Deposit, card guarantee or prepayment on SevenRooms: which policy?

A no-show on a Saturday night means a table of four sitting empty for the whole service. SevenRooms gives you several ways to protect yourself, and the choice between a deposit, a card guarantee, prepayment or no-show fees matters: set badly, it scares guests away or protects you from nothing.

This guide helps you pick the right policy, then configure it step by step. It also covers the July 2026 update, Charge & Save Card, which changes how you can combine a deposit and a card guarantee on SevenRooms: until now, you had to choose one or the other.

Deposit, card guarantee, prepayment: what is the difference on SevenRooms?

In the payment settings (the section is called Payment and Policy, on a Shift or an Access Rule), SevenRooms works with two main approaches:

• Card guarantee: the "Require/Save Credit Card For Future Charges" option (also called Credit Card Guarantee). The card is stored and nothing is charged at booking. If the guest cancels late or doesn't show, you can bill a fee.
• Charge at booking: the "Charge Credit Card At Time of Booking" option. The guest pays a deposit or the full price of a menu or experience right away. The amount can be set per person, per reservation, or per person or per reservation per time interval.

Prepayment is simply a charge of the full amount at booking (a €95 tax-inclusive menu per guest), and a deposit a partial charge (€20 per guest). No-show fees are not a third method: they are what you bill from a stored card.

A useful starting point: SevenRooms states that collecting a card, even without charging anything, helps reduce late cancellations and no-shows. A guarantee alone is already an effective psychological brake.

Note: you need an active payment gateway. Until a processor is connected, your settings stay in draft mode: you can configure them, but they are not enforced on the booking widget and the cancellation policy is not shown to guests.

Charge & Save Card: charge the card and keep it (July 2026)

Before this update, you had to choose: charge at booking (deposit, prepaid experience) or save the card for a possible later charge (late cancellation, no-show). Not both.

Now, a card charged at booking is also saved on the reservation. Your team can see that a card is on file and charge it manually later: a no-show fee, a top-up on the deposit, an extra, all without sending the guest a payment link.

What to know:

• The feature is on by default for all venues, across all payment providers. No action required.
• To turn it off: Settings > Venue Settings > Charges > Charge and Save Card, by unchecking "Charge and Save Card". The card is then charged as before, but no longer saved.
• Later charges are always manual: the card is not charged automatically at a later date (SevenRooms says it is working on this).
• The card stays usable for up to 7 days after the reservation. After that it is purged automatically and you need to send a payment link.
• In Shift settings, the option appears as "Charge card at the time of booking, and save for future charges".

A simple rule from SevenRooms: charge the saved card if you are speaking with the guest or if the fee matches a policy they accepted when booking (no-show, late cancellation). Send a payment link if there is no card, the guest wants to pay with a different card, or the amount was not agreed at booking.

Which policy for which service?

Four common cases, with sample amounts (tax-inclusive):

• Sunday brunch: groups of friends, high no-show rate. A card guarantee is often enough: card required, €15 per person billed for cancellations under 24 hours or a no-show. No friction at booking, real protection.
• Evenings and limited-capacity experiences (wine dinner, DJ night): prepayment of the ticket, say €65 per person, refundable up to 7 days before. The room is sold in advance. With Charge & Save Card, you keep the card to bill an extra or a non-refundable absence.
• Groups (8 covers and more): a deposit of €20 per person, applied only to large parties thanks to the party-size threshold ("Only parties larger than a specified size"). Your team then handles the balance. For bigger private events, see our guide to Event Management.
• New Year's Eve and holidays: prepayment of the menu, often the only reasonable option when the kitchen is sized for a full service. Details in our article on the prepaid Christmas Eve dinner.

Should you prepay everything? No. The stricter the requirement (immediate charge), the more online bookings you lose. The right approach is to scale it: a guarantee for ordinary services, a deposit for groups, prepayment for fixed-capacity offers. To adapt the rule to demand, read our piece on payment policies based on demand.

Set up a card guarantee and no-show fees

On a Shift (Availability > Availability Settings > Shifts > Payment & Policies) or on an Access Rule (Settings > Availability > Access Rules > Edit > Payment and Policy > Edit, then untick "Follow Shift Settings for Payment & Policy"):

1. Turn on Require Credit Card and choose the party size concerned: all, or only parties larger than a threshold (handy to target tables of 6 and up).
2. Choose Require/Save Credit Card For Future Charges ("Require credit card during booking with no deposit" on an Access Rule).
3. Under Automatic Cancellation / No-Show Charge, pick No Charge (no automatic charge, but your team can charge the card by hand up to 7 days after the reservation) or Automatic Charge (per guest or per reservation, with a cut-off time).
4. Set the cut-off: for example 24 hours before for a regular dinner, 48 hours for a group.
5. Click Done, then Save.

