How to accept payments for bookings on a WordPress site

Decide whether customers must pay the full booking price, pay a deposit, or choose between online payment and payment on arrival. Your booking plugin must support the gateway you want to use; WordPress itself does not provide a booking checkout or payment connection.

If you use Bookly, supported options include Stripe, PayPal, WooCommerce and 2Checkout. Some gateways require Bookly PRO and a separate gateway add-on.

Before adding payment, create your services, prices, staff, working hours and available booking times. Check the booking form collects the customer details you need and that the confirmation messages explain the cancellation and refund rules.

For events, check capacity and whether multiple people can book the same time slot. Payment cannot fix an incorrectly configured schedule, and an overbooked event is still an overbooked event.

In Bookly, go to Settings > Payments, enable the payment method you intend to use, and enter the credentials supplied by your payment provider. You can also enable offline payment, reorder the payment methods shown to customers, and restrict available methods for individual staff members.

This is the manual route and it is fine when your gateway is already supported. If your provider is not supported, do not paste random API code into the theme: you need a maintained integration or a developer to build and maintain one. Bookly support has stated that unsupported gateways are not directly supported.

For a deposit, install and activate the booking plugin's deposit feature, then set a fixed amount or percentage for the relevant service and staff combination. In Bookly, deposit settings are under Settings > Payments, while the amount is configured in the staff and service settings. Disable local payment if customers must pay the deposit before the booking is accepted.

Decide what happens after payment. Bookly can change an appointment from its default status to a selected successful-payment status, such as moving from pending to approved after the gateway confirms payment.

Place the booking form on a page using the booking plugin's shortcode or block, then make a test booking from the front end. Check the amount, currency, payment redirect, confirmation page, customer email, staff notification and appointment status.

Also test a cancelled or abandoned checkout. A customer who closes the gateway window may leave a payment waiting and a time slot occupied. Bookly provides a Time interval of payment gateway setting so waiting payments can eventually be marked rejected and release the appointment. Check the payment provider's dashboard before treating a failed-looking transaction as unpaid.

If Bookly is already your booking system and 2Checkout is the gateway you need, Bookly 2Checkout is the shortest route. It adds the 2Checkout payment method to Bookly, so you configure the gateway in Bookly rather than building a separate checkout connection. Bookly lists 2Checkout as an available payment integration through an add-on for Bookly PRO.

Install and activate the add-on, enter your 2Checkout account details under Settings > Payments, select the payment method in the booking form, and repeat the full front-end test before accepting real bookings.