Connecting Stripe for payments

What it is

Stripe is the service that securely takes card payments, so anything that charges a card (deposits, gift card sales, packages, memberships and shop orders) runs through it. When you connect Stripe, the money goes into your own Stripe account, not ours. Bookatu never sees card numbers and never takes a cut of your bookings.

Why it helps

Stripe is also what takes your booking page live: it stays private until Stripe can charge cards, so this is the step between you and a page customers can actually open. Once connected, deposits and online payments work for real and land in your account. See Why my booking page is not live yet if the Publish button is still off.

How to use it

1. 1Open Settings, tap Payment options and choose Connect Stripe. You are taken to Stripe to sign in or create an account and confirm a few details about you and your business.
2. 2Finish those steps so Stripe can activate charges. When you come back you are connected, and you can turn deposits on under Settings → Deposits & cancellations.
3. 3Add your bank account in Stripe so your money has somewhere to pay out to (see Getting paid and payouts).
4. 4Use test mode while you practise, with no real money, then switch to live mode to take real payments. Do a full practice booking before you go live.
5. 5Building your own version of Bookatu? Self-hosted setups configure their own Stripe keys instead. That developer detail lives at /developers, separate from this owner setup.