With Automatic Charge, the card is charged immediately once the reservation is marked Cancelled or No Show. To avoid charging (goodwill gesture, guest called ahead), remove the card from the reservation before changing the status.

Example: you require a card for any party over 5, with €20 per person billed for cancellations under 48 hours. A table of 8 that vanishes leaves €160 in your till instead of nothing.

Set up a deposit or prepayment

Same path, but choose Charge Credit Card At Time of Booking ("Require credit card during booking with a fee or deposit"). Set:

• The amount: per person, per reservation, or per time interval (for example a flat fee per 30-minute block for an activity).
• Taxes: Apply Tax uses the rates defined in Settings > General > Tax Rates (VAT is among the supported types). You can also add Apply Service Charge and Apply Gratuity.
• Refunds (Automatic Refunds): No Refund, Full Refund or Partial Refund (a percentage of the deposit), with a cut-off time for eligibility. Even with No Refund, your team can refund by hand up to 7 days after the reservation.

Watch the VAT: if the amount you enter is already tax-inclusive, which is the norm in France, do not turn on an extra tax on top. Otherwise your guest pays VAT twice and you find out at the dispute. Run a €20 test and check the total shown.

Depending on your plan, you may also see a configuration based on "payment modes" (Late Cancellation Fee and Deposit, created by default, with a Stripe connection from Settings > Integrations > Payment Gateway). They are then assigned to Shifts in Booking Options > Weekly Schedule. The principle is the same: a fixed amount per reservation or per cover, a party-size threshold, and a cancellation or refund deadline.

Pitfalls: cancellation policy, VAT, refunds and guest changes

Your cancellation policy must be written and visible. It appears in the widget whenever a card is required (saved or charged), and the guest must accept it before booking. Write it in Settings > Guest-Facing Language > Policies. State the amount, the deadline and, since Charge & Save Card, that the card is kept on file. SevenRooms recommends saying explicitly that the card will be saved after being charged: it builds trust and reduces disputes. Example: "By booking, you authorize the restaurant to charge your card for the amount shown. Your card details will also be securely saved on file and may be used to apply fees under our cancellation or no-show policy."

Disputes go through your payment processor. Clear wording, accepted at booking, is your best argument.

Guests cannot modify a paid reservation on their own. Once a deposit, payment or paid Upgrade has been taken, the guest cannot modify the booking from the Manage Reservation page, even if your setting allows "At Any Time". They are told to call the restaurant. Brief your front desk. They can cancel, depending on your setting (Never, Up until a cut-off time, At Any Time), with a refund per Automatic Refund.

With a guarantee only, changes are more flexible. If the guest moves to a slot that also requires a card, the card carries over. If the new slot requires no payment, the card stays on the reservation. If they switch to a slot requiring payment at booking, they must pay.

Your team can change anything, but by hand. Top-ups and refunds on a prepaid reservation are manual. The saved card stays on a reservation modified internally, within 7 days after the date.

Align your deadlines. Free-cancellation cut-off, online cancellation limit and the deadline written in the policy: one value everywhere.

Some channels don't handle cards. If an Access Rule must stay visible on channels that do not support card holds, tick "Allow this Access Rule to be booked on channels that do not support credit card holds": the card requirement will not be enforced there. Weigh that choice.

Test it. Book, modify, cancel, check the charge and the refund. To make sure guests don't forget a protected booking, a reminder the day before by WhatsApp or SMS helps, and Heep can send it automatically.

Deposit and card guarantee on SevenRooms: frequently asked questions

Need help setting up deposits and card guarantees on SevenRooms?

A good payment policy protects your revenue without discouraging bookings. Badly set up, it does the opposite: double taxes, vague cancellation wording, channels that bypass the card. māhie helps restaurants and groups configure SevenRooms every day. For your payments, we can:

• audit your current setup (Shifts, Access Rules, policies, channels) and spot the gaps;
• define the right policy for each service: brunch, evenings, groups, holidays;
• configure Payment and Policy end to end, with VAT, refunds and cancellation wording;
• integrate the offer into your website (Webflow, WordPress) and track conversions on bookings with payment;
• train your team on charging the saved card, refunds and disputes.

Want to secure your next services? Explore our SevenRooms expertise or Contact māhie: we will review your setup together.