and low enough that a careful client never hesitates.

How a deposit works in BeautyZilla

Every service carries its own deposit policy, and there are exactly three kinds: none, a fixed amount, or a percentage of the price from 1 % to 100 %. A percentage rounds down to the penny, never up, so a client is never over-charged by a rounding pence. A fixed amount is capped at the service price: a £30 deposit on a £25 blow-dry collects £25, not £30.

When a client books a service that carries a deposit, the appointment is held as pending until the deposit is paid, then confirmed. The confirmation shows both figures — the deposit paid and the balance due at the salon — so the client knows the deposit comes off the bill rather than sitting on top of it.

Before the client pays, your cancellation and no-show terms are shown in full. That ordering is deliberate: the terms appear before the card form, never after it, so nobody can say they paid without knowing the rules.

Pair it with a cancellation policy

A deposit on its own only answers one question: what happens if they never turn up. Your cancellation policy answers the rest, and in BeautyZilla it is one form with five fields, set once for the salon or overridden per location:

• The free-cancellation window — how long before the appointment a client can cancel at no cost.
• A late-cancellation fee, charged inside that window.
• A no-show fee.
• The share of a paid deposit that is forfeit on a no-show, from 0 % to 100 %.
• The policy text your clients read before they pay.

When a client cancels from their booking link, they see the exact figure before they confirm — "Cancelling now forfeits your £24.30 deposit" — worked out against your policy at that moment. Cancelling one minute before the cutoff is free; cancelling on the cutoff is not. The quote carries its own expiry, so a figure shown at 13:59 for a 14:00 cutoff is refreshed rather than honoured a minute late.

What to say to clients

The deposit is not the awkward part. The awkward part is a client who did not expect it. Three lines cover almost every conversation:

• "The deposit comes straight off your bill on the day."
• "Cancel more than 48 hours ahead and it's refunded in full."
• "It's how we keep the slot free for you rather than double-booking it."

Put the same three lines in your policy text, in the same words. A client who reads them on the booking page and hears them at the desk is a client who does not argue at the desk.

How much to ask for

There is no single right number, so here is a starting table built on one assumption: the longer the appointment and the more product it uses, the more a no-show costs you, and the higher the deposit should be. Prices are from the hair starter pack a new salon gets at signup; the deposit column shows what the percentage rule actually collects, rounded down.

If you are nervous, start at 20 % on your three longest services only and leave everything under £25 alone. A £9 deposit on a £45 cut is enough to make a casual booker think twice and nowhere near enough to lose a real one.

Switch it on

Settings › Billing — move to Core›Catalogue › choose a service › Deposit›Calendar › Cancellation policy

Set the deposit per service, then the cancellation policy once. From the next booking on, the client sees the terms, pays the deposit, and the slot is held. You will know within a fortnight whether the number is right: if bookings hold and nobody complains, leave it; if a service stops getting booked, halve its deposit before you remove it.