Need to collect a partial payment upfront when assisting a guest with a reservation that has a high ticket price or is scheduled far in advance? With Xola, you can easily secure a down deposit during the back-office reservation flow, ensuring that the reservation is confirmed while giving your guests flexibility to pay the remaining balance later.
If your deposit checkout settings are configured in Xola, the guest can also choose to pay a deposit directly during the online checkout on your website. This creates a smooth, self-service option that encourages reservations without requiring full upfront payment.
This feature is especially useful for large group reservations, premium experiences, or events that require an early financial commitment. By taking a deposit, you protect your business against last-minute cancellations and guarantee a level of commitment from the guest.
User Access: Administrator or Curator roles have access to set up Down Deposits in Xola.
Administrator, Reservationist or Reservationist Lite roles can use the Down Deposit rules in the Make a Purchase workflow.
To grant access to users, click here.
What's covered in this article:
How to Set Up Down Deposit
Down Deposits are enabled by default for all Back-Office Purchases. However, you must activate and configure this feature for any experiences where you want customers to have the option to pay a deposit during online checkout.
- Navigate to Products > Experiences.
- Go to Pricing> Scroll down to Down Deposit section.
- Toggle on the Enable Down deposit.
- Next, set how many days away you want a customer to pay a deposit.
For example, if you want customers who book more than 30 days in advance to pay a deposit, set 30 days in the field.
- If you want the customer to always have the option to pay a deposit, you can set this to 0 days.
- Choose your Deposit Amount:
- Set a dollar amount Per Person
- Set a dollar amount Per Booking
- Set a percentage amount Per Booking
- Checkout Preference
- Allow customers to choose between paying in full or deposit amount: This means that the customer will have the option on the payment screen to pay the deposit amount or the full amount.
- Require customers to pay deposit amount only: This means the customer will only have the option to pay the deposit amount and will have a balance due when they arrive. Alternatively, you can set up sending invoices to the customer with a balance due before arrival.
- Balance Due Date
- Set how many days before the event you wan the remaining balance to be due.
- Toggle on the option to invoice customers for the balance due before their arrival automatically.
- You can also set up your Self-Service options to allow customers to make payments via invoice for any balance due before their experience.
Take a Deposit Payment
In the Back Office
- Make a purchase in Xola as usual.
- After filling out the Product and Customer Details, select Deposit as the Payment Workflow.
- Enter the following Deposit Details:
- Deposit Amount: The amount to be collected right now.
- Balance: Use the dropdown menu next to days to designate how many days out from the experience when the rest of the purchase total is due, or you can use the date dropdown to pick an actual date
- Review Purchase details and click Pay.
The customer purchase will reflect that there is an open balance to be settled. You can collect the balance at any time by clicking the Collect Balance button within the reservation from the Purchases tab.
Note: You can also send your customers an Invoice for the Deposit. Go to the Payment section and choose the Invoice option once you select Deposit. After this, you can choose the date on which the deposit and remaining balance are due. These dates and amounts will be displayed in the Payment Timeline Summary below.
In Checkout
- Your customer will choose an experience in the Book Now button you created on your website.
- After picking the Date, Time, any add-ons and entering their customer details. They will click Continue.
- Before entering payment they can choose at the bottom of checkout, to Pay in Full or pay the Deposit. (This is based on your deposit settings)
- The total amount due will change based on choice, then they will hit Pay.
- The customer purchase will reflect that there is an open balance to be settled. You can collect the balance at any time by clicking the Collect Balance button within the reservation from the Purchases tab.
