Payment plans are one of the payment options you can enable for customers at checkout. Payment plans allow customers to pay the total price in instalments, ideal for high-cost experiences and accommodations. There are two types of payment plans:

• Automatic: The customer’s credit card is automatically charged in equal instalments, either monthly or on specific dates you set, until the full balance is paid.
• Manual: Customers can log into their account and make payments at any time after booking confirmation. 

How to offer payment plans

1. From your admin dashboard, go to Settings → Payments.
2. Under Manage Payment Plans, click Create a Payment Plan.
3. Select your Initial Instalment option:
    
   • Dynamic amount – all instalments, including the upfront payment, are equal.
   • Fixed amount – set a higher or lower upfront payment.
      
4. Tip: Set the fixed instalment to 0 to create a buy now, pay later payment option.
    
5. Select your number of follow-up instalments. Choose a minimum and maximum number of instalments (between 1 and 11 each).
    
   • The system automatically offers customers the maximum number of instalments that fit before the experience start date.
   • If there isn't enough time for even the minimum number of instalments, the payment plan will not be offered.
      
6. Example:
   With a minimum of 2 and maximum of 6 instalments:
    
   • A customer booking 8 months in advance may be offered 6 instalments.
   • A customer booking 3 months in advance may only be offered 3 instalments.
      
7. Choose when instalments should be paid:
    
   • Monthly from booking confirmation, or
   • On specific dates
      
8. If you select On specific dates, you can add instalments to be collected on specific dates.
   
   Optional: Set a buffer time (1–30 days) to prevent instalment dates too close to checkout from being used.
   For example, with a 7-day buffer, an instalment date that falls within 7 days of checkout will be skipped and the next available date will be used instead.
   
   The default buffer is 7 days.
   
   Note: Instalments must be at least 7 days apart.
    
9. Choose how follow-up instalments are paid:
    
   • Automatically
   • Manually
      
10. Optionally enable Charge a Payment Plan Fee to add an extra fee for customers who choose the payment plan. Learn more about payment plan fees. You can select either:
     
    • a fixed fee, or
    • a percentage fee.
       
11. Click Save.
12. Next, go to Experiences or Accommodations and select the product you want to enable the payment plan for.
13. Navigate to the Payment Settings tab and select your payment plan from the Choose a Payment Plan dropdown.
14. Click Save to publish the changes.
     

Repeat this for other experiences or accommodations where you want the payment plan to apply.

Customers will now see the option to pay in full or pay with a payment plan at checkout.

Understanding flexible instalments

When you configure a minimum and maximum number of instalments, Easol automatically calculates the best payment schedule for each customer based on their booking date.

Maximum instalments offered when possible
Customers booking well in advance will be offered the maximum number of instalments you configured.

Fewer instalments for late bookings
Customers booking closer to the experience start date will be offered fewer instalments so that all payments complete before departure.

Plan not offered if insufficient time
If there isn’t enough time to complete the minimum number of instalments, the payment plan option will not appear at checkout.

Example scenario

You configure a payment plan with 2–6 follow-up instalments (3–7 total including the initial payment).

• Customer A books 10 months before departure → offered 6 follow-up instalments
• Customer B books 4 months before departure → offered 3 follow-up instalments
• Customer C books 1 month before departure → no payment plan offered (insufficient time for minimum instalments)

This flexibility maximises the number of customers who can access payment plans while ensuring all payments are completed before the experience begins.

Buffer time for specific date payment plans

When using On specific dates for instalments, you can optionally set a buffer time between 1–30 days (the default is 7 days). This prevents instalment dates that fall too close to the checkout date from being used for follow-up payments.

How it works

• Any instalment dates within the buffer period from checkout are automatically excluded.
• The system only uses instalment dates that fall after the buffer period.
• This ensures customers have adequate notice before their first follow-up payment is due.
   

Example

• Instalment dates are set for the 1st and 15th of each month with a 7-day buffer
• A customer books on January 12th
• January 15th is only 3 days away (within the buffer), so it is skipped
• The first follow-up payment will instead be February 1st

Payment plans can't be offered if

• The order does not meet the minimum order total of £50
• The last payment in the plan is after your experience start date, or there isn’t enough time to complete the minimum number of instalments before the start date

How to edit a payment plan

Editing a payment plan will only affect future customers that book. To edit an existing booking on an active payment plan, please see instructions here.

To edit a payment plan for all experiences and accommodations that it's applied to:

1. Go to Settings > Payments in your admin dashboard.
2. Click Edit on the payment plan you'd like to update.
3. Make your desired changes - these will apply to all future bookings.

To edit a payment plan for a specific experience or accommodation:

1. Go to Experiences or Accommodations, and select the product you'd like to edit a payment plan for.
2. Navigate to the Payment Settings tab and click Create a new Payment Plan.
3. Make the desired changes.
4. Check that the last payment in your new payment plan is before your experience's start date so that it can be enabled at checkout.

Note: Changes to minimum/maximum instalments or buffer settings only affect new bookings. Existing bookings will continue using the payment schedule that was active when they were created.
 

How customers are charged on payment plans

Once a customer makes a booking with the Automatic payment plan option, their credit card will be charged for the first instalment in the plan. The customer will then be billed automatically either every month on the same day they made the original purchase, or on the specific dates that you have set (including payment plan fees if applicable), until the full balance is paid.
 

Example

When a customer books using a Manual Payment Plan, their card is charged for the initial instalment.

After that, they can make payments of any amount toward the remaining balance at any time. Additionally, with Group Pay enabled, they can invite friends to contribute towards the balance. Learn more about Group Pay. 

Note: To allow guests to make payments toward a booking, Group Pay must be enabled in Settings > Payments.

Payment failure policy

When you offer payment plans with automatic payment collection, you can choose what happens if a customer fails their plan.

After three failed automatic instalment attempts, Easol will apply the payment failure policy that was active when the booking was made:

• Cancel plan, balance due (default): The payment plan is cancelled and the booking is reverted to manual payments within 24 hours of the third failed payment attempt. The remaining balance becomes due before the original final instalment date. The booking remains active. From here, the customer will need to manually pay for the remaining balance by logging in at yourdomain.com/bookings.
   
• Cancel booking automatically: The payment plan and the booking are both cancelled automatically. No manual action is required, other than submitting a refund to the customer if you choose. When a booking is cancelled automatically, a note is recorded with the date and time in the booking timeline.

Important notes:

• This setting only applies to payment plans with automatic payment collection and does not affect manual instalment payment plans
• Each booking follows the payment failure policy that was active at the time of booking. Changes to the policy only apply to new bookings
• When Cancel booking automatically is selected, customers will be made aware of this consequence at checkout before they choose to pay via payment plan. They will be provided with a link to your payment plan terms, so it’s important that you ensure your terms are filled out and cover your payment failure policy. You can fill out your payment plan terms in Settings → Customer Terms

• Once a booking is cancelled, it cannot be reinstated. You can find more details in this article: https://support.easol.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4411224520721-Cancel-a-customer-booking