Deposits and no-shows in Poland: what a salon may legally keep (2026)

A client booked three hours of colour, did not turn up and did not answer the phone. The chair stood empty, the stylist was paid the same for the day, and you covered it out of your own pocket. The first instinct is obvious: take money up front and keep it. The second, more careful one, is the question of whether you may.

You may, but not any way you like. Polish law has three different words for money paid before a visit, and each means something different the moment the client does not show up. On top of that, a booking made online is a distance contract with a fourteen-day right of withdrawal that no salon policy can switch off. This article puts it together: what you can keep, how much, on what conditions, how to account for it, and how to set it up in your booking system so that the client's consent is evidence rather than an argument.

We checked the law and the rates on 26 September 2026 in the consolidated texts of the Civil Code and the Consumer Rights Act on isap.sejm.gov.pl, in UOKiK's position on zadatek and zaliczka and in Stripe's pricing. This is not legal advice: agree your actual policy and bookkeeping with a lawyer and an accountant.

Short answer. A zaliczka (advance) always goes back, whatever your policy says. A zadatek (deposit) under art. 394 of the Civil Code may be kept when the client fails to perform the contract, but it must be called that and agreed before the booking, and if you are the one who cancels, you return it twice over. 100% of the price as a deposit was found by UOKiK to be a practice infringing collective consumer interests; the trade norm is 30–50%. An online booking is a distance contract: the client has 14 days to withdraw without giving a reason, and 12 months if you never told them about it. In Slotsy the client pays the full price online at booking, reads and accepts your cancellation rules before paying (consent stored with version, date and IP), and after a no-show you refund the part above the deposit from the panel. Slotsy does not charge a card automatically after a no-show.

Want to see how it looks on your own page? Create a Free account, write your cancellation rules and see what the client reads before paying.

Three words that decide the money

What stays in the salon after a no-show depends on the name the money was given in your policy and on your booking page. Not on what you called it in your head.

The first rule follows from the table: if you want to keep anything, it has to be a zadatek. A policy with a "non-refundable advance" does not work, because an advance is refundable by definition, and a term that "excludes the obligation to refund the consumer for a service not performed" is listed by name among unfair terms (art. 385³ pt 12 of the Civil Code).

The second rule: a deposit cuts both ways. The same art. 394 § 1 that lets you keep it obliges you to return double when the salon is the party that fails to perform. A policy in which the client loses the deposit while a salon that cancels "offers another date" is asymmetric and easy to challenge (art. 385³ pt 16). So before you introduce deposits, count how many visits a month you cancel yourself.

How much you may keep

The Code names no percentage. The line is drawn by decisions and UOKiK practice:

• In 2014 UOKiK challenged a hotel's terms that took a deposit of 100% of the price and did not return it on cancellation (decision RGD-61-414/MLM). The office wrote plainly that "a deposit or advance may not equal 100% of the remuneration". The same logic applies to a salon.
• The list of unfair terms includes an obligation to pay "a grossly excessive contractual penalty or withdrawal fee" (art. 385³ pt 17). A deposit equal to the full price looks exactly like that, because the salon has spent neither materials nor time.
• In hairdressing and beauty the norm is 30–50% of the price, more for treatments where you buy materials for a specific person (lash or hair extensions, packages).

Let us work it through for four services with a 30% deposit and full online payment at booking, which is how Slotsy works. Fees are charged on the whole payment: Stripe for BLIK 1.6% + 1 zł, Slotsy's fee 2% on the Free plan.

Payment fees are not returned on a refund: not Stripe's (it says so in the pricing) and not Slotsy's platform fee (a clause of the Terms you accept at sign-up). On the Start plan the fee drops to 1%, on Team to 0.5%. The practical conclusion: on 30–50 zł services the fees eat the deposit; leave those as pay on site.

An online booking is a distance contract

This is the point most salon policies are silent about. A booking made through a website, an app, Instagram or by phone is a contract concluded at a distance. The Consumer Rights Act gives the client 14 days to withdraw from it without giving a reason and at no cost (art. 27). Withdrawal means walking away from the whole contract, so all the money goes back, deposit included.

