Payments, deposits & billing
Money in OutfitterHQ is deliberately simple: your customers' money goes to you, our platform fee is disclosed when amounts are published, and everything is auditable per booking.
Deposits
A deposit reserves the trip. By default it's one day's rental per boat (configurable), capped at the trip total. The quote always shows the deposit separately so the customer knows what's due when.
Two payment setups
1. Card on file (default — zero setup). The customer securely saves a card through Stripe. No money moves online; you charge the deposit at pickup however you normally do (terminal, cash, phone). The card is vaulted so a no-show can't cost you everything.
2. Online deposits (connect Stripe payouts). Complete a short Stripe onboarding (identity + bank details, handled by Stripe) and deposits are charged at checkout and paid directly to your bank — the money never passes through us. If the booking fee is passed to the customer, it's collected on the same charge, itemized separately.
Online booking fee on the guest receipt
When Pass to consumer is on (Settings → Pricing), the guest pays an Online booking fee at checkout. That same line appears on the confirmation and pending-review emails — marked paid or due now. It is not added to your rental total or the balance they still owe you. If you absorb the fee, guests never see the line.
The public book page and payment link use the same name, and the quoted trip total there already includes the fee so the price they click is the price they pay (tax stays separate). The confirmation often goes out when the booking is created, so it may still say due now until they finish paying — re-send from the booking page after checkout if you want the paid line.
Card capture links
For phone bookings, send the customer a secure payment link by email in one click from the booking page. The link opens a checkout page where they save a card (and pay a deposit, if you're set up for online deposits). Links expire after 7 days and can be re-sent.
Refunds
The standard policy is built in and automatic:
- Cancel ≥ 7 days before the trip → deposit refunded in full.
- Cancel inside 7 days → deposit stays with the business.
- The outfitter cancels or declines → the customer is always refunded in full.
Refunds go back to the original card, and the application fee we charged is returned too — we don't keep fees on refunded bookings. If a refund ever fails (card expired, etc.), the cancellation still goes through and the payment history shows the refund didn't land, so you can resolve it manually.
Your payment history
Every booking has a ledger: deposits, refunds, and booking fees, each with method and amount. Your monthly invoice from us itemizes fee lines against those same bookings. See Pricing for the commercial model (fee amounts TBD until we publish the public price list). You can pick which model you’d rather pay on Pricing.
What's coming (not built yet)
Charging the remaining balance to the card on file, recording paid-in-person balances, and store-credit tracking are on the roadmap — today, balances are settled at the dock.