How Much Deposit to Charge for Salon Appointments

A deposit has one job: to cover what a late cancellation or a no-show would cost you. Set it too low and an empty chair still costs you most of the appointment. Set it too high and clients who would have shown up book with someone else.

The right number depends on what you lose when a client doesn't come, not on what other pros charge. This guide shows how to work yours out, gives starting points for each trade, and covers the refund rules and wording that make clients comfortable paying one.

The short answer

Independent pros who take deposits mostly use one of two kinds:

• A flat amount, usually $10 to $25, for short, inexpensive services like cuts, brow waxes and polish changes.
• A percentage, usually 25% to 50% of the price, for longer or more expensive services like color, extensions, full lash sets and braids.

Either way, the deposit comes off the client's total. That one sentence does more to get clients to pay a deposit than anything else on this page.

Flat or percentage?

A flat deposit is easy to explain and easy to remember: "$20 to book." It works best when your services are close in price. Its weakness is your longest appointments: $20 doesn't cover much of a $300 service.

A percentage grows with the price, so it protects your expensive services without overcharging for the cheap ones. Its weakness is that clients have to do the math, so say the dollar amount wherever you can.

Many pros use both: a flat deposit as the default, and a percentage, or a larger flat amount, on the few services where a cancellation really hurts.

Working out your number

Ask three questions about each service, or each group of similar services.

1. What do you spend before the client arrives? Hair you buy for an install, a custom color mix, extensions ordered in a client's shade. If you can't use it for anyone else, the deposit should cover all of it.
2. How much of the time could you refill at short notice? A 45-minute slot that opens up the day before often gets booked from a waitlist. A six-hour braiding appointment usually doesn't, and the day is gone.
3. What will a new client accept? Past about half the price, a deposit starts to feel like paying in full, which is a big ask from someone who hasn't met you yet.

Add the first two together, then check the total against the third.

For example, a $250 knotless braid appointment takes most of a day, and you buy $30 of hair for it. If a client cancels the night before, you lose the hair and the day. A deposit of $75 to $100 covers the hair and part of the day without asking a first-time client for half up front.

A $45 gel manicure takes an hour and nothing is ordered for it. A $15 flat deposit covers the slot well enough, and keeps booking easy.

Starting points by trade

These are common starting points among independent pros, not rules. Adjust them with the questions above.

Trade	Common deposit
Hair: cuts and blowouts	None for regulars, or a flat $10 to $25
Hair: color and chemical services	25% to 50%, or a flat $50
Hair: extensions	The full cost of the hair, ordered once the deposit is paid
Nails	A flat $10 to $25; more for long art sets
Lashes	$25 to $50 for a full set; less, or none, for fills
Braids and locs	A flat $50 to $100, or 30% to 50%
Barbers	None, or a flat $5 to $15 for new clients
Estheticians and massage	25%, or a flat $20 to $30

New clients and regulars

A deposit protects you most from people you don't know yet. Clients who have been coming for years are much less likely to no-show, so some pros take a smaller deposit from regulars, or none at all.

If you do this, write it down: "New clients pay a $25 deposit to book." A rule that applies to everyone in a group feels fair; a deposit you ask some people for and not others feels personal.

When to refund it

Clients pay deposits more easily when they know exactly when they get it back. A clear set of rules looks like this:

• They cancel with enough notice. Refund it in full, or move it to their new appointment. Your cancellation window, usually 24 to 48 hours, decides what "enough" means.
• They cancel late. Keep part or all of it. This is what the deposit is for.
• They don't show up. Keep all of it.
• You cancel. Refund it in full, every time, without being asked.

Whatever you choose, say whether the deposit is refundable before the client pays it. "Non-refundable" is fine as long as it isn't a surprise. Policy templates you can copy are in No-Show Policy Templates for Salons and Beauty Pros.

What it costs to take a deposit

Card processing fees take a bigger share of a small deposit than a large payment, because most processors add a fixed fee to every payment. At a common online rate of 2.9% plus 30¢, a $10 deposit costs you 59¢ to take, about 6% of it.

The fixed fee is what makes a small deposit expensive, so the simplest fix is a deposit big enough to absorb it: a $25 deposit at the same rate costs $1.03, about 4%. Fidden charges standard card rates, 2.9% + 30¢ online, deposits included.

How to ask for a deposit

Keep it short, say the dollar amount, and say that it comes off the total. Edit these to fit:

To lock in your appointment, I take a [$25] deposit that comes off your total. If you need to cancel or move it, just let me know at least [24 hours] ahead and I'll refund it or move it to your new date.

For extensions, a [$150] deposit covers the hair I order in your shade. It's applied to your total, and I order the hair as soon as it's paid.

I've started taking deposits for all new bookings, because last-minute cancellations mean someone else can't get in. It's [$20], it comes off your service, and you get it back if you cancel at least [48 hours] ahead.

The last one works for regulars when you first introduce deposits. Most clients understand an empty chair costs you money, and saying why removes the sense that the deposit is about them.

Mistakes to avoid

• Not saying the deposit comes off the total. Clients assume the worst, which is that it's an extra charge.
• Collecting by hand. A deposit sent through a payment app, with no booking attached, has to be matched to an appointment and refunded by hand. Every step done by hand is a step that gets skipped on a busy day.
• Making exceptions you don't announce. Waive a deposit for one client and the next one will hear about it.
• Setting it once and forgetting it. If no-shows cluster on one service or one day of the week, a larger deposit there usually works better than a stricter policy everywhere.

Setting your deposit up in Fidden

In Fidden, you set your deposit once and it's collected on every booking. Deposits work on every plan, the free one included.

• Your default. Turn on "Require deposit" and choose a percentage of the service or a fixed amount.
• Service by service. Each service can follow your default, take no deposit, or take its own: none on a quick trim, for example, and $150 on extensions.
• At booking. Clients see the exact deposit before they pay it, and it comes off their total. The rest is paid at checkout.
• When a client cancels in time, they get their deposit back automatically. A short grace period after booking lets a client who booked by mistake cancel for free, even inside your window.
• When a client cancels late or doesn't show, Fidden keeps the fee you set, as a percentage of the deposit or a fixed amount, and refunds the rest. Clients who cancel late see the fee before they confirm.
• When you cancel, the client gets everything back.

Each booking keeps the policy it was made under, so changing your deposit later never changes what a client already agreed to.

Rules about deposits and cancellation fees vary by place. If you're unsure about yours, ask a local business adviser before you publish your policy.