Set up Deposits · Full Guide

Under Settings > Bookings > “Deposits“ you have the possibility to define if and under which conditions you want to charge fees for bookings or cancellations.

If you check the “Enable deposits for bookings” box, guests will only be able to book a table if …

… they pay a deposit when making the reservation
… store their payment details in case they violate your cancellation policy.

You can set up the amount directly at “Deposit amount”.

The guests have the option to pay by credit card, cash or PayPal. For this you have to make the appropriate settings under “Settings” > “Integrations” > “Payment providers“.

(Optional) For guests who book by phone, you can still enter your bank account details under“Settings” > “Bookings” > “Deposits“ > “Your bank account for deposits”. Guests will then receive this information by email to make the deposit.

After you have set up the amount under “Settings” > “Bookings” > “Deposits“ > “Deposit amount”, you can again differentiate whether you want to charge the amount per booking or per guest. Just select “per booking” or “per guest” in the drop-down menu next to the deposit amount.

If you select “per booking”, the system will charge the specified amount per reservation, no matter how large the group is.

If you have chosen the option “per guest”, the system calculates the predefined amount per person. The larger the group, the higher the deposit amount.

Depending on the payment provider, you can determine when the deposit is debited.

• At Settings > Bookings > Deposits > Deposit options, specify whether the credit card details should only be saved or whether the deposit amount should be debited immediately.

To minimize the risk of no-shows at recurring busy times such as weekends, you can take appropriate precautions in your resmio.

This is how it works:

• Go to Settings > Bookings > Deposits
• Scroll down to the section Enable deposits only at these times.
• Click + Add booking hours and set the corresponding weekdays/times.
• Make sure that the switch is activated (green)

Any deposit times are displayed for guests in your reservation widget (see illustration).

You can also (additionally) activate the deposit only during a desired date. This is particularly useful for events such as Valentine’s Day or Christmas.

At Settings > Bookings > Deposits > Activate deposit for certain days, you can specify that you do not always request deposits but only on defined days/periods (e.g., at Christmas).

• Check the box next to Enable deposits for exact dates
• Then click on + Add booking date to specify the period for which you want to request down payments and then click on Save
• You can then click the button again to specify further periods

RECOMMENDED If you want to allow your guests to cancel without penalty up to a certain point in time, you can specify how long in advance they must cancel in order for the deposit not to be retained.

• Activate Allow cancellations without fees and then enter the desired number of days that must elapse before a cancellation can be made without penalty.
• Additionally, inform guests about your restaurant’s cancellation policy with a widget text and include a link to your cancellation terms and conditions.

If you don’t want to charge deposits for all guests but only for groups above a certain size, you can set this up as well.

• Under “Settings” > “Bookings” > “Deposits“ you simply tick the checkbox next to “Enable deposits above a certain group size” and add the desired minimum number of people for groups you want to charge deposits for.
• Then deposits are automatically charged only for bookings of groups which have at least the specified number of people or more.

You have the possibility to define an individual text that will appear in your widget. The text entered is clearly visible to guests in the widget.

• Under “Settings” > “Bookings” > “Deposits“ > “Individual deposit text for the widget” you can write a text yourself, in which you inform your guests about the deposit regulation. This text will be displayed directly in the widget during the online reservation.
• RECOMMENDED Under “Settings” > “Bookings” > “Deposits“ > “Link to cancellation policy“, you can add a link from your website that explains how far in advance guests must cancel in order to avoid having to pay a deposit. This link will also appear in the confirmation email for the guest.

If you click on “Bookings” on the left hand side of your webapp, you will find the “Deposits” tab directly below it. When you enabled the deposit feature you can check which reservations you have received deposits for below this section.

• Under “Type” you can see the payment method which the guest used to make the deposit (e.g. credit card)
• Under “Amount & deposit status“ you can see the sum of the deposit is and if it has already been refunded or if you have retained it.
• The “Booking” column indicates which booking the deposit refers to.

Via the symbol at the top right you can export an overview of the deposits for a certain time as a csv-file.

The credit card symbol in the booking shows you the status of the deposit. There are Pending, Confirmed, Failed, Charged and Resolved

• Pending is displayed for manual bookings if the guest still has to transfer the money or enter their credit card details.
• Confirmed is displayed for deposits via Stripe if only the credit card details are saved. The money has not yet been debited.
• Failed means that an error has occurred during the debit, and you need to contact the guest.
• Charged is displayed by default for deposits via PayPal or when the money has been debited from payments via Stripe. 
• Resolved indicates that the money has been transferred back or settled. This is intended for deposits via PayPal, where the money is debited by default and must be paid back when the guest appears.

Even if you have activated the deposit, you can still accept reservations by phone.

• Create a manual reservation using the button New booking in the top right corner.
• Enter the booking details for the guest as usual and then click Continue.

In the new window, you can specify whether the guests have already paid the deposit (e.g., if they are reserving on site) or whether the deposit is still outstanding.

In the latter case, the reservation is created with the deposit status Pending .

• As long as the payment is still pending, the reservation will be saved with the reservation status “Unconfirmed.” The guest will receive an email requesting that they make the payment either online using the button provided or by bank transfer.

• If the guest pays online, the reservation automatically changes to Confirmed. At the same time, the deposit status changes to Charged.
• When guests make a bank transfer, there is no automatic system in place! Check your account regularly and then change the status of the reservation manually.

If you collected the deposit immediately after an online reservation, you are able to refund the amount already collected. You can see the corresponding deposits in your booking overview by status Debited.

• For further processing, click on the deposit symbol in the corresponding reservation.

In the subsequent dialog box, you can see when and via which payment method you received the deposit for the respective reservation.

You can also select whether you have retained, offset, or refunded the deposit, or you can use Transfer deposit back to refund the amount (or just part of it) directly.

When a refund is issued, the deposit status changes from Charged to Resolved.

If the guests do not show up or do not cancel in time, you can debit the deposit via Stripe.

If guests have provided their credit card details but no charge has been made, the deposit status is Confirmed.

You have two options for debiting the deposit from the card on file.

1. Firstly, in the dialog box when you change the status of the booking (to Cancelled or No-Show).
2. If you did not charge the cancellation fee directly when the status changed, you can do so (within 14 days) by clicking on the deposit symbol for the reservation. A new dialog box will open, in which you can then click on Charge.

The deposit status changes from Confirmed on Charged.