Asking for a deposit in the Netherlands — what is legal, what is practical

Every mobile beauty professional we speak to asks the same question once they decide deposits are the right move: am I actually allowed to do this?

The short answer is yes. Dutch consumer law is fine with deposits on appointment-based services — physiotherapists, dentists, personal trainers and hospitality businesses have been doing it for decades. What matters is how you collect, communicate and refund the money, not whether you are allowed to ask for it at all.

This article walks through the rules that actually apply and the practical setup you need so the deposit policy holds up if a client ever pushes back.

Is a deposit the same as a “consumer down-payment”?

In Dutch law (Burgerlijk Wetboek, Book 7) a deposit on a service is a partial advance payment toward the agreed price. It is not a separate “fee” you keep on top of the treatment cost. When the client shows up, the deposit is credited against their final invoice. When they don’t, the deposit covers your loss.

The key consumer-protection rules to be aware of:

• Transparency. The deposit amount and the conditions under which you keep or refund it must be visible before the client books. A small line in a confirmation email afterwards is not enough.
• Reasonableness. You cannot ask for a deposit so large that it becomes a penalty in disguise. Practical guidance from the Autoriteit Consument & Markt: a deposit between 10% and 30% of the treatment price is well within the reasonable zone.
• Refund rules on cancellation. If a client cancels with reasonable notice (24 hours is the typical baseline for in-home services) you should refund the deposit in full. If they cancel last-minute or simply do not show up, you can keep it.
• The 14-day reflection period (bedenktijd). This applies to certain online distance-sold services, but explicitly not to appointment-based personal services where the date and time are scheduled in advance — like a beauty treatment at someone’s home. So no, your client cannot demand a refund 12 days after you did their nails because they “changed their mind.”

In other words: as long as your terms are clear up front and your deposit amount is sane, you are on solid ground.

The four conditions a court actually looks at

If a deposit dispute ever escalates — which is rare, but worth being prepared for — a Dutch judge or the Geschillencommissie consumer-disputes board will check four things:

1. Was the deposit visible at the moment of booking? The booking page or confirmation flow has to surface the deposit amount and the cancellation conditions before the client commits.
2. Did the client agree to the terms? A check-box “Ik ga akkoord met de voorwaarden” linked to your conditions page is the standard way to evidence this.
3. Were the conditions written in plain Dutch? Vague legal language counts against you. “Bij annulering binnen 24 uur wordt de aanbetaling niet terugbetaald” is fine. Six paragraphs of legalese the client never read is not.
4. Were you reasonable about edge cases? Sudden illness, family emergency, a flat tyre on the way to your appointment — the case law expects beauty professionals to apply some discretion. A pro who refunds a sick client and keeps the deposit on a “forgot about it” no-show looks reasonable. A pro who keeps every deposit no matter what does not.

These four conditions are the entire framework. If your booking flow handles all of them, you are protected.

What your terms should actually say

You do not need a lawyer to write this. Most mobile beauty pros use roughly the same template, and that template is fine:

Aanbetaling. Voor elke afspraak vragen wij een aanbetaling van €X (of X% van de behandelprijs). De aanbetaling wordt verrekend met de uiteindelijke factuur op het moment van de behandeling.

Annulering. Annuleer je je afspraak meer dan 24 uur van tevoren, dan ontvang je de aanbetaling volledig terug. Annuleer je binnen 24 uur of verschijn je niet op de afspraak, dan vervalt de aanbetaling als vergoeding voor de gereserveerde tijd en de reiskosten.

Uitzonderingen. Bij ziekte, familie-noodgevallen of overmacht — beoordelen wij het in redelijkheid. Neem zo snel mogelijk contact op zodat we samen een nieuwe afspraak kunnen plannen.

That is the entire policy. Three paragraphs. Clear, fair, defendable.

Drop it on your voorwaarden page, link to it from your booking page, and put a one-line summary above the deposit-payment step (“Je betaalt nu €X als aanbetaling. Bij annulering meer dan 24 uur van tevoren krijg je dit volledig terug.”) and you have done everything the law expects.

