In the travel and tourism industry, booking decisions are often made weeks or even months in advance. However, requiring customers to pay the full amount upfront for a tour or vacation package can lead to hesitation and lost sales. By offering WooCommerce partial payments, you give travelers the flexibility to reserve their spot with a deposit, making it easier to commit while boosting your booking conversions.
In this guide, we’ll explore how the PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin helps travel businesses easily set up deposit-based payments, making it simple to secure more bookings without overwhelming your customers.
Why Deposits Matter for Travel & Tour Bookings
Deposits are a game-changer for travel and tour businesses, providing a flexible payment solution that benefits both the company and the customer. Here’s why they’re essential for the travel industry:
- Reduces Cart Abandonment: Travel packages and tours are often high-cost investments, which can deter potential customers from completing their booking. Offering a deposit option makes it easier for travelers to commit without paying the full amount upfront.
- Builds Trust and Commitment: A deposit assures both the customer and the business that the booking is serious. For a guided safari tour, offering a 25% deposit upfront makes travelers feel more secure in their plans, knowing they have “locked in” their experience.
- Improves Cash Flow: Travel businesses often face high upfront costs in hotel reservations, tour guides, and transport fees. By collecting deposits early, you can cover some of these costs while still allowing customers to pay off the balance later.
- Makes Travel More Accessible: Offering a deposit option makes travel bookings more affordable for a wider range of customers.
- Flexible Payment Options for Customers: Customers often book tours and vacations months in advance, and having the flexibility to spread out payments helps them manage their finances.
If you wanna know how the deposit payments on WooCommerce can help improve cash flow, check out this detailed guide.
The Best Way to Offer Deposits for Travel Bookings
There are several ways to offer deposits for travel and tour bookings on WooCommerce, but one solution stands out for its ease and efficiency: the WooCommerce Deposits plugin by PluginHive.
This plugin makes it simple for travel businesses to allow customers to secure their bookings with a deposit while giving them the flexibility to pay the remaining balance later. It integrates seamlessly with your WooCommerce store, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free setup, whether you’re a small tour operator or a large travel agency.
It’s the perfect solution for travel businesses that want to provide a better booking experience without the complexity of manually managing deposits.
Key Features of WooCommerce Deposits Plugin
The PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin offers a range of features that make it ideal for managing travel and tour bookings. Here’s how it enhances the booking process for travel businesses:
1. Flexible Deposit Options
You can set deposits as a fixed amount or a percentage of the total booking price. This flexibility allows you to choose the most suitable deposit method for each travel product.
2. Allow Customers to Pay the Balance Later (Scheduled Payment)
The plugin allows customers to pay the remaining balance of their booking at a later date. For example, when booking a multi-day tour package, travelers can secure their reservation with a deposit and pay off the balance later.
3. Customizable Deposit Schedules
You can collect a portion of the payment upfront as a deposit, then schedule the remaining balance to be paid later. Set specific dates or time intervals after booking, or even after the tour begins, to suit your business needs and ensure smooth payment collection.
4. The Checkout Design Options:
Choose how you want the deposit option to be displayed on the product and checkout pages, as inline or radio buttons.
5. Order Management:
Manage orders with deposits directly from the WooCommerce dashboard and generate remaining balance invoices.
6. Automatic Balance Reminders
Automatically send balance payment reminders to customers via email. This is especially useful for travel bookings, where the remaining balance is often due closer to the travel date, such as a month before a cruise or a few weeks before a tour departure.
7. Works with WooCommerce Bookings
The plugin seamlessly integrates with the WooCommerce Bookings Plugin, allowing you to set deposits for date-based bookings like tours, accommodation stays, or transportation rentals. To learn how to set up the Bookings plugin, refer to – Configure booking plugin for your Woocommerce store.
8. Supports Multiple Payment Gateways
The plugin supports a wide variety of payment gateways, making it easier for international travelers to pay their deposits in their preferred currency and method. This is crucial for global travel agencies or operators offering tours to customers from different regions.
9. Compatibility with WPML
When you choose to have a multilingual WooCommerce store, the plugin’s compatibility with WPML is a game-changer. It allows you to offer deposit payments in multiple languages and currencies, providing a seamless booking experience for customers from different regions.
10. Perfect for Custom Travel Packages
WooCommerce partial payments work great for personalized or made-to-order travel experiences. If you offer custom tours, pair them with the WooCommerce Product Add-Ons plugin to collect customization details right on the product page.
