Here is a thing almost nobody checks until it has already cost them: on most booking platforms, requiring a card at booking does not mean the money is there.
It means the card number is real. Whether the account behind it has $45 in it at 9am the morning after your 2pm didn't show — that gets tested for the first time when you press the button. By then the appointment, the slot and the day are already gone.
We went through the help documentation for ten platforms. Not comparison blogs — the vendors' own support articles. Several of them say it out loud.
What each one actually does
| Platform | Real funds hold? | What happens on a no-show |
|---|---|---|
| Booksy | Yes — but only for repeat offenders | Auto-charges at end of business day |
| MoeGo | Yes — full ticket, held 24h ahead | Captures the held funds |
| Boulevard | A "pre-authorization token" — not documented as held funds | Manual charge, can fail |
| Square | Not documented | Charge attempted when you enforce; can decline |
| Vagaro | No — a $1 verification only | Charge attempted afterwards |
| GlossGenius | No — states no charge is attempted at booking | Charge attempted afterwards |
| Fresha | No — "No payment is taken" | Charge attempted; can decline |
| StyleSeat | Not documented | Charges a percentage of the service |
| Acuity | No — a small pre-auth, automatically reversed | No fee automation at all; you charge manually |
| Schedulicity | Help centre now redirects to Vagaro following the acquisition | |
Credit where it is due: GlossGenius says the quiet part
Their own help centre spells out the gap more honestly than anyone else:
“While GlossGenius ensures only valid credit card numbers are entered upon booking, there is no charge attempted at that time… At the time of charging a fee, a valid card can have insufficient funds and decline if the available balance is less than the cancellation fee.”
Fresha is equally plain — its “capture card details” policy states “No payment is taken.” Vagaro runs a $1 verification transaction to confirm the card exists, and nothing more.
Square is the one worth reading twice. The setting is called “Hold card in case of no-show.” The documentation underneath it says the card is charged when you enforce your policy, and “should the card be declined, you'll need to contact your client for a new payment method.” A charge that can be declined is not a hold.
Booksy is the only one that closes the gap — halfway
Booksy runs a real pre-authorization, and the booking does not land on your calendar until funds are confirmed. But it is deliberately targeted:
“Booksy doesn't check every client's card… Only clients who have a previously failed cancellation fee will be checked.”
Which is sensible product design and also means the first person to stiff you gets through unheld, every time. You get protection starting with offence number two.
Worth knowing alongside that: Booksy automatically promotes frequent clients to Trusted Client status, after which they are no longer asked for a card on covered services. It is a setting you can change — Business Settings → Payments & Checkout → No-Show Protection → Trusted Clients — but it is on by default and it works silently.
Then the chargeback lands on you
Say the charge does go through. The client can still dispute it, and the platform's terms decide who eats that.
- Vagaro — $7.50 per chargeback, eight days to respond, and the fee is not refunded even if you win.
- Booksy — $20 per chargeback.
- GlossGenius — offers chargeback protection on Gold and Platinum, but it excludes card-on-file transactions. That is precisely what a no-show fee is.
- Square — charges nothing for dispute handling. Genuinely the outlier here, in your favour.
One more trapdoor, on Acuity
Acuity saves the card through Square, and Square emails your client a link to remove it. Acuity's documentation notes that removing the card “won't cancel their appointment, but it will prevent you using saved card details to charge them.” The appointment stays. The card leaves. And you cannot remove or re-add it from your side.
What every vendor quietly recommends instead
Read enough of these docs and the same advice surfaces from the platforms themselves. Vagaro notes deposits are “more protected and less likely to be disputed.” Fresha suggests deposits “to reduce the risk of declined payments.” GlossGenius says it recommends collecting deposits.
They are right, and it is the actionable part of this whole piece: a deposit is money that has already moved. A card on file is a promise that it might. If your average service is long or expensive enough that a no-show ruins the day, take a deposit and stop relying on a fee.
Where we come in, and where we don't
Morningside does not process deposits or chase fees. We are not in this fight, and this is not an argument for us.
What it is an argument for is noticing what all of this is really about. Every platform above is arguing over how to extract $25 from somebody who is not coming. Fine. But the $25 was never the loss — the hour was. A $120 colour slot that stays empty costs you $120 whether or not you successfully clawed back a quarter of it.
That is the part we do: the moment somebody cancels or no-shows, their rebook link goes out automatically, and the hour you already sold gets a real chance to fill. Charge the fee too if you like — the two are not in competition.
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Every figure and quotation above is taken from the named vendor's own help documentation or terms, checked 21 August 2026. This pricing and these mechanics change — verify against the source before acting on anything here. Where a vendor does not document a behaviour, this piece says so rather than guessing.