Stop holding a slot on a promise

Saturday, 9am. The slot has been held for three weeks. The client had written "yes, perfect, four of us". Nobody shows up, nobody answers, and you turned down two other enquiries to keep that slot free.

This does not happen because people are dishonest. It happens because nothing was committed. An enthusiastic WhatsApp message six weeks before departure costs the sender nothing, which is exactly why it is worth nothing.

Can you take an online deposit if you are based in St Martin?

Yes. A locally registered business can take card payments on its own website, with no online store and no platform in the middle: a payment provider, your bank account, and the site wired to it. The client pays in three clicks, from the United States or from the island, and the money lands in your account.

This is not theory. We set it up for a jet ski rental operator on the island, who now collects deposits directly instead of waiting for the client to turn up with a card.

What does taking a card payment on your own site cost?

A few percent, published in plain sight. Stripe, the provider we wire in most often, lists 1.5% + €0.25 on a European card and 3.15% + €0.25 on an international card, plus 2% if you take a dollar card in euros. No subscription, and nothing to pay in a week when nobody books.

Now put that figure next to the other one. A booking platform routinely takes 15 to 25% of what the traveller pays, commission and fees included. On a €2,000 stay, the gap between the two is €300 to €450. Online payment is not a cost you are adding: it is the cheapest way you can possibly get paid.

How much should you ask for?

Enough to commit, not enough to scare. A share of the total, stated on the booking page itself, is all it takes to filter out the people who were never coming. What matters more than the percentage is consistency: the same amount for everyone, visible before the form, not negotiated case by case in the messages.

Three rules that save you trouble. The deposit comes off the balance, never on top of it. The balance is due on a date or at a moment the client knows in advance. And the amount has to be one you can live with refunding: if paying back two deposits in the same week would hurt, your deposit is too big, or your terms are too generous.

What belongs right next to the button

A bare "Pay" button makes people hesitate. Three lines beside it unblock them:

Exactly what the payment reserves. The date, the time, the number of people. A client pays for a certainty, not for a form.

The cancellation terms, in plain words. Up to when it is refunded, from when it is not, and what happens if you are the one cancelling because of the weather. On an island where hurricane season is part of the calendar, that last sentence is worth real money: it answers the question your visitor is asking without typing it.

The currency you charge in. "€450" and "$450" are not the same amount. Write the symbol, and say which of the two leaves the card.

The trap: the payment link you send by hand

Plenty of island operators already take cards, but by hand: the client writes, you go back and forth, and two days later you send them a payment link. It works, and it loses half of them along the way, because the moment has passed.

That is the whole difference. The payment has to live on the page where the client just made up their mind, not in a message you will send when you get five minutes. It is what we wire in by default on charter and watersports websites: pick the slot, pay the deposit, automatic confirmation, without you.

Where to start

Open last month's diary and count two things: the slots you held for nothing, and the enquiries you turned away during that time. That is your annual cost of working on someone's word, and it is almost always higher than a full year of card fees.

Then wire payment into one service, the most common one, with a modest deposit and written terms. One service that books itself beats a full catalogue you never dare put online.

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