How do I take a UPI deposit before confirming a booking?

Send a payment link, hold the slot only after the link is paid, and release it if the link expires. Razorpay and Cashfree both publish how those links work.

I will not invent their cut, and I will not invent the rupee you should take as a hold. Those two numbers are theirs and yours.

What a deposit link actually is

A salon in Greater Kailash that keeps losing Saturday colour to names who never sit down wants a hold. A gym in Dwarka that gives away 7am trials to people who never walk in wants the same hold.

The hold is not a speech. The hold is a link. The person pays. The slot is then theirs. If they do not pay, the hour goes back on the list.

Razorpay’s UPI Payment Links page says you can send a URL that opens the UPI apps on the phone, that the feature works on Android mobile devices, that it works in live mode, and that partial payments are not applicable on those UPI links.

Cashfree’s payment link docs describe UPI payment links as URLs that open a UPI app with the details filled, and their help text says a UPI payment link can collect a maximum of one lakh rupees, with partial payments not allowed on the UPI method.

I will not add a third vendor. I will not invent what either company charges you after KYC. Open the tariff in the account you actually open.

Booking automation is what then does with the paid state. What the voice agent writes into is where the hour lives. The link is not the diary.

Enquiry and booking work begin at Rs 15,000 on pricing. That floor is the inbox job. Wiring a paid hold sits above it if the diary and the payment account are a mess.

What the automation should do with the link

• A person asks for an hour that is free.
• You, or the bot, send a link for the hold you already named, with an expiry you already named.
• Paid: the hour is written once, in the diary the floor opens.
• Expired or cancelled: the hour is free again. Do not leave a ghost name on Saturday.

Razorpay lists issued, paid, expired and cancelled states for those links. Use the state, not a screenshot someone forwarded.

Cashfree’s docs also let you set an expiry and send the link on WhatsApp, SMS or mail. Pick one path. Two links for one hour is how you take money twice.

Start with one thing still applies. If the diary is two books, fix the diary before you take money. Restaurant reservations without tying up the phone is the table version of a hold. A table and a colour both need one written hour.

What I will not invent

The size of the hold. Use a rupee you already charge and can give back. A colour deposit you cannot refund is a fight, not a system.

The gateway cut. Those rates change. They are not mine.

A lift in arrivals. A paid name still has to find the door. I will not multiply your empties by a hope.

UPI intent on every phone. Razorpay’s UPI-link page names Android. A person on a different phone may need the standard link. I will not invent a 100 percent open rate.

Downsides of taking money before the hour

You now hold someone else’s rupees. Refunds become part of the week. Write the refund rule before you send the first link.

A link that names a treatment in a family WhatsApp is a privacy problem. Name the hour and the shop, not the tooth.

A bot that sends a link for an hour that was already taken is how you charge for a chair that is full. The diary still has to be one list.

People will argue. Keep the paid state. Do not take a voice note as proof.

I will not tell you every chair in Delhi NCR should take a deposit. A single chair that already knows the regulars may only need a reminder. Whether reminders reduce no-shows is that weaker hold.

Write the hold rule for one Saturday first

Write the rupee, the expiry, and what happens if they pay late. If that paragraph is true, you are near a build. If it takes a family meeting, you are not ready to take money by machine.

Then get in touch. Bring the gateway you already have, or say you have none. I will say a link-and-hold is the job, a reminder is enough, or the diary is too split to touch money.