How to Set Up Deposits for Travel Bookings
Setting up deposit-based payments for your travel and tour offerings in WooCommerce is simple with the PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin. Whether you’re offering guided tours, vacation packages, or weekend getaways, you can enable flexible deposit options in just a few steps.
Before diving into the deposit configuration, let’s go over the prerequisites you’ll need in place.
Prerequisites
To enable deposit-based payments for tour bookings in your WooCommerce store, ensure you have the following plugins installed and configured:
- WooCommerce Bookings And Appointments Plugin
This plugin is essential for creating bookable products like tours, stays, or travel packages that require date selection, duration, and availability settings. Need help setting this up? Follow this guide: Configure Booking Plugin for Your WooCommerce Store. - PH WooCommerce Deposits Plugin
Required to accept partial payments (deposits) for any product, including bookable ones. To configure the plugin, refer to the setup guide: WooCommerce Deposits Plugin Setup Guide. - Bookable Travel/Tour Product
Make sure you’ve a bookable product in your store that represents a travel or tour package.
Setting Up Deposits for Travel & Tour Bookings
1. Enable Global Deposit Settings (Optional)
If you want to apply deposits across all your products, you can simply enable global deposit settings.
This lets you manage deposits site-wide, while still allowing overrides at the product level when needed.
2. Choose Deposit Type
- Under the deposit options, you can select whether the deposit should be a fixed amount (e.g., $500) or a percentage of the total price (e.g., 30%).
- This flexibility allows you to align payment expectations with the nature of the tour. For example:
- A luxury expedition might require a higher fixed deposit.
- A short city tour may be better suited for a smaller percentage-based deposit.
- You can also choose whether to make deposits optional or mandatory.
3. Set the Balance Due Schedule
- Define when the remaining balance should be paid.
- Choose a specific number of days before the tour start date to collect the balance.
Example: For a $2,000 Kashmir trip with a 25% deposit, the customer pays $500 upfront and the remaining amount two days after the trip starts.
4. Configure Automatic Email Reminders
- You can send balance payment reminders to your customer by enabling automatic balance payment reminders in the plugin settings.
- Set how many days before the due date the reminder should be sent (e.g., 1 day in advance).
- You can also customize the email content to reflect your brand tone and provide clear instructions for payment completion.
This helps ensure travelers don’t forget to complete their payments and gives your team peace of mind as tour dates approach. To learn more, see detailed instructions on setting up automated payments and reminders.
5. Apply to Specific Products
The feature of this plugin is that you can also enable deposit payments for specific products in the product settings; this will override any storewide deposit settings, giving you full control over partial payments on a per-product basis.
With these steps, you can offer a seamless, professional booking and payment experience to your customers, boosting conversions while keeping cash flow predictable.
To learn more about how the deposit plugin supports various aspects of your business, watch the video.
Enhancing the Customer Experience
Enhancing the customer experience is key when offering deposit-based bookings. The PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin ensures that customers feel confident and informed throughout the process, from browsing a tour package to completing their payment. Clear deposit information is displayed on the product page, so customers know exactly what they’re paying upfront and what remains. Additionally, automated email reminders keep customers informed about upcoming payments, reducing the chance of missed deadlines. Overall, the process feels seamless and professional, making customers more likely to book with confidence.
Tips & Best Practices for Travel Tour Booking Deposits
- Be Transparent: Display deposit amounts, due dates, and refund policies on product pages and during checkout.
- Standardize Deposit Rules: Use consistent deposit settings for similar tours (e.g., 30% for all weekend getaways) to simplify management and avoid confusion.
- Automate Reminders: Set up automatic balance payment reminders (e.g., 10 and 3 days before the due date) to reduce missed payments.
- Offer Flexible Payments: Enable multiple payment gateways to accommodate travelers from different regions.
- Highlight Deposit Offers: Use labels like “Reserve with 25% Deposit” to draw attention on product pages.
- Clarify Refund Policies: Make your refund policy clear for both deposits and full payments to avoid disputes.
Final Thoughts
Offering deposit-based payments for travel and tour bookings enhances the customer experience and benefits your business. It reduces cart abandonment, builds trust, and improves cash flow. The PH WooCommerce Deposits plugin simplifies managing deposits and scheduled payments.
Take your travel and tour booking business to the next level with flexible payment options. For further assistance, contact the PluginHive Support.
