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Booking Strategy - Custom Prices, Splits & Settlement

7 min read Intermediate For Owner, Manager, Staff Updated 12 days ago
Quick Answer
On any internal reservation, expand Booking Strategy and toggle Customize booking on. Use Change the price to apply a phone quote, discount, or comp. Use Change the payment plan to split the payment, route the balance to an invoice or house account, or waive the balance. The right-rail Order Summary shows exactly what the customer will pay.

Booking Strategy — Custom Prices, Payment Plans & Settlement

Every rental shop has those situations that don't fit the template: the regular who got a phone quote yesterday, the group leader who needs an invoice, the weather cancellation that deserves a credit, the VIP you promised a percentage off. The Booking Strategy panel lets you handle all of them without leaving the booking.

Find it on every internal reservation under the Booking Strategy card, and on every saved cart as Edit Saved Strategy on the cart detail page.

When to Customize a Booking

You'll reach for Booking Strategy when:

  • A customer has a quoted price that's not your catalog price
  • You need to split payment (deposit now, rest at pickup or later)
  • A corporate customer pays by invoice instead of card
  • You're forgiving a balance for a service issue, weather, or goodwill
  • A VIP or repeat renter gets a percentage discount
  • You need a clear audit trail for the decision

Walk-Through

Step 1: Open the Booking Strategy panel

On the New Booking page (or Edit Saved Strategy on an existing cart), find the Booking Strategy card above the customer info form. It looks like this:

  • Title: Booking Strategy
  • Toggle: Customize booking — Turn this on only if you need to change the default price or payment plan for this booking

Leave it off and the booking uses your catalog price and your account's default payment flow. Turn it on and two panels appear: Change the price? and Change the payment plan?

Step 2: Change the price (optional)

Five options:

Option Use it for
Standard No change — catalog price
Set Price A fixed dollar amount (I quoted you $450)
$ Off Flat dollar discount ($50 off)
% Off Percentage discount (10% off for repeat renters)
Comp No charge (admin only)

When you pick anything other than Standard, two fields appear:

  • Reason — Phone Quote, Manager Discount, Weather, VIP, or Other
  • Note — optional free text (recommended for the audit trail)

Taxes and fees still calculate against the effective rental amount.

Step 3: Change the payment plan (optional)

Four presets:

Preset What happens
Use booking default Your account's standard payment flow (full balance, or deposit if configured)
Take different amount now You enter a custom Take now and Leave for later split
Invoice Nothing collected at counter — balance routes to an invoice (account opt-in required)
Waive balance Whatever's left after Take now is forgiven (admin only)

When you type a value in Take now or Leave for later, the other field auto-fills against the cart total. Type $100 in Take now on a $300 cart → Leave for later fills with $200 automatically.

Under When is the rest due? you can pick:

  • Standard — your account's default timing
  • At Pickup — balance collected at check-in
  • Before Rental — 1 day / 3 days / 1 week / 2 weeks before the rental starts
  • Specific Date — any calendar date
  • Manual Later — you'll handle it outside the normal flow

Under How should the balance be handled?, pick a settlement mode. Only Normal causes the balance to be collected at the counter. Invoice, House Account, and Waive Balance all route the balance elsewhere and zero out counter collection.

Step 4: Watch the right-rail Summary

The Order Summary on the right is the single source of truth for what the customer pays. The numbers there are exactly what appears on the receipt, confirmation email, and check-in screen.

Custom split example (customer pays $120 on a $300 cart):

ORIGINAL RENTAL PRICE
$300.00  (small, muted)

💵 CUSTOMER WILL PAY
$120.00  (big, green)
➔ Collect now       $100.00
📅 Due later         $20.00

Waive balance example:

ORIGINAL RENTAL PRICE
$300.00

💵 CUSTOMER WILL PAY NOW
$100.00
☑ Forgiven           $200.00
────────────────────────────
Balance After Collection   $0.00

If the customer total is less than the cart total and you haven't explicitly waived or invoiced, you'll see an amber warning: $X of the original rental is not being collected. Tap Waive balance to forgive this amount, Invoice to route it, or increase the split to collect it. The warning is a safety net against accidental under-collection.

Step 5: Complete the reservation

Finish customer info and payment like any other booking. Your strategy is:

  • Saved to the cart (survives page reloads)
  • Applied to the Stripe charge (only the Take now amount is charged)
  • Reflected on the confirmation email (customer sees custom total, not catalog)
  • Visible on the check-in screen (no counter collection for waive/invoice/house account)
  • Recorded in the Override History for future auditing

Real-World Playbooks

Phone quote — customer called yesterday for $450 on a $520 cart

  1. Expand Booking Strategy → toggle Customize booking on
  2. Change the price? → Set Price → enter 450
  3. Reason: Phone Quote — Note: Quoted by Brad 2026-04-17
  4. Right rail shows Customer Pays $450.00
  5. Complete reservation → Stripe charges $450 + taxes + fees on $450

Corporate customer — invoice billing

  1. Leave price as Standard
  2. Change the payment plan? → click Invoice preset
  3. Settlement mode auto-sets to Invoice
  4. Right rail shows 💵 CUSTOMER WILL PAY NOW $0.00 / 🧾 Moved to invoice [total] / Balance After Collection $0.00
  5. Complete the reservation — no card charged; you handle the invoice through your AR workflow