Refunding cleanly: the operational side

The legal side is settled. The operational side is where most pros run into trouble — because if a refund is awkward, the policy collapses.

The clean way:

• Refund through the same channel the client paid. If they paid via iDEAL, refund via iDEAL. If they paid by card, refund to the card. Do not ask them for an IBAN they didn’t volunteer — it looks like a scam to them and it is more work for you.
• Refund within 5 working days. This is the AP guideline; most pros aim for 24-48 hours.
• Send a confirmation email that says exactly what was refunded and when. “Hi [client], we hebben je aanbetaling van €15 vandaag teruggestort op je bankrekening.” That is it. One sentence.
• Keep a record. Tax authority (Belastingdienst) and your own bookkeeping both expect a clean trail of deposits in and refunds out. A booking system that logs each transaction is enough.

Manual refunds via Tikkie reversal or a separate bank transfer work but they create more administrative friction than they are worth.

What a deposit does not protect you against

It is worth being honest about the limits.

A deposit will not save you from a client who:

• Cancels at exactly 24 hours and 1 minute every single time. Some clients game the rules. The 24-hour window is the price you pay for the policy looking fair to everyone else.
• Disputes the iDEAL transaction with their bank weeks later. Chargebacks on iDEAL exist but are rare and require the client to claim fraud, which leaves a paper trail. Document everything.
• Leaves a one-star review because they were upset about the deposit. The trade is more no-show protection in exchange for slightly more bookings that bounce off your policy. Most pros report the trade is overwhelmingly worth it.

What a deposit does protect you against is the bulk-case no-show — the casual booker who would have ghosted you for free but is unwilling to ghost you for €15.

Communicating the policy without making it weird

The framing matters more than the rule. Two phrasings, same policy:

Defensive (avoid this): “Wij vragen een aanbetaling omdat te veel klanten niet komen opdagen.”

Confident (use this): “Een aanbetaling bevestigt je afspraak en garandeert je tijdslot. Volledig verrekend met je factuur na de behandeling.”

The second one frames the deposit as a service feature — the client is getting something (a guaranteed slot) — not as a punishment. Same money, same legal effect, much better client reaction.

Most pros also find that adding a brief explanation on their voorwaarden page helps with the small minority who ask: “Vraagje over de aanbetaling — waarom doen jullie dit?” with a friendly two-line answer (“Omdat we mobiel werken plannen we onze dag rond bevestigde afspraken. De aanbetaling helpt ons je tijdslot vrij te houden — en is volledig refundable bij tijdige annulering.”) closes the question almost every time.

What to do today

If you are setting up your deposit policy:

1. Write the three-paragraph terms above into your voorwaarden page.
2. Make sure the deposit amount and the 24-hour cancellation rule are visible on your booking page before the client commits.
3. Pick a deposit amount that is 10-25% of your average treatment price — see our breakdown of no-show costs for the maths on what this protects.
4. Pick a payment method that refunds cleanly — for the Netherlands that is iDEAL.

If you are using a booking system that does not handle deposits, refunds and a clear pre-booking disclosure for you, you are doing extra admin work that the software should be absorbing.

pbw.life is built specifically for mobile beauty professionals in the Netherlands. The deposit, the disclosure, the iDEAL refund and the email confirmation all happen automatically — you set the rule once and the software enforces it on every booking.

Start your free 14-day trial at pbw.life — you set up a payment method at signup, but nothing is charged during the trial. Or view our pricing if you want to see what each tier includes first.

pbw.life is booking software with built-in deposit collection, built-in retention periods and AVG rights handling for mobile beauty professionals in the Netherlands. Questions about how the policy plays out for your specific situation? Email us at info@pbw.life. This article is general guidance, not legal advice — for a binding opinion on your specific case, talk to a Dutch consumer-law lawyer or check the Geschillencommissie consumer-rules guide.