Enough that the guest shows up, not so much that they book somewhere else. For most guides that lands between a quarter and a half of the trip price, with the rest collected before the day or at the ramp. Here is how to choose the number, when to collect the balance, and how to stop managing it by hand.
Updated 6 min read
Book a demoStart free, 30 daysA deposit does two jobs. It commits the guest, which is the main one: someone with money on the date reads your cancellation policy, puts the trip in their calendar and tells the rest of the party. And it covers the cost you have already carried when a date falls through late, which is the guide's day, the launch fee, bait and fuel, and the other party you turned away. Price the deposit for the first job and check it against the second.
Deposits scale with how hard a date is to resell and how much is at stake. A half day in peak season resells itself; a week at a remote lodge does not.
| Trip | Common deposit | Balance due | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Half day (2 to 4 anglers) | 25%, or a flat $100 to $150 | 7 days before, or on the day | Easy to resell; a modest hold is enough to stop casual no-shows |
| Full day | 25% to 50% | 7 to 14 days before | The guide's whole day; a Saturday lost on Friday is rarely refilled |
| Private boat or group charter | 50% | 14 days before | A whole boat and often a second guide; nothing to resell to a walk-up |
| Multi-day float or trip | 50%, non-refundable but transferable | 30 to 60 days before | Permits, shuttles, food and guides are committed well ahead |
| Lodge or destination week | 50% at booking, sometimes 100% inside 60 days | 60 to 90 days before | Lodge beds are bought in blocks; a late cancellation is a sunk cost |
A percentage scales with party size and trip length without you thinking about it, which is why most booking systems default to it. A flat amount is easier to say out loud and feels smaller on an expensive trip, which can help conversion on a $1,200 private charter where 25% sounds like a lot. A reasonable rule: percentage for anything under $600, a flat deposit for private and multi-day trips where the number would otherwise look alarming, and never a deposit so small that walking away from it is painless.
The balance date is really the last day you can resell the trip. Set it there. If you can refill a cancelled full day with a week's notice, charge the balance seven days out; the guest who cancels on day eight gets their balance back and you still have time to fill the seat. If you cannot refill a multi-day trip inside a month, the balance is due a month out. Say the date in the confirmation and charge it on the date. A balance you have to ask for is a balance that arrives late, if at all.
Plenty of guides still take the balance at the ramp, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as it is recorded against the booking rather than remembered. The failure mode is not the cash; it is the end of the season when the books say one thing and the bank says another, and the tip that was folded into the balance is nowhere. If you take cash balances, mark each one on the booking the same day.
Reason it through rather than trusting a statistic. A booking with nothing paid costs the guest nothing to forget, and a free booking competes with every other plan the family makes for that Saturday. A booking with a deposit has already cost them something, they have read the terms to find out whether they get it back, and they have usually told the rest of the party. Guides who move from no deposit to even a small one report the same thing: fewer empty mornings and far fewer apologetic texts the night before. The deposit does not need to be large to do this; it needs to exist and to be collected at the moment of booking, not later.
Silverpine Adventures (a fictional example) runs a $650 full-day float for two anglers. They take a 30% deposit at booking, $195, and charge the $455 balance ten days before the trip, with a reminder three days before the charge. A guest who cancels two weeks out gets $195 back as a credit for the season and never pays the balance. A guest who cancels five days out has already paid in full and is offered a date change; if they decline, the policy keeps the trip price and Silverpine tries to resell the date, refunding the balance if they do. A no-show on the morning has paid, and the guide has not lost the day's income, only the day.
Each trip has its own deposit: a percentage of the price or a fixed amount. A half day and a private charter can carry different deposits without a different policy.
Choose how many days before the trip the balance is due. Treka charges the card on file automatically on that day and sends the guest a reminder before it does, so the money arrives on the date your policy names and nobody has to ask.
If you collect the rest at the ramp, mark it on the booking so the record shows the trip as paid and your numbers still reconcile at the end of the season.
The deposit, the balance date and what happens on cancellation all appear on the booking page and in the confirmation. See the companion post on cancellation policies for the wording.
FAQ
Something else? Ask the people who build it.
Outside your full-refund window, yes, because you will resell the date. Inside it, most guides keep the deposit as a credit for a later trip rather than refunding it, which keeps the guest and the money. For multi-day and lodge trips the deposit is usually non-refundable from the start but can be transferred to another angler.
Usually. On a $350 half day a 50% deposit asks for $175 up front for a trip that is easy to refill, and some guests will book the guide down the road who asks for $100. A quarter, or a flat $100, does the job of committing the guest without getting in the way.
Let them. Some guests prefer to settle everything when they book, particularly for gifts and for trips booked by one person for a group. The policy windows still apply to how much comes back if they cancel.
Keep them separate. The balance covers the trip; the tip is the guest's decision on the day. Guides who fold an expected tip into the balance get fewer tips and more awkward conversations. Treka can also ask for a tip when the guest leaves a review after the trip.
Yes, and they should. A shared half day, a private full day and a four-day float are three different risks. Set the deposit and balance date per trip and keep the cancellation wording common.
No. It is a working summary of how guide services and outfitters commonly handle this, written to help you ask better questions. Rules differ by state and country and by the land you operate on. Check anything that carries legal weight with your lawyer, broker or accountant before you rely on it.
30 days of Core free, no card required
Set a deposit per trip, name the balance date, and let the balance charge on that day with a reminder before it. Cash balances get recorded, not remembered. See it on your own trips.
Book a demoStart free, 30 days See pricing