Weather cancellation — comp the rental, waive the balance

  1. Open the cart → Edit Saved Strategy
  2. Change the price? → Comp — Reason: Weather
  3. Change the payment plan? → click Waive balance
  4. Save. Check-in screen and receipts show Balance Waived

Local regular — 10% repeat-renter discount

  1. Toggle Customize booking on
  2. Change the price? → % Off → 10
  3. Reason: VIP
  4. Leave payment plan as Use booking default
  5. Right rail shows 10%-off effective total

Deposit split — $200 now, $250 at pickup on a $450 rental

  1. Leave price Standard
  2. Change the payment plan? → click Take different amount now
  3. Type 200 in Take now — Leave for later auto-fills 250
  4. When is the rest due? → At Pickup
  5. Complete — Stripe charges $200 today; $250 appears at check-in

Permissions

Some actions are gated by role and account settings:

Action Who
Set Price, $ Off, % Off Any employee or admin
Comp Admin only (can be disabled per account)
Waive balance Admin only (can be disabled per account)
Invoice Admin + employees; account must enable invoicing
House Account Admin + employees; account must enable house accounts
Large discounts (>25% off, >$100 off, or Comp) Any authorized actor, but flagged for manager review

If a button is missing from the UI, your role or account settings don't grant it. Ask your admin to review Account Settings → Operator Billing.

Manager Review flag

Large discounts automatically get a yellow Manager Review pill on the cart. They don't block the booking — they surface in override history so managers can audit the decision after the fact. Configure thresholds under Account Settings.

Override History — Who Did What, When

Every change to a Booking Strategy appends an entry to the cart's override history. Find it on the cart detail page under Booking Strategy card → Override history accordion.

Each entry records:

  • Staff member's email
  • Timestamp (12-hour time, your account timezone)
  • Workflow source (reservation create / modify staged / modify finalized)
  • Before-and-after snapshots of the pricing and payment policy

Use this for audits, manager review queues, and answering questions like why was this comped? Every decision leaves a trail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does a custom price change taxes and fees?

Yes — taxes and fees calculate against the effective rental price, so a $100 override replaces the catalog price and everything downstream is computed from $100.

What happens to the platform fee on a comp?

Platform fees are still computed against the rental subtotal. If the rental is $0 (Comp), the platform fee is $0.

Can I change the strategy after the reservation is complete?

Yes — open the cart detail page and click Edit Saved Strategy. Changes apply going forward. If the customer was already charged under a prior strategy, you may need to issue a refund or take an additional payment separately.

Does the customer see the original price on their receipt?

When the operator has set a custom total, the customer sees Original Cart Total (crossed out or muted) alongside their actual total, so there's no surprise but also no misleading you saved $X messaging. Invoice / House Account receipts clearly say No balance due at pickup.

What if I accidentally save the wrong strategy?

Just update it. Every save appends to the override history. To revert completely, toggle Customize booking off and save — the cart returns to catalog pricing and default payment behavior.

Can this be set in bulk across multiple bookings in one cart?

Yes. The Booking Strategy applies at the cart level and distributes across every booking proportionally. For a cart with three bookings and a 10% discount, each booking's rental is reduced by 10%.

How does this interact with gift cards?

Gift cards apply on top of the operator strategy. A customer with a $50 gift card on a $200 Set-Price booking pays $150 out of pocket. The strategy's collect-now / due-later split is computed after gift card application.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I apply a phone quote price to a booking?
Toggle Customize booking on, pick Set Price under Change the price, enter the quoted amount, and select a Reason (Phone Quote). The right rail updates immediately. Complete the reservation normally — the customer is charged the quoted amount.
Can I take a partial payment and invoice the rest?
Yes. Expand Change the payment plan, click the Invoice preset, and the balance routes to an invoice. The customer is not charged at pickup; you handle invoicing through your normal AR workflow. Invoicing must be enabled on your account.
What does Waive balance actually do?
Waive balance forgives whatever is left after the amount collected now. The receipt says Balance Waived, the confirmation email shows zero due, and the check-in screen skips counter collection entirely. Admin permission is required.
Why is my comp button greyed out or missing?
Comp requires admin role. If you're an employee, your account admin can make the change, or your admin can enable comp for all staff in Account Settings.
What's the difference between Invoice and House Account?
Both route the balance away from counter collection. Invoice is for one-off corporate billing (you'll send a formal invoice through your AR process). House Account is for recurring relationships where the customer has an ongoing tab. Both require account admin to enable.
How can I see who applied a discount and why?
Open the cart detail page and expand the Override History accordion on the Booking Strategy card. Every change is logged with the staff member's email, timestamp, reason code, and before/after snapshots.
The customer paid less than the cart total — why does the receipt show that as balance due?
It shouldn't. If you see a phantom balance due larger than what you collected, confirm the Booking Strategy shows the right Take now / Due later / settlement mode. Save the strategy. The receipt, confirmation email, and check-in screen all reread from the saved strategy on next load.