- For organizations
The booking fee, and paying it yourself
Families pay a booking fee on paid bookings (3.7% of the price plus $1.79 a ticket, plus Stripe's processing), so you receive the full price you set. You can choose to pay it yourself instead, for your whole organization or for one class. The fee is the same on every Famlo plan.
How the fee works
The booking fee has two parts, and families see them as one line called Booking fee at checkout:
- Famlo's part: 3.7% of the price, plus $1.79 for each ticket.
- Processing: Stripe charges 2.9% + 30¢ on each card payment. That goes to Stripe, not to Famlo. When families pay the booking fee, it's worked into the fee so it doesn't come out of your price.
Every price families see on famlo.co and on your own website already includes the fee. Activity pages say "Includes booking fee", and search results say "Prices include all fees". At checkout, the line carries this note: "Covers Famlo's booking service and secure payment. [Your organization] receives the full price. Not refundable unless the organizer cancels."
The $1.79 is per ticket, not per order, so an order for two tickets carries it twice. Extras that families add to a booking, such as a materials kit, are not tickets, so they add no $1.79.
The fee is the same whichever way the family pays online: card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Link, Klarna or Affirm. It's a fee for booking through Famlo, not a charge for paying by card.
What it costs, with examples
These are for one ticket.
When families pay the booking fee (the default):
| Your price | Famlo's part | Processing | Booking fee | Families pay | You receive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| $12.00 | $2.23 | $0.74 | $2.97 | $14.97 | $12.00 |
| $50.00 | $3.64 | $1.92 | $5.56 | $55.56 | $50.00 |
| $100.00 | $5.49 | $3.46 | $8.95 | $108.95 | $100.00 |
| $250.00 | $11.04 | $8.11 | $19.15 | $269.15 | $250.00 |
With more than one ticket, the $1.79 counts once per ticket. Two $50 tickets carry an $11.11 booking fee, so the family pays $111.11.
When you pay the booking fee yourself:
| Your price (what families pay) | Famlo's part | Stripe's processing (about) | You keep (about) |
|---|---|---|---|
| $12.00 | $2.23 | $0.65 | $9.12 |
| $50.00 | $3.64 | $1.75 | $44.61 |
| $100.00 | $5.49 | $3.20 | $91.31 |
| $250.00 | $11.04 | $7.55 | $231.41 |
Stripe's figure is an estimate at its standard card rate. An American Express card or a card from outside the US costs a little more, and when you pay the fee, that difference is yours.
Pay the booking fee yourself, for every class
When you pay it, families see your listed price with nothing added. Famlo's 3.7% + $1.79 a ticket comes out of each card payment (never more than the payment), and so does Stripe's processing.
Only the person who created or claimed your organization's listing can change this, because it lives with your payout settings.
- Open School settings, then Getting paid. You can also get there from Money › Payouts & fees.
- In the Booking fee row, select Pay it ourselves (1).
You'll see "You'll pay the booking fee. Families see your listed prices." The row now explains what you pay, and its button reads Have families pay it. Select that to switch back.
Your choice covers every class set to follow your organization, your services and appointments, and membership dues. Services and dues have no choice of their own.
Choose who pays for one class
Each class can follow your organization's choice or make its own. Anyone who can edit the class can change this.
- Open Classes, choose the class, and open it for editing.
- In How families can pay, open the Booking fee row.
- Under Who pays it (1), choose:
- Same as [your organization] (families pay it), or Same as [your organization] (we pay it) if your organization pays it, to follow your organization's choice. This is where every class starts.
- Families pay it.
- We pay it.
- Save the class.
When the class follows your organization, the row reads, for example, "Families pay it (your default)". A class's payment plan or monthly payments follow that class's choice.
See what a price means as you type it
Under each price in the class editor, a line shows what families pay and what you get, and it updates as you type:
- When families pay the fee: "Families pay $407.99 with the booking fee. You receive $380.00." (1)
- When you pay it: "You'll keep about $X on a card payment."
When you pay the fee and want to keep a set amount, type that amount as the price and select Keep $X instead. Famlo raises the price just enough that you keep about that much after the fees. Prices, spots and ways to join covers the rest of the price card.
Membership dues, payment plans and monthly charges
The booking fee is charged on every charge, not just the first: each dues payment, each payment-plan installment and each monthly payment. It shows as its own Booking fee line on each invoice, and one membership counts as one ticket. Families who join see, for example: "Includes a $X booking fee on every charge. [Your organization] receives the full dues. Not refundable unless [your organization] cancels."
If a family's membership or payment plan started before October 9, 2026, it keeps its original terms: the family pays the listed amount and Famlo's 4% comes out of your payout. Anything started on or after October 9 carries the booking fee.
See Membership dues for setting up dues.
Payment requests
When you send a family a payment request, they pay the booking fee on top, unless you pay it for your organization.
Under What you'll receive, you can also tick I want to receive the full $X, where $X is the amount you asked for. "Famlo raises the price so the fees come out of it, not out of what you asked for." The family sees one price with no fee line. The panel below shows what the family pays, Stripe's card fee, Famlo's fee and what you receive before you send. Payment requests has the full steps.
When there's no booking fee
There's no booking fee on:
- free classes and events;
- Step Up and ESA payments, because Step Up pays you directly and the money never passes through Famlo;
- the part of an order paid by your own scholarship award or by a family's account credit with you;
- a visit paid from a pack the family already bought (the pack itself carried the fee);
- listings where families register somewhere else;
- payments you record as received outside Famlo, such as membership dues paid in cash (Website plan).
The booking fee is worked out on what's charged to the card, after any promo code, scholarship award or credit.
No Famlo plan waives or lowers the booking fee. Famlo plans covers what each plan adds.
Changes, refunds and the fee
The booking fee on a booking is fixed when the family books. Switching who pays, or any later change, applies to new bookings only. Bookings already made keep the fee they were booked with.
At checkout, families read that the booking fee is "Not refundable unless the organizer cancels." When you send a refund without cancelling, the What this refund costs you panel shows, for that booking, what goes back to the family, how Famlo's share is handled, and what comes out of your payouts. Stripe keeps its fee on the original payment. Refunds and cancellations covers sending refunds, cancelling bookings and family refund requests.
Troubleshooting
I don't see the Booking fee row, or Getting paid. Only the person who created or claimed the listing can open Getting paid. You can still choose who pays on any class you can edit, under How families can pay › Booking fee.
My console says some dues or payment plans "renew without a booking fee". The Your Famlo plan card in Money, the current plan on Plan & billing and the Credit & debit cards row in Getting paid show your booking fee, for example "Booking fee 3.7% + $1.79 a ticket". When families pay it, they may add a line such as "Dues for 3 members renew without a booking fee, on the terms they began on, so Famlo's fee on those comes out of what you receive." Those are memberships, payment plans and monthly classes that started before October 9, 2026 and keep their original terms. Everything newer carries the booking fee described on this page.
A family asks why they paid more than my listed price. Unless you pay it, the booking fee is added to your price, and the all-in price is what families see everywhere. Point them to What's free and what's paid.