Connect Stripe

Session uses Stripe for card payments. Every paid booking, membership, bundle and gift voucher is charged through your own Stripe account, so the money is yours from the moment it's captured and never passes through a Session account. Until Stripe is connected, customers can't pay online. See accepted payment methods for what customers can pay with.

Where Stripe is available

You can only connect a business registered in a country Stripe covers. Stripe doesn't open accounts in South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya or Ghana (it partners with Paystack there), and is in preview in India and Indonesia. In the Gulf it covers the United Arab Emirates but not Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain or Oman.

If your venue's country under Settings → Company isn't covered, a note appears, but it's a heads-up, not a block: if your business is registered in a covered country, connect and choose that country in Stripe's setup.

Before you start

Have your business details, bank account and ID ready. Connecting creates a dedicated Stripe Standard account for your venue, owned by you, paying out on Stripe's normal schedule. You manage payouts and disputes at dashboard.stripe.com.

Connect your account

1. 1
   Open Settings → Company and find the Stripe section, or select Connect on the Stripe step of your Setup checklist.
2. 2
   Select Connect with Stripe, sign in to Stripe (or create a login) and follow Stripe's onboarding. When it finishes, you're returned to Session.

If you leave partway through, select Complete setup in the Stripe section to pick up where you left off.

Why you see a second Stripe account

If you already have a Stripe account, the new one sits alongside it under the same login and may look like a "sub-account". That's expected: complete setup on the new one. Stripe doesn't let one account be shared across two platforms, so Session can't reuse an account connected elsewhere.

If you run more than one business from one Stripe login

Stripe prefills the new account from the business you last viewed, so sign out of Stripe first (or use a private window) and overwrite anything that carries over. Afterwards the Stripe section shows the Account ID (acct_...) Session is using, and Open Stripe dashboard goes straight to it.

Check you're ready to take payments

You're set up when the Stripe section reads Connected. Until Stripe enables charges and payouts you'll see Charges not enabled (customers can't pay) or Payouts not enabled - select Complete setup to see what Stripe needs. You can build price options, memberships and bundles in the meantime.

What it costs

There is no subscription and no card needed to start. Two fees apply to paid bookings:

• Session's platform fee - 0.5% per paid booking, capped at £100 per calendar month, or a set round figure in your own currency (for example $150, €90 or A$150). Free bookings have no platform fee.
• Stripe's card processing fee - around 1.5% + 20p on UK cards. Rates vary by country and card type; yours are in your Stripe dashboard.

Community and non-profit saunas can get a partnership deal through the Community Sauna Network - get in touch if that's you.

Common questions

1. Where's the 0.5% Session fee in my Stripe dashboard? It's a Stripe application fee, shown in each payment's fee breakdown next to Stripe's processing fee and itemised in your Balance and payout reports. It's never added to your customer's price.

2. How do I issue a refund? Refunds and part-refunds are made inside Session, not from the Stripe dashboard - see refunds.

3. My Stripe account was set up in the wrong country - can I change it? Not on that account; the country is fixed once it's activated. Contact us and we'll help you switch to a fresh account.