Before the Deposit Lands: What Your Clients Need to See First

November is when next year’s diary really starts to take shape. Wedding enquiries pick up once the summer season is over, corporate clients start planning their staff parties and summer events, and festival organisers are already sending out pitch applications. It’s a good feeling watching the bookings come in, and the natural instinct is to get a booking form out and a deposit in the bank before the client changes their mind.

The trouble is that what you give a client before they sign matters just as much as what’s in the booking form itself. Most of the catering disputes we deal with don’t actually start on the day of the event. They start months earlier, with a client who was never properly told what they were agreeing to, and they only come to light when someone wants their deposit back.

Your terms only count if they saw them first

This is the one that catches caterers out most often. Your terms and conditions only bind the client if they had a fair chance to read them before they committed. Attaching them to the “thanks for booking” email, or tucking them into the final invoice, is too late. The courts have taken this view since the 1940s, when a hotel tried to rely on a notice in a guest’s bedroom that the guest only saw after booking the room. The hotel lost, and caterers relying on terms sent after the deposit has been paid are in much the same position.

In practice, your terms should go out with the quote or the booking form, and the client should confirm they’ve read and accepted them before any money changes hands. A signature, a tick box on an online form or a reply email saying “yes, we accept” all work. If something in there is particularly onerous, such as a large non-refundable deposit or a cancellation charge of the full balance, point it out clearly rather than burying it on page four. The harsher the term, the more you need to show you actually drew it to the client’s attention.

What you’re legally required to tell consumers

If your client is a consumer (a couple, a family, someone booking a 40th birthday party), the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 set out information you must give them before they’re bound. That includes who you are and how to contact you, a clear description of what you’re providing, the total price, when and how payment is due, and how you deal with complaints. If you trade as a limited company, your booking form and website should also show your full registered company name, company number and registered office address. Plenty of businesses trading under a catchy name forget this part.

There’s also a point about cancellation rights that’s worth understanding properly. Consumers who book away from your premises, whether online, by phone or by email, usually get a 14-day right to cancel. Catering booked for a specific date is an exception, so your clients generally won’t have that cooling-off period. However, you are still required to tell them it doesn’t apply. Leave that out, and you’re handing an unhappy client an argument they didn’t need to have.

Business clients such as corporate bookers, venues and festival organisers aren’t covered by these rules in the same way, but the point about getting your terms in front of them before they sign still applies.

Deposits and cancellation charges

You’re entitled to protect yourself when a client cancels, but writing “non-refundable” in bold capitals isn’t a magic spell. Under the Consumer Rights Act 2015, a term that lets you keep money out of proportion to the loss you’ve actually suffered risks being found unfair, and an unfair term can’t be enforced against the consumer. A deposit that reflects genuine costs, like turning away other enquiries for that date, ordering stock or booking staff, is much easier to defend. Keeping 100% of a wedding package when the couple cancels eleven months out, and you rebook the date a fortnight later, is a much harder sell.

A sliding scale of charges tied to how much notice the client gives is fairer, easier for clients to understand and far more likely to stand up if it’s challenged. It’s also worth setting out what happens if you have to cancel, because terms that only protect one side are the ones most likely to be picked apart.

Spell out what the client is responsible for

Clients need to know what’s expected of them before they sign, not when it becomes a problem. When do you need final numbers? When do dietary requirements and allergy information need to be with you, and who is responsible for passing on changes made on the day? What do you need from the venue in terms of access, power, water and pitch space? We’ve written before about the wedding guest who swapped seats without telling anyone, and that situation is a lot easier to deal with when your terms already say whose job it was to tell you.

Allergy information is personal data

When you ask clients for allergy and dietary information, you’re collecting health information, which is treated as particularly sensitive under data protection law. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask, because you absolutely should. It just means your booking form should link to a short privacy notice explaining what you’ll use the information for, who you’ll share it with (your staff and the venue if needed) and how long you’ll keep it. It takes half an hour to set up and saves an awkward conversation later.

A quick check before you send your next booking form

✅ Terms go out with the quote, not after the deposit.

✅ The client confirms acceptance in writing before paying anything.

✅ Your quoted price includes every fee they can’t avoid.

✅ Deposits and cancellation charges are clear and proportionate.

✅ Consumer clients are told the 14-day cancellation right doesn’t apply.

✅ Deadlines for numbers and dietary information are set out in writing.

✅ Your booking form links to a privacy notice.

Not sure where to start?

That’s where we come in. We regularly review booking forms, quotes and terms and conditions for catering businesses, and in most cases the fixes are simpler than people expect. We’re offering NCASS members a free 30-minute legal telephone consultation to check what you’re sending clients before the 2027 bookings start rolling in.

Get in touch, and let’s make sure next year’s bookings are built on paperwork that holds up.

📨 [email protected]

Or call your nearest office:

☎ 0118 321 4188 (Berkshire & Home Counties)

☎ 01260 212414 (Cheshire & Northwest)

☎ 01843 808021(Kent & Southeast)