How do I take deposits only on busy days or special dates?

Restrict deposits to certain days and times, or charge a higher per-person deposit on specific dates like New Year's Eve.

Use the two lower cards on Settings → Payments & deposits → Deposits — Deposit schedule and Special event deposits. The page itself now spells out how the pieces fit: "Require deposits" applies every day; day/time rules in the schedule restrict it to just those times; special event deposits always apply on their dates — even when "Require deposits" is off. (Pre-orders and pay-in-full follow exactly the same model on their own pages.) Both are Available on Complete plan; on other plans the add buttons are replaced by a padlock chip. Only Owners and Admins see this page.

Deposits on certain days and times only

• Open the Deposit schedule card.
• Click Add day/time rule.
• Pick the day, leave All day on, or switch it off and set a start and end time (e.g. Friday 18:00 to 23:00).
• Add as many rules as you like, then click Save changes.

Once any rule exists, deposits are only required on those days and times. With no rules, deposits apply to every eligible booking. Rules work alongside your party-size threshold — a deposit is taken only when both the time/day and the party size match.

Higher deposits on specific dates

• Open the Special event deposits card.
• Click Add event.
• Set the date, a label (e.g. "Valentine's Day"), the per-person amount, and optionally a minimum party size for just that date — leave it blank to inherit your usual threshold.
• Click Save changes.

Special event deposits override your standard amount on the listed dates — and they apply on those dates even if "Require deposits" is switched off, so you can run deposit-free normally but still protect your biggest nights.

Pay-in-full bookings have their own matching schedule and special-dates cards on the Pay in full page — and where pay-in-full applies, it takes priority over your deposit rules for that booking.

Related: How do I take booking deposits? · When do customers get their deposit back? · How do pay-in-full bookings work?