Reservation confirmation email
- Total on the confirmation
- $416
- Booking subtotal
- $416
- Sales tax
- $0
- Deposit taken now
- $104
Every figure on these worksheets is one you typed. Where a page states something outside your own book, it names the document it came from and the day it was read.
The figures open on a worked example ($416) from a small operator's own book. Change any of them and the answer moves as you type.
Download the Reservation confirmation email worked example (CSV)
This worksheet works out what the confirmation for a booking has to say about money and dates. Put in the seats, the price each, any extras, the deposit you take and the two dates that matter (when the balance is due, and when free cancellation closes), and it returns the total, the deposit taken now, the balance still owed, the day that balance falls due, how many days the guest has left to cancel without charge, and the all-in cost per person. Those seven figures are the ones a guest argues about later, so they belong in writing on the day the seat was taken.
What operators ask about the Reservation confirmation email
What has to be in a booking confirmation? In plain terms: what was booked and when it departs, how many people, what it came to, what you have already taken, what is still owed and the date it is owed by, where and when to meet, and the cancellation terms the booking was accepted under. The worked example on this page starts from a four-seat booking at $89 a seat with $60 of extras and a deposit of a quarter, and every one of those money figures comes out of it.
How much deposit should I take? Enough to cover what the departure costs you whether or not the guest turns up, which is a different number for every operator and is why this page asks you for it rather than telling you. The worked example on this page takes a quarter of the total as the deposit. What matters more than the percentage is that the confirmation states it, states the balance date, and states what happens to it on a cancellation.
Does the free cancellation window have to match my refund policy? It has to match what the guest agreed to at booking, and that is the thing to get right. If you take money in advance for a trip on a fixed date, the terms you publish at the point of sale are the terms you will be held to, both by the card networks and, in states that regulate sellers of travel, by the regulator. Say it once, say it on the confirmation, and do not have a second version on the website.
Where the constants in this tool come from
16 CFR Part 435, Mail, Internet, or Telephone Order Merchandise (Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School). The federal rule behind the dates on a confirmation: a seller who takes money for an order placed online has to ship within the time it stated, or offer the buyer the choice of a delay or a prompt refund. Read 2026-09-11.
Seller of Travel, California Attorney General. What a business selling travel in California must register, disclose and do with money taken in advance, including the trust-account and refund obligations on deposits. Read 2026-09-11.