Free online booking and scheduling for solo and small service businesses
Require a deposit or the full price before a booking request is sent. Clients pay by card on your booking page and the money goes straight to your own Stripe account. Someone who has put money down is more likely to turn up, and much less likely to book on a whim.
Turn it on once in Settings and every paid booking on your page takes a deposit or the full price.
Refunds, full or partial, are done in your Stripe Dashboard from the payment link on the booking, and the booking updates itself the next time you open it. Deposits work the same in the booking widget on your own website.
Your booking page prices each job from your services, add-ons and travel charges, so a percentage deposit follows the actual job.
It's worked out from the full total: services, add-ons, travel charge, coupon and tax. A 25% deposit, for example:
| Booking (example prices) | Total | 25% deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Standard clean, 2 bedrooms | $150 | $37.50 |
| Deep clean, 4 bedrooms, inside the oven | $380 | $95.00 |
| Full detail, SUV, pet hair removal | $260 | $65.00 |
A flat amount suits fixed-price appointments, like $25 to hold a haircut. If a deposit works out below Stripe's minimum charge (about $0.50), it's rounded up to the minimum.
Most no-shows aren't malicious. A free booking costs nothing to forget, so it's the first thing dropped when something else comes up.
The client has already paid part of the price, so the appointment has a cost if they skip it.
If they still don't come, the deposit covers some of the slot, so an empty hour isn't a total loss.
A real, working card has to be behind every request. Even a $1 deposit stops prank and throwaway bookings.
The trade-off is that some genuine clients won't enter a card just to book. If no-shows and fake bookings aren't a problem for you yet, you may not need a deposit at all, and hCaptcha alone may be enough for spam.
Settings > Policies & Terms shows your cancellation policy on the booking page and can require clients to accept your terms before they book.
A good deposit policy says four things: how much the deposit is, that it comes off the total, how much notice gets it back, and what happens on a no-show.
Sample policy
A 25% deposit is required to book and comes off your total. Cancel or reschedule at least 24 hours before your appointment and I'll refund it or move it to your new time. Cancellations with less than 24 hours' notice, and no-shows, forfeit the deposit.
Nothing is refunded or kept automatically, so you stay in charge of exceptions. Rules on non-refundable deposits vary by state and province; keep yours clear and reasonable.
Say it once, plainly, and let the booking page do the asking. When you send someone your booking link, something like this works:
Sample message
Here's my booking page: [your link]. A $40 deposit holds your time and comes off the final price. If you need to change it, just give me 24 hours' notice.
It's short, it gives the amount, and it makes clear the deposit is part of the price, not an extra fee.
Stripe Payments are on the free plan. 1MinuteBooking takes 2% of each charge, on top of Stripe's own fee.
For domestic cards, Stripe's standard rate is 2.9% + 30¢ in the US and 2.9% + C$0.30 in Canada. On a $100 deposit in the US:
| Deposit paid by the client | $100.00 |
| Stripe's fee (2.9% + 30¢) | −$3.20 |
| 1MinuteBooking (2%) | −$2.00 |
| Reaches your Stripe balance | $94.80 |
The 2% isn't returned if you refund. Money you collect any other way, like cash, e-transfer or your own card reader, is never charged anything.
Every paid booking takes the same deposit or full payment; it can't be set per service.
There's no price yet. Once you've priced one, collect a deposit the way you'd take any payment outside the site.
There's no charging a no-show fee afterwards. The deposit is what you hold.
To remind a client, open the booking and click Email client; the date, time and details are already filled in.
If two people pay for the same time at the same moment, the second picks another time and their card hold is released.
Cards are typed into Stripe's own form and never touch 1MinuteBooking's servers.
The client pays part of the price when they book, to hold the time, and it comes off their total. If they cancel with enough notice, you refund it or move it to the new time; if they don't show, you keep it, as your cancellation policy says.
Enough that skipping the appointment costs something, and small enough that real clients don't hesitate. A flat amount suits short, fixed-price appointments; a percentage suits jobs whose price varies, because it scales with the total. Even $1 stops prank and throwaway bookings.
That's your call, and it belongs in your cancellation policy before anyone books. A common approach is to refund or move the deposit with 24-48 hours' notice and keep it for late cancellations and no-shows.
Not automatically. Without Stripe Payments you can still ask for a deposit your own way, like an e-transfer or a payment link, and note it on the booking, but the booking page won't require it.
No. The deposit or full-payment setting applies to every paid booking on your page. Quote requests never take payment.
Turning it on is free. 1MinuteBooking takes 2% of each card charge, on top of Stripe's fee (2.9% + 30 cents for domestic cards in the US, 2.9% + C$0.30 in Canada). The 2% isn't returned on refunds.
Yes. The booking widget takes deposits and full payments exactly like your booking link. Cards always work; Apple Pay and Google Pay may only appear on the booking link itself.
Set up your own booking page in a few minutes - clients book appointments, you manage everything from your own dashboard.