The exceptions in art. 38 do not rescue the salon:

• pt 1 removes the right of withdrawal only once the trader has fully performed the service with the consumer's express prior consent, having told them they lose the right once it is performed. After a no-show nothing has been performed;
• pt 12 removes the right for services "of accommodation, catering, services related to leisure, entertainment, sporting or cultural events, if the contract specifies the day or period of performance". Hairdressers and beauticians are not on that list. Lawyers sometimes bring group classes at a fitness studio under "sporting events", but that is an opinion, not a certainty.

What this means in practice:

1. A client who booked today for a visit next week and writes tomorrow that they are cancelling has withdrawn validly. The deposit goes back, whatever the policy says.
2. A deposit protects you from a no-show when the client has not validly withdrawn: they made no declaration, or 14 days from the booking have passed. For visits booked well ahead this works; for visits booked for tomorrow it is a dispute in which lawyers disagree on whether simply not turning up counts as withdrawal.
3. You must inform the client of the right of withdrawal (art. 12(1) pt 9). If you do not, the period extends to 12 months (art. 29). Information on withdrawal and a model form are a mandatory part of the terms you link from your booking page.

Honestly: the law here is more on the client's side than a salon owner's intuition suggests. A deposit is not a shield against everything. It is a tool that discourages careless bookings and gives you a strong position in disputes over visits booked in advance.

Setting it up in Slotsy step by step

Slotsy does not take a partial deposit at booking. The client either pays the full price of the service online at the moment of booking, or pays on site, and you decide whether that second option is visible. The deposit exists as a rule in your terms, and enforcing it means refunding part of the money from the panel. This is how it fits together:

1. Online payment. Connect Stripe and turn on BLIK and cards. Under Settings → Payment Processors there is a switch Allow pay on site. Off means every online booking is paid up front. The switch applies to the whole company, not to individual services.
2. Cancellation window. Under Settings → Booking set the Minimum Cancellation Notice: from "anytime" to 48 hours (24 by default). Inside that window the client cannot cancel themselves; the button is refused. You and your staff can always cancel. Described in the guide: Cancellation Rules.
3. Your rules, in your words. Under the hours selector there is a field Your cancellation rules, one per language, up to 1,000 characters. This is where you write that the payment is a deposit within the meaning of art. 394 of the Civil Code, what part of it is forfeited on a no-show or late cancellation, that the rest is returned within a stated number of days, and that if the salon cancels the client receives double. The preview shows the exact sentence the client will see. The field takes plain text only, no links or formatting, so keep your full terms with the withdrawal information as a separate document and link it in step 5.
4. Consent you can prove. Turn on Ask the customer to confirm the rules. Instead of the line "by confirming, you accept the rules" the client gets a tick box, and the payment button only works once it is ticked. Slotsy stores the wording, its version, the date and the IP address. Change your rules later and old consents stay tied to the old wording. Details: Policies and consents.
5. Terms and the right of withdrawal. Under Settings → Booking → Your policies link your own terms and privacy policy. The terms must include information on the 14-day right of withdrawal and the model form.
6. After a no-show. Open the booking and click Mark as No-Show. Then in Payments open the payment, choose Partial refund and enter the amount above the deposit (for 150 zł with a 30% deposit you refund 105 zł). The refund goes back the way the payment came; the client usually sees it in 5–10 business days. Described in: Payment Overview.
7. When the client cancelled in time. The refund does not happen by itself. You open the payment and choose Full refund. The booking is then cancelled automatically, the slot goes back on sale and the client gets an email. Refunds are issued by owners and admins.

If a regular client should not have to pay up front, the only route is to leave pay on site enabled for everyone. Slotsy has no per-person exception today.

What Slotsy does not do, and Booksy does

This section is not here to send you to a competitor, but so that you do not discover the difference after the fact. Checked on 26.09.2026 on the Booksy Biz blog (post dated 21.07.2025) and in Booksy's pricing.

