Let people reserve a place with a card

An interest list is great for testing demand before you commit — but a list of names doesn't tell you who will actually pay. Set a reservation amount and a decide-by date, and people can do more than leave their name: they can reserve a place with a card or Direct Debit. No money moves until you decide it's going ahead — and it's never automatic.

Why use it

Separate the "yes I'm keen" crowd from the "yes and here's my payment method" crowd before you book a venue or pay a deposit.
Lock in the numbers for a trip, a camp or a taster session while you're still gauging whether it has legs. A confirmed reservation list becomes a one-off event, not a class: it doesn't enrol anyone, so don't use it to take a class's first month's fee — enrol them in the class afterwards and the class bills that month again.

Before you start

Reserving with a card needs your club connected for online payments under Settings → Payments. Until that's done, the reservation amount field is switched off and your interest list works exactly as a names-only list.

Setting it up

Create an interest list. The reservation amount is set when you create the list — it can't be added to a list afterwards.
Set the threshold to launch — how many people you need.
In Reservation amount per person, enter the amount each person commits to for every person they bring — for example the deposit, or the full price.
Set Decide by — the date you'll have made your mind up by. If you haven't confirmed by the end of that day (in your club's timezone), everyone's reservation is released automatically and nobody is charged.
Save. The public page now offers "Reserve my place — only charged if it goes ahead" alongside a plain "Just register interest (no card)" option.

Leave the reservation amount blank (or zero) for an ordinary names-only interest list — a free place can't be reserved.

What the person sees

They can still just register their interest with no payment method. If they choose to reserve, they save a card or Direct Debit through a secure Stripe checkout — it does not charge anything. They're told plainly that they'll only be charged if you confirm by the decide-by date, and the amount is per person, based on how many they're bringing. That amount is locked in the moment they reserve. From the confirmation email they can cancel their reservation at any time until you confirm or the decide-by date passes, or add a backup payment method in case their main one is declined. If the email they enter was put on the list by someone signed in to Adminished, only that account — or an account whose confirmed email address it is — can reserve with it; anyone else is asked to sign in with it first.

Confirming — the Reservations panel

Everyone who has reserved a place appears in the Reservations panel on the list's page, with their name, headcount, amount and status, and a running total against your target. Once you've decided it's happening, an owner or admin clicks Confirm and charge (you'll see a warning first if you're still below target). The page then works through everyone's reservation on its own:

It tries the payment method they reserved with.
If that fails, and they added a backup, it tries the backup.
If that also fails, it can try a card or Direct Debit already saved with your club — but only for someone who was signed in to Adminished when they reserved, and only the one saved on that account.
If every attempt fails, nothing is taken and their place is kept. They can't pay yet: when you click Create the event from this list, they're given a held place on the event and emailed a secure payment link — card only — and have 72 hours from then to pay before their place is given up.

Anyone who started reserving but hadn't finished saving a card when you click Confirm isn't charged, and their place is released.

A Direct Debit payment shows as "paid (clearing)" until it settles a few days later — funds are treated as committed as soon as it's submitted.

If you decide it isn't happening, click Cancel reservations instead: everyone is told they weren't charged, and their reservations are released. The same happens automatically if the decide-by date passes before you confirm.

Turning a confirmed list into the real thing

Once you've confirmed, a Create the event from this list button appears. It builds a new draft event and gives everyone who paid a real, paid booking on it — nobody pays twice. Anyone whose payment failed gets a held place on it and is emailed a payment link; their 72 hours start then. If they don't pay in time, their place is released and they're emailed that they haven't been charged. Add the dates and details, then publish it. A names-only list (no reservation amount set) still uses the older promote to class or event buttons instead.

Plan: Interest lists are available on every plan, including Free. Reservations use your connected Stripe account; a 1% platform fee applies on top of Stripe's own processing fee when a reservation is charged.

Interest lists
How to publish a public interest list at adminished.com/interest/your-list for waitlists or new-class demand testing — parents sign up without logging in.
Minimum numbers (reserve now, pay if it goes ahead)
Only run a trip or event once enough people commit. Members reserve a place with a card or Direct Debit on the booking page and are only charged once you confirm by your decide-by date.
Require payment in advance
Turn on "Require payment in advance" so an event place is only confirmed once it is paid for by card — no more holding seats for people who never pay.
Taking payments
Generate monthly charges, record cash or bank-transfer payments, and see who still owes money at a glance.
Connecting Stripe
Step-by-step walkthrough of Stripe Connect onboarding: what you need before you start, the verification flow, fees, payout schedule, and the common gotchas.

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