The payment you take at the time of booking does an important job: it protects you from no-shows and commits the customer to turning up. In BookingNinja that upfront charge is not always a small holding deposit. Depending on your setup it might be a part-payment deposit, the full price of an event ticket, or a complete prepayment for the visit. Whatever form it takes, charging the same fixed amount to everyone is a blunt tool. There are nights you would happily ask for less to nudge a booking over the line, and customers you would like to reward for booking well ahead.
Until now, the only way to do that was to change your payment settings for everyone, then remember to change them back. Deposit Reductions fix that. You create rules that automatically lower the upfront amount when a booking meets conditions you choose, and your standard settings stay exactly as they are. Whether you take a 10.00 deposit, a 35.00 event ticket, or a full prepayment, the reduction comes off the amount due and the customer simply sees a smaller figure at checkout.
Set a rule, let it run
Head to Payments in the sidebar and open Deposit Reductions. Give a rule a name, decide how much comes off, choose when it should apply, and save. From then on it works on its own in the background. No codes for customers to enter, no manual switching on quiet days.
Each rule sits in a simple list with a one-line summary, so you can see at a glance what is running.
Percentage or fixed, your choice
A reduction can be a percentage of the amount due or a fixed figure. With percentages you can add a cap, so a large charge is never discounted more than you intend. "20% off, up to a maximum of 10.00" takes 6.00 off a 30.00 charge but only 10.00 off a 100.00 one, which is handy when the same rule covers both small deposits and full ticket prices. You can also set a minimum, so very small amounts are left alone.
Target the right bookings
This is where reductions earn their keep. A rule can be limited by:
- Sessions, so it only applies to the ones you pick, whether that is a repeating service or a ticketed event
- Days of the week, for example quieter Mondays to Thursdays
- Date and time windows, handy for a seasonal promotion or an off-peak slot
- Only these dates or blackout dates, to switch a rule on or off for specific days
- Days in advance, so you can reward anyone booking at least a week or two ahead
Only discount when it actually helps
The point of a reduction is to fill space you would otherwise lose, not to give money away on nights that were going to sell out anyway. Two features keep it targeted.
A quiet-day occupancy threshold only applies the reduction while a session is at or below a level of bookings you set. Choose 40% and the discount shows while there is plenty of space, then quietly disappears as the session fills. Customers who book early get the nudge; late bookers on a busy night pay the full amount.
Exclusions let you switch a reduction off on your busier days. You can skip it whenever certain sessions are running that day, or skip it automatically on any date one of your events is taking place.
The best rule always wins
You can build up as many rules as you like, and a booking might match more than one. When that happens BookingNinja applies the single largest reduction, never a stack of them. If two would give the same amount, the higher priority wins. That means you can layer overlapping rules and trust that the customer always gets the biggest discount they qualify for, and only one.
Available now
Deposit Reductions are live for every venue, on deposits, tickets and prepayments alike. Open Payments → Deposit Reductions to create your first rule, and take a look at the full help guide if you want a walk through every setting. If there is a condition you would like to reduce charges on that we do not cover yet, open a ticket and let us know.