The card-hold mechanism is better on this particular topic: the client pays nothing if they turn up, and the salon charges them only after a no-show. Full payment up front in Slotsy is simpler and puts the money in your account at once, but it is a bigger barrier for the client and incurs fees on the whole amount rather than on the deposit. If no-shows are your main problem, rather than the lack of online payment as such, weigh this when choosing.

Tax and the cash register on deposits

Three things your accountant will ask about:

• VAT on a deposit arises when it is received (art. 19a(8) of the VAT Act), not after the visit. This concerns VAT payers; under the turnover exemption the point falls away.
• A retained deposit is not payment for a service but compensation. That is how individual tax rulings treat it (for example the Poznań tax chamber director's ruling of 6 November 2015, ILPP1/4512-1-685/15-2/AP): since no service took place, the VAT shown on the deposit is corrected. How to document the correction for sales through a cash register is for your accountant to decide, because practice between offices varies.
• The cash register. Hairdressing and beauty services are subject to fiscal recording regardless of turnover or payment method (Minister of Finance regulation of 17 December 2024 on exemptions from the recording obligation, § 4). A payment received into your account before the visit is recorded promptly after it is credited, no later than the end of the month, and if the visit comes sooner, no later than the day of the visit (§ 6(1) pt 2 of the regulation of 29 April 2019 on cash registers).

This is where what we can say responsibly ends. The method of correction, the marking on the receipt, the treatment in PIT: agree these with the person who keeps your books.

Five mistakes we see most often

1. A "non-refundable advance" in the policy. A contradiction in terms; the salon loses the dispute. If the money is to stay, call it a deposit and state the amount.
2. A deposit of 100% of the price. A practice UOKiK has challenged. You may collect the full amount; you may not keep all of it on cancellation.
3. Rules shown after payment. A policy in the confirmation email is too late: the client accepts the terms before paying, or there is nothing to rely on. In Slotsy the rules sit on the last booking step, above the button.
4. A one-sided policy. The client loses the deposit; the salon "apologises and offers another date". Art. 394 works both ways, and a term only against the consumer is unfair.
5. No information on the right of withdrawal. Without it 14 days become 12 months, and every deposit kept over the past year can be reclaimed.

Frequently asked questions

Can I collect the whole price up front? Yes. Taking full payment at booking is lawful, and that is how Slotsy works. The problem is keeping all of it after the client cancels: that is what UOKiK found to infringe collective consumer interests. You keep the deposit and refund the rest.

A client cancelled 2 hours before. Can I keep the deposit? If your rules cover late cancellation and the client accepted them before paying, and more than 14 days have passed since the booking, yes. If the booking was yesterday, the client can invoke the right of withdrawal and the deposit goes back.

What if I am the one who has to cancel? With a deposit you return double (art. 394 § 1). You may offer another date, but the client does not have to accept it. With an advance you return what they paid.

Will Slotsy charge the client's card after a no-show? No. Slotsy does not store cards and does not charge after the fact. The money is with you from the moment of booking, and after a no-show you refund the part above the deposit. Automatic card charging after a no-show is a Booksy feature.

Do I pay a fee on a refund? Not for the refund itself, but the fee on the original payment does not come back: Stripe keeps its 1.6% + 1 zł (BLIK) or 1.5% + 1 zł (card), and Slotsy keeps the plan fee. On a 105 zł refund out of a 150 zł payment you lose 6.40 zł in fees on the Free plan.

Does a deposit have to go through the cash register? Yes, promptly after receipt, no later than the end of the month or on the day of the visit if that comes sooner. Hairdressing and beauty services have no exemption from the register, however the client paid. Agree the correction method after keeping a deposit with your accountant.

Can I have different rules for different services? In your terms, yes: you can write that services under 100 zł carry no deposit and lash extensions carry 50%. In Slotsy the rules text is one for the whole company, so you describe those thresholds in words; online payment is also switched on for the whole company.

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Law and rates checked 26.09.2026. If something has changed, write to us and we will correct it and show the update date. This text does not replace legal or accounting advice.

Set your own cancellation rules and see what the client reads before paying: create a Free account, no card, no subscription, a fee only on online payments.