Bookings Use Case: Deposit Required Booking

Use WooCommerce Bookings and WooCommerce Deposits to collect a 25% deposit for a one-day booking, with the remaining balance collected separately. This example reserves a private wildlife hide for one group at a time. You can use the same approach for a room rented by the day.

Scenario

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• Each booking reserves the space for one whole day.
• A group contains one to five guests, including at least one adult. Adults cost $85 each, young adults cost $25 each, and children are free.
• Customers pay a required 25% deposit at checkout. You collect the remaining balance when they arrive.

Products used

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Install and activate WooCommerce, WooCommerce Bookings, and WooCommerce Deposits before starting. Deposits is a separate extension; Bookings alone does not provide this payment option.

Setup and configuration

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Create the bookable product, configure its availability and guest prices, then require a percentage deposit.

Create the bookable product

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1. Go to Products > Add new product.
2. Enter a descriptive name, such as Private Wildlife Hide Day.
3. In Product data, select Bookable product.

Configure general settings

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1. Select Virtual because there is no item to ship, and select Has persons to price the booking by guest type.
2. Under General, set Booking duration to Fixed blocks of 1 Day(s).
3. Leave Requires confirmation? cleared so customers can pay the deposit at checkout without waiting for approval.
4. Under Costs, set Base cost and Block cost to 0, with no additional pricing rules. The person types below supply the price.

Set availability

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1. Under Availability, set Max bookings per block to 1. Each booking reserves the whole space.
2. Set Minimum block bookable to 0 Day(s) and Maximum block bookable to 12 Month(s) to allow bookings from today up to a year ahead.
3. Set All dates are… to available by default and leave the availability rules empty for daily availability.

Store availability rules, existing bookings, and other restrictions can still make a date unavailable. Check the storefront calendar before offering dates to customers.

Set up persons

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1. Under Persons, set Min persons to 1 and Max persons to 5.
2. Leave Multiply all costs by person count and Count persons as bookings cleared. The guest types set their own prices, and the entire group uses one booking.
3. Select Enable person types, then use Add Person Type to create the three types below. Set each type’s Block Cost to 0.

Person type	Base Cost	Min	Max
Adult	85	1	5
Young Adult	25	0	4
Child	0	0	4

The overall five-person maximum applies across all types. Two adults and one young adult cost $195 for the day.

Require a 25% deposit

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1. Open Product data > Deposits.
2. Select Enable custom deposit settings for this product. This overrides the storewide deposit settings for this product.
3. Set Deposit Setting to Required.
4. Set Deposit Type to Percentage.
5. Enter 25 in Deposit Amount, without a percent symbol.

Publish and verify the product

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1. Add a suitable product image and description, then select Publish, or Update for an existing product.
2. Open the product on the storefront. Choose two adults, one young adult, and an available day. Confirm that the booking costs $195 and the product displays Pay a 25% deposit.
3. Select Book now and view the cart. For this example, before taxes, discounts, or fees, Due today is $48.75 and Future payments is $146.25.

The remaining balance is not charged automatically when the booking date arrives. Arrange how you will collect it. If you collect it outside WooCommerce, open the order and use Mark Paid (offline) for the deposit item after receiving the balance. See the WooCommerce Deposits guide for other balance-payment options.

If the result differs

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• No deposit appears: confirm that WooCommerce Deposits is active, custom deposit settings are enabled for this product, and Deposit Setting is Required. Save the product and add a fresh booking to the cart.
• The booking price differs: check the person counts, person-type costs, and additional costs or pricing rules.
• A date is unavailable: check the booking window, existing bookings, and product and store availability rules.
• The product asks for approval instead of payment: check whether Requires confirmation? is selected.