Deposits, no-shows and the arithmetic nobody does

Ask a studio owner their no-show rate and you usually get a shrug. Ask what it costs and the shrug gets expensive.

Do the sum once

Ten bookings a week at R400, a 20% no-show rate, is R800 a week — over R40,000 a year of capacity sold and not delivered. That is a salary.

Why deposits work

Not because the money matters. Because a paid deposit converts a vague intention into a commitment, and because it filters out bookings that were never real.

Why most businesses do not take them

Because their booking tool cannot, or because it means a second payment system. When booking runs through your own checkout, a deposit is just a price on a line item — no new rails, no new reconciliation.

Start at 20%, state the cancellation window plainly, and honour it. The no-show rate moves within a month.

Fun Life Media builds Shopify stores with booking built into the checkout. Installs from R4,500 once-off plus R850 a month. Book a free fifteen-minute audit.