How World Camps Works

This is a plain-language summary for providers — it is not binding. Your Provider Terms govern in full; if anything here conflicts with them, the Provider Terms apply.

THE BOOKING LIFECYCLE

1. Request — A parent submits a booking request for one of your sessions. No payment is taken yet; funds are only authorized.
2. Response window — When the family's card was authorised at checkout, you have 72 hours to accept or decline the request (less if the session starts sooner); if you do not respond in time, it expires automatically and the parent's held funds are released. You can extend that deadline once per request, up to 24 hours before the session starts. When no card was taken (you arrange payment with the family directly), the request stays open until the session starts — the exact deadline is shown on the booking — and closes on its own when the session begins.
3. Confirmation — Once you accept, the booking is confirmed and the parent is notified immediately.
4. Payment & payout — The deposit (if any) is captured once the parent's 24-hour free-cancellation window closes, or immediately on acceptance if the camp starts within a week. The balance is captured on the dates your cancellation policy makes it non-refundable.

THE FREE-CANCELLATION WINDOW

Parents can cancel free of charge within 24 hours of sending their request. When the camp starts within a week there is no such window at all — the deposit is non-refundable from the moment you accept. Once the window closes the deposit is non-refundable, and cancellation policies only ever apply to the remaining balance, never the deposit.

ONE DEPOSIT, ON OR OFF FOR EACH CAMP

Your deposit is set once for your account, under Financials › Booking terms: none, a percentage of the price, or a fixed amount. Every camp follows it. If one camp should not ask for a deposit — a day camp next to a boarding camp, for example — open that camp in its editor, go to Safety & Policies and turn off "Deposit for this camp". Families booking that camp then pay no deposit: the full price is charged on the dates of your cancellation policy (as soon as you accept, when the camp starts within a week). Your other camps keep your deposit. Each camp either follows your deposit or has none — two different amounts are not possible. A fixed deposit is never more than the price of the session — a cheaper session is simply paid in full.

THE SERVICE FEE

World Camps charges a service fee on each successful booking made through the platform (the exact percentage for your account is shown throughout onboarding and on your Get paid page (Financials › Get paid) — it reflects your actual rate, not a generic estimate). You keep the rest; there is no fee on bookings that never complete.

WHERE TO GO NEXT

• Financials › Booking terms is where you set your deposit and your cancellation policy; Financials › Get paid shows your service fee rate.
• Your provider dashboard shows a checklist of next steps once your application is approved (connect Stripe, create your first camp, publish it).
• For the legally binding terms, see the Provider Terms.