The Treatwell feature that saved me hours every single week
Nadia Ellis
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Aesthetic Clinic · Oxford · 2mo ago
I want to talk about deposits because I see a lot of people in beauty business groups acting like it's somehow rude to ask for one. It's not. It's a completely standard part of running a professional service business and if you're not taking them you're absorbing all the financial risk of someone else's bad behaviour.
I introduced a £15 deposit about two years ago through Acuity Scheduling. Before that I was losing money every single month to last-minute cancellations and no-shows. In my worst month I lost over £15 in wasted appointment slots — that's time I could have given to clients who actually wanted to be there.
Here's exactly how I set it up: 20% deposit, non-refundable if cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. I put this in plain English on my booking page and in my confirmation message. No legal jargon, no passive-aggressive tone. Just clear, professional, grown-up policy.
Three people cancelled their bookings when I announced it. Those three people were also the ones who'd no-showed me previously. Genuinely not a loss. Everyone else either already expected it or said it made them feel more confident that I was a serious professional.
I introduced a £15 deposit about two years ago through Acuity Scheduling. Before that I was losing money every single month to last-minute cancellations and no-shows. In my worst month I lost over £15 in wasted appointment slots — that's time I could have given to clients who actually wanted to be there.
Here's exactly how I set it up: 20% deposit, non-refundable if cancelled with less than 48 hours notice. I put this in plain English on my booking page and in my confirmation message. No legal jargon, no passive-aggressive tone. Just clear, professional, grown-up policy.
Three people cancelled their bookings when I announced it. Those three people were also the ones who'd no-showed me previously. Genuinely not a loss. Everyone else either already expected it or said it made them feel more confident that I was a serious professional.
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I had the same fear about telling clients I was switching to online booking only. Turns out most people actually prefer it — they can book at midnight if they want to without feeling like they're bothering you. The ones who complained were the ones I could afford to lose.
#1
This is really relatable. I went through almost the exact same process 18 months ago. The biggest thing for me was realising that the clients who pushed back hardest on deposits were the ones who'd let me down before. Once I saw it that way the decision became very easy.
#2
Completely agree about the Sunday evening admin. I never quantified it until I read a post like this and actually counted. I was spending 6+ hours a week on booking admin. Six hours I could have been doing literally anything else. The system pays for itself in week one if you value your time properly.
#3
Totally agree about Fresha's transaction fee adding up. I did the maths for my price point and the 'free' plan was actually costing me more than a paid subscription to Square Appointments by the time I factored in the percentage on every booking. Read the small print before assuming free is cheaper.
#4