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Empty chairs from no-shows are the most expensive silence in this business. Sable gives you three layers of protection (cards, deposits, fees), rules for how bookings can change, and a waitlist to refill the gaps that happen anyway.

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Money at booking time

In Settings → Booking Page, the payments section sets what a client commits to when they book online:
  • Require a card to book. The client saves a card to finish booking. No charge yet. The client accepts the displayed storage, purchase and fee terms before entering the card in secure payment fields. For a staff-made booking, the confirmation link collects the card before the client confirms. Staff can still confirm an appointment by hand, but that does not collect a card.
  • Deposit. Collect real money up front: a fixed amount, a percentage of the service, or full payment. The deposit comes off the final bill at checkout.
  • No-show fee. A fixed amount or a percentage of the service, charged only when someone doesn’t show. A fee is collected from a card on file, so setting one turns on Require a card to book for online booking.
When a card is required, online confirmation waits until the card has been saved and verified. If secure collection is unavailable, clients see a message to contact the business. A paid deposit alone does not satisfy the card requirement. A pattern that works for a lot of salons: require a card on everything, and add deposits only to long or high-value appointments like color, extensions, and bridal. With Require booking approval on, a deposit or full prepayment is not charged when the client sends the request. The client saves their card and sees the exact amount; Sable charges it only when the salon accepts. Declining the request, or letting it end unanswered at its start time, charges nothing. Booking in person? The calendar’s booking panel has Collect deposit right in it, so a phone booking can carry a deposit too. The confirmation link shows the amount due and collects it when the client confirms. A team member can still confirm by hand, but the deposit remains unpaid until the client uses the link. All of this needs payments connected first; until then, the deposit control waits with a pointer to payment setup.

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Rules for changes and cancellations

In Settings → Scheduling, the Booking Policies tab decides how much control clients have after booking: Booth renters manage these settings for their own bookings, including card requirements, deposits, no-show fees, cancellation rules, and lead times. Their changes do not rewrite another stylist’s policies.
  • Allow client cancellations plus a Cancellation window: clients can bow out online, but not inside the window where you can’t refill the spot.
  • Require booking approval: online bookings arrive as requests and are confirmed when you accept them. Good for salons where every booking needs a human eye; skip it if you’d rather the calendar fill itself. See Booking requests.

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When the no-show happens anyway

Open the appointment and set its status to No-show. That works during the appointment too: once the start time passes and the chair is still empty, Mark no-show is right there in the appointment panel, with the fee decision attached. That’s the honest record your reports draw from, and it’s what a no-show fee hangs off. Be consistent about it; a fee policy you only sometimes enforce trains clients to gamble. A missed-appointment fee uses the card, business and maximum fee accepted when that appointment was booked. Changing your policy later does not increase that booking’s authorized fee. A card awaiting verification or reconciliation needs attention before another charge can be attempted.

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The waitlist

Clients → Waitlist is where “call me if anything opens up” stops being a sticky note.
  • Add Entry puts a client on the list: who they are, what service they’re waiting for (or any), and a note about what they need.
  • Each entry tracks where things stand: Waiting, Contacted, Booked, or Removed.
  • Filter the list by stylist to see one person’s line, with a count on each chip.
  • When a cancellation opens a gap, work the list: Invite to book sends the client a private link for that stylist by text, by email, or copied wherever you talk. Mark entries Removed when they’re no longer waiting, so the list stays real.
Applications approved from a form land here too, on the waitlist of the stylist the form belongs to. See From application to booked. A short, current waitlist turns a cancelled Tuesday into a full one. A long stale one is just guilt in table form. Still stuck? Visit the Help Center to submit a support ticket.