Deposits let you collect a partial payment at the time of booking and defer the remaining balance to a later date. When a guest books an activity with a deposit configured, they pay only the deposit amount during checkout. The balance is collected separately before or after the activity.

You can configure deposits per activity. Some operators use them for high-value bookings to reduce no-shows; others require them for private or custom experiences where cancellations are costly. Deposits are optional — activities with no deposit configured collect the full amount at checkout as usual.

Choose a deposit type

TripWorks offers two deposit structures. Choose based on whether you want the deposit to scale with the number of guests or stay flat regardless of group size.

Amount per ticket

The deposit multiplies by the number of tickets in the cart. Use this when you want each guest to contribute equally to the deposit — for example, a $50 deposit per person for a group activity.

You can set the deposit as a fixed dollar amount or as a percentage of the ticket price.

In this example, the ticket rate is $200 per person and a $50 deposit per ticket is required. A group of 3 sees the following at checkout:

Amount per experience

A flat deposit amount is charged once per booking, regardless of the number of tickets. Use this for private or chartered experiences where the cost is per-group rather than per-person.

In this example, the ticket rate is $200 per person and a $50 deposit per booking is required. A group of 3 sees the following at checkout:

Set up a deposit

1. Go to Setup > Activities and select the activity you want to configure.
2. In the left sidebar, select Deposits.

3. Select Collect an Amount Per Ticket or Collect an Amount Per Experience (see above for guidance on which to choose).
4. Enter the deposit amount or percentage.
5. Click Save.

Once saved, new bookings for this activity will show only the deposit amount due at checkout. The remaining balance appears on the trip record and can be collected later.

To disable deposits and return to collecting the full amount at checkout, select No Deposits and click Save.

Troubleshooting

Guests are still being charged the full amount instead of the deposit.
Confirm the deposit was saved — navigate to the activity's Deposits page and verify the setting is not showing "No Deposits." Also check whether the booking was made before or after you saved the deposit. Deposits only apply to new bookings; existing trips are not affected by a change to the deposit setting.

The deposit amount looks wrong in checkout.
Double-check whether you intended Per Ticket or Per Experience. A $50 per-ticket deposit on a 10-person booking is $500 due today; a $50 per-experience deposit on the same booking is $50. If the math doesn't match what guests are seeing, confirm which deposit type is selected on the Deposits page.