A payment plan lets a traveler pay a deposit at booking, then the rest in installments charged automatically to their saved card before departure. You build a reusable template once, then attach it to each trip that should offer it.
Before you start
Payment plans are for multi-day trips only. Day tours are always paid in full.
Your workspace already has two templates: 50 / 50 (50% deposit, 50% due 30 days before departure) and Deposit + balance (30% deposit, 70% due 30 days before). If one of them fits, skip to Attach the plan to a trip below.
Create a template
Go to Settings → Payment plans and select New Payment plan.
Enter a Name and the Deposit % taken at booking. A deposit can be anything from 0% to 99%.
Under Installments, enter Days before departure and the Percentage for the first installment. Select Add to installments for each extra one.
Check the Preview. It shows the schedule on a €1,000 booking and lists anything that still needs fixing.
Select Create.
The deposit and installments must add up to exactly 100%. You can add up to 24 installments. Each must be at least 1%, at least 1 day before departure, and closer to departure than the one before it.
The two switches
Switch | On (default) | Off |
Auto-bill the saved card on each due date | Samba charges each installment at 09:00, in your workspace's timezone, on its due date | Samba emails the traveler a reminder at 09:00 on the due date, and they pay from their booking portal |
Auto-adjust for late bookings | A traveler who books after a due date has passed still gets the plan. The missed amounts are spread over the remaining installments | The plan is not offered for that departure, and the traveler pays in full |
With auto-adjust on, a traveler who books after every due date has passed is charged the full amount at booking.
Attach the plan to a trip
Open the experience, select Edit, and go to the Pricing & Participants tab.
In the Payment plan section, choose your template. 100% on booking means no plan.
Save the experience.
What happens next
At checkout the traveler chooses between paying in installments (pre-selected) and paying in full.
Each booking keeps its own copy of the schedule. Editing or archiving the template later never changes bookings already made.
With a 0% deposit nothing is charged at booking. The traveler only saves their payment method.
Travelers receive a payment confirmation email for each installment, and a "fully paid" email after the last one.
If a charge is declined, see When an installment fails.
Archiving a template cannot be undone. Every trip using it goes back to 100% on booking. An archived template can no longer be edited; open it and select Duplicate to start a new template from it.