Hair Appointment Deposits: Protect Your Salon from No-Shows

Whether you’re a solo hair stylist or salon owner, deposits on your hair appointments can be a great tool to help protect your business from pesky no-shows and last-minute cancellations.

It’s a frustrating experience when a client no-shows.

You’re stuck waiting around — out the time and the money for that appointment. 😔

The good news is… Deposits help protect your time and your business from no-shows and late cancellations by collecting money up front from clients when they book online.

What’s even better: A lot of scheduling apps out there, like Vagaro, make collecting deposits on your hair appointments a breeze!

In this blog, we’ll talk through why deposits are important for hair appointment services— and how much your deposits should be.

Plus, if you’re a Vagaro business, we’ll give you the steps to set up deposits on your services today!

Deposits for Hair Appointments: A Guide for Hair Stylists and Salon Owners

What is a deposit for an appointment?

Do a quick search for “deposit for appointment meaning”, and you might find a few different definitions, depending on the industry you’re in.

But essentially, deposits for appointments give business owners a way to protect their time and revenue.

With a deposit in place on a service, clients are required to pay a percentage of the appointment cost up front — before the appointment.

This not only ensures the business a piece of income in the event of a no-show — it also secures the appointment for clients and offsets the total cost to be paid at the time of the appointment.

Win win!

Pro tip: Don’t forget to display your cancellation policy everywhere you can — including your booking page and the confirmation emails clients receive for their appointments. The last thing you want is for a client to be caught off guard by losing their deposit for a late cancellation or a no-show.

Why are deposits important for hair appointments?

Ultimately, deposits help protect your time and revenue by at least collecting some money up front.

Here are two big reasons why deposits are important for your hair appointments. 👇

1 in 10 appointments are canceled or a no-show

According to data collected on online booking, one out of every ten bookings is either canceled or a no-show.

By charging a deposit, you’re increasing the chances that the client will follow through on their appointment — which lowers the number of cancellations and no-shows.

Increase revenue

With a last-minute cancellation or a no-show, you’re missing out on the revenue from that appointment.

Collecting money up front helps offset any potential lost income.

Pro tip: Using a waitlist for your salon can also help keep those last-minute openings full! With Vagaro's waitlist, you can ensure you have someone to fill in any empty time slots.

Learn More About Vagaro

How much should a deposit be for a hair service?

When thinking about how much the deposit should be on your hair appointments, it’s important to keep the amount simple for clients to understand.

This means choosing between a flat rate — or a percentage.

Typically, deposits for hair appointments are 50% of the total cost of the service.

But some salons and hair stylists simply choose a flat dollar amount, such as $50 up front, to ensure some income for the time slot in the event of a no-show.

Whichever route you take, be sure the deposit amount — plus your no-show and late cancellation policy — are easily visible for clients when they book.

How do I set up a deposit on Vagaro?

Vagaro's online scheduling app gives hair stylists and salon owners a few different options when it comes to collecting money at the time of booking.

Hold With a Credit Card: This was designed for you to help reduce no-shows and essentially will request the client to enter in his/her credit card at the time of booking to “reserve” or “secure” the appointment. It will not charge the credit card automatically when booking; rather, it just requests the credit card information. Then, you can charge the credit card on file for that client in the event of a no-show.
Require Full Prepayment: The client’s credit card will be charged for full payment at the time of booking.
Require Partial Deposit: The client’s credit card will be charged for partial payment at the time of booking. You can choose the deposit percentage or dollar amount required

What’s even better is: You can pick and choose which services you want to collect deposits for.

So if you want to collect deposits only on your more expensive services, that’s totally an option!