Take a deposit on a phone booking

When your team adds a booking by phone or email, you can ask the guest to pay a deposit, or save a card, through a secure link. The booking stays Pending until they do, then confirms itself.

Add a booking with a deposit#

1. 1

   Click Add Reservation

   Choose the date, party size and time as usual. On a phone the button reads Add.

2. 2

   Check Collect deposit

   On the Guest Details step, Collect deposit is already on, with the amount filled in, when the time matches one of your deposit rules. Otherwise, switch it on to ask for a deposit anyway.

3. 3

   Set the deposit

   Choose the Type (Fixed or Per Guest), the Amount and whether it's Refundable. A refundable deposit goes back to the guest if they cancel before your cutoff.

4. 4

   Enter the guest's details

   Add their email address if you have it: the link is then emailed to them automatically.

5. 5

   Click Create Reservation

   The booking is saved as Pending.

   You should see: Reservation created successfully, with the Payment Link and a QR code. With an email, Emailed to and the guest's address appear under the link.

Send the link#

• Email — sent automatically when the guest has an email address. Resend sends it again.
• Copy — copies the link to paste into WhatsApp, iMessage or a text
• QR code — the guest scans it with their phone, for example at the counter
• Open — opens the payment page on your device

Guests can pay by card, Apple Pay or Google Pay. Once they've paid, the booking confirms itself and the guest gets their confirmation email.

Payment deadlines#

• Bookings created by your team — held for 1, 2, 4, 12 or 24 hours (1 hour by default)
• Online reservations — held for 10 to 60 minutes (10 minutes by default), including Reserve with Google bookings

The deadline never runs past the booking's start time. A new deadline saves as soon as you choose it. The section appears once you have an active deposit or card guarantee rule.

Find the link again#

Open the reservation and click Payment link in the Deposit section. The link, QR code, Copy, Open and Email are there again, with how long the link has left. Once the guest pays, the deposit shows Collected.

Card guarantees instead#

To save the guest's card without charging it, switch on Require card guarantee and set the Late Cancellation and No-Show fees. It works the same way: share the save-card link, and the booking confirms once the card is saved.