Experience payment rules help venues reduce no-shows and protect high-demand inventory.
CoverCount supports three booking methods for Experiences:
- None: guests book without payment or hold.
- Deposit: guests are charged a deposit at booking.
- CreditCardHold: guests authorize a card hold.
Start with no payment for ordinary bookings unless the venue has a clear reason to require a commitment.
Use No Payment For Ordinary Reservations
Use None when:
- The Experience is ordinary lunch, dinner, or tasting-room service.
- No-show risk is manageable.
- The venue wants the lowest-friction booking flow.
- Staff prefer to handle special cases manually.
This is often the right default for a first Experience.
Use Deposits For Higher Commitment
Use Deposit when the venue needs a real payment commitment.
Good candidates:
- Tasting menus
- Chef's counter
- Large-party reservations
- Premium tastings
- Limited-run holiday services
- High-demand weekends
- Experiences with prep cost or limited seats
Deposits are more reliable than card holds for bookings far in the future because card authorizations typically expire after about 7 days.
Use Card Holds For Short-Term Protection
Use CreditCardHold when the venue wants a no-show protection mechanism without charging guests up front.
Good candidates:
- Near-term dinner reservations
- High-demand dining slots
- Ordinary tastings where an up-front charge would feel too heavy
Card holds are less reliable for long-lead bookings. If the reservation is weeks away and the venue needs a firm commitment, a deposit is usually clearer.
Add Deposit Rules
When an Experience uses Deposit or CreditCardHold, make sure the rules cover the bookings you expect to protect.
Review:
- Amount
- Party-size range
- Day-of-week scope
- Date scope, if seasonal
- Whether the rule is active
- Rule order, if more than one applies
If the booking method requires payment but no covering rule exists, public bookings may be treated as free until a matching rule is active.
Set The Cancellation Policy
Use a clear cancellation window and plain guest-facing policy text.
Example:
Reservations may be cancelled up to 24 hours before the reservation time. Late cancellations and no-shows
may forfeit the deposit.
For card holds:
A credit card is required to hold this reservation. Late cancellations or no-shows may be charged under
the venue cancellation policy.
Keep the policy consistent with how staff will actually handle cancellations.
Test The Payment Flow
Before publishing a paid or card-hold Experience:
- Open the public booking link in a private browser window.
- Choose a party size and time that should require payment.
- Confirm the payment or card-hold step appears.
- Confirm the policy text is visible and understandable.
- Confirm the reservation appears correctly for staff.
- Confirm the booking confirmation matches the payment method.
Also test a party size or day that should not trigger a rule, if your rules are scoped.