How to Set Up Stripe for Taking Payments on Your Booking Page

Why take payments at booking time?

When clients pay upfront — even a small deposit — they're far more likely to show up. You also:

• Eliminate late cancellations — clients think twice when they have skin in the game.
• Cut admin work — no more manual invoices or awkward "can you pay now?" conversations.
• Get paid faster — funds land in your bank account automatically.
• Accept cards, Apple Pay, and Google Pay — clients can pay how they prefer.

What you need before you start

• A Bookable account (free to create).
• A Stripe account — if you don't have one, you'll create it during the connection flow. Stripe is available in 40+ countries.
• At least one service with a price configured in your Bookable dashboard.

Step 1 — Create or log in to Stripe

Go to stripe.com and create a free account if you don't have one. Stripe will ask for basic business details (name, address, bank account) to verify your identity. This usually takes a few minutes.

If you already have a Stripe account, make sure you're logged in to the correct one before connecting.

Step 2 — Connect Stripe in Bookable

1. Log in to your Bookable dashboard.
2. Go to Settings → Payments.
3. Click "Connect with Stripe".
4. You'll be redirected to Stripe to authorize the connection. Review the permissions and click Agree.
5. Once authorized, you're redirected back to Bookable. You should see a green "Connected" status.

That's it for the connection. Bookable uses Stripe Connect, which means your clients' payments go directly to your Stripe account — we never hold your funds.

Step 3 — Set prices on your services

In your dashboard, go to Services and edit each service you want to charge for. Enter the price in your local currency. When a client books that service, they'll see the price and a secure payment form before confirming.

Services without a price will continue to work as free bookings — no payment step shown.

Step 4 — Require payment and choose full price or a deposit

In Settings → Payments, turn on Require Payment Before Booking. Then choose what to charge:

• Full service price — the complete discounted total is charged online before the booking is confirmed.
• Deposit — charge a percent of the total (after any coupon) or a fixed amount in your business currency. Clients pay that amount to confirm; the remaining balance is due in person at the appointment, not as a second Stripe charge.

If a deposit is larger than the booking total, the full amount is charged instead. Services without a price still skip the payment step.

What your clients see

When a client reaches the final step of your booking page, they see a clean Stripe payment form embedded directly in the page. They can pay with:

• Credit or debit card (Visa, Mastercard, etc.)
• Apple Pay (on supported devices)
• Google Pay

The payment is processed instantly and the booking is confirmed right away — no extra clicks needed. For deposits, clients also see Due today and Remaining at appointment on the review step.

Stripe fees

Stripe charges standard processing fees (typically 1.5% + €0.25 for European cards, or 2.9% + $0.30 in the US). These fees are charged by Stripe directly — Bookable does not add any extra transaction fee on top.

You can review your fees and payouts anytime in the Stripe Dashboard.

Tips for getting the most out of payments

• Use a deposit if you collect the rest in person — a percent (e.g. 20%) or a small fixed amount (€5–€20) is enough to filter out non‑serious bookings.
• Require payment if no‑shows are a problem — clients must pay to confirm.
• Combine with reminders — automated reminders plus upfront payment is the strongest no‑show prevention combo.
• Check your Stripe payouts schedule — by default Stripe pays out daily, but you can adjust this in your Stripe settings.
• Test it yourself — open your own booking page in a private browser and go through the full flow to see exactly what clients experience.

Troubleshooting