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Booking payments & payouts

When the customer is charged, how the money splits three ways, and when the seller actually receives it.

Quick answer

The customer pays once the booking is approved (or straight away with instant booking). Your commission is taken out, Stripe's processing fee comes out of the seller's side, and the rest goes to the seller's connected Stripe account at that moment. There is no hold-until-the-job-is-done step for bookings.

When the customer is charged

  • Approval required (the default): the customer requests a slot, nothing is charged. When the seller approves, the customer gets a payment link and pays. Only then is the booking confirmed.
  • Instant booking: the customer is taken to checkout immediately and the booking is confirmed on payment.
  • Pay in person: no online charge at all. The seller collects cash or card at the session, and no commission is taken because no money passes through the platform.

How a $200 booking splits

The single most asked question about bookings is who pays Stripe's processing fee. The answer is the seller: it comes out of their share, not out of your commission.

Customer pays

$200.00

20%
Seller

Your commission (20%)

Set per store, or per listing type

$40.00

Stripe processing fee

2.9% + 30c in the US, taken from the seller's share

$6.10

Seller receives

Lands in their Stripe account

$153.90

Shown on the seller's booking card as “Your Earnings”. Prometora's own platform fee is separate and billed to you monthly, never deducted here.

The Stripe fee is not configurable

There is no setting that moves Stripe's processing fee onto the marketplace instead of the seller. If you want sellers to net a round number, price the listing accordingly or lower your commission. Cross-border and currency-conversion fees above the standard rate are absorbed by your platform account.

When the seller gets the money

This depends on one thing only: whether the seller has finished connecting their Stripe account.

Seller has connected Stripe

Customer pays $200

$153.90 to their Stripe account

Same moment. Stripe then pays out on its own schedule.

Seller has not connected yet

Customer pays $200

$153.90 held in your balance

Shown to them as pending earnings.

Released when they connect

Every held booking pays out in one transfer.

Sellers can take bookings before connecting Stripe, which keeps signup friction low. Nothing is lost while they wait.

Test-mode earnings stay separate

Bookings taken while your store runs on Stripe test keys accrue separately from live ones, so practice bookings can never be paid out as real money or shown in a seller's live pending earnings. See How Sellers Connect Stripe.

Refunds and cancellations

  • Cancelling a paid booking refunds it in full, automatically. This applies whether the customer, the seller or you cancel it.
  • Your cancellation policy text is not enforced. It is shown to the customer at booking, but nothing charges a late-cancellation fee for you. To keep part of the payment, issue a partial refund from the booking instead of cancelling it.
  • Partial refunds can be any amount up to the total. Your commission comes back proportionally, so you are never left holding commission on money the customer got back.
  • Refunds work after payout. The seller's share is pulled back from their Stripe balance, which Stripe recovers from their later bookings if it goes negative.
  • Stripe keeps its processing fee on a refund. That cost sits with your platform account.
  • Held earnings are adjusted too. If a booking is refunded before the seller has connected Stripe, the amount is removed from their pending earnings.

Setting your commission

Bookings use the same commission chain as everything else on your marketplace, resolved in this order:

  1. A commission override on that specific seller
  2. The commission attached to the seller's subscription plan, if you bill sellers
  3. The rate set on the listing type, if you set one
  4. Your store-wide commission

Set these under Payments & Stripe and Price Rules. To model the numbers before launching, use the revenue calculator.

Want payouts held until the job is done?

Shipped orders can hold a seller's payout until delivery is confirmed. Bookings cannot yet — a session is paid out when the customer pays. If a completion-gated release would change whether you launch, say so at [email protected]. We prioritise by demand.

Still unsure about the numbers?

Send us the price of a typical session and the commission you have in mind, and we will write out exactly what each side receives.
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Booking Payments & Payouts | Prometora Docs