Set Up Card Guarantee Rules

Card guarantees let you hold a guest's card on file without taking payment at booking. If a guest cancels late or does not show up, your team can choose whether to charge the saved card.

Card Guarantees vs Deposits

• Deposits — Paid upfront at booking and shown on the reservation for your team to deduct from the bill.
• Card guarantees — No charge at booking. A card is saved securely and fees are only charged if staff choose to apply them later.

Creating Rules

1. 1

   Click Add guarantee rule

   Open the card guarantee rule form.

2. 2

   Choose when it applies

   Set weekly recurring days, a date range or a specific date, plus optional time window and party size threshold.

3. 3

   Set your fees

   Add a late-cancellation fee, a no-show fee, or both. Set each to 0 to disable that fee type.

4. 4

   Choose fee type

   Per guest multiplies by party size; per booking uses a flat amount.

5. 5

   Save

   Activate the rule with the switch if you want it live immediately.

Rule Conditions

Card guarantee rules can match bookings by:

• Schedule — Weekly recurring, date range or specific date
• Time window — e.g. Friday and Saturday evenings
• Party size — e.g. groups of 3 or more

When multiple rules could apply, the most specific rule wins: Specific Date, then Date Range, then Weekly Recurring.

Late Cancellation Cutoff

The late-cancellation fee only applies when staff cancel a booking after your Guest Edit/Cancellation Cutoff. This cutoff is set in Settings → Reservation Policies and is snapshotted onto each booking when it is made.

How It Works for Guests

When a booking matches an active card guarantee rule, the guest completes a secure Stripe card-save step before the reservation is confirmed. No payment is taken at this stage.

• Online widget bookings — The guest saves their card in the booking flow.
• Staff-created bookings — Generate a Save-card link from the reservation (copy, open, email or QR) so the guest can save their card separately.

Charging Fees

Fees are never charged automatically. Your team decides whether to charge when updating the reservation:

• Cancel reservation — If a saved card is on file and the cancellation is after the cutoff, you can charge the late-cancellation fee or release the card without charging.
• Mark as no-show — If a no-show fee is configured, you can charge it or choose not to charge.

If a charge fails, open the reservation details to retry the charge or mark the fee as not charged. The guest is emailed when a fee is successfully charged.