A deposit sits with the agent. An instalment plan pays down your actual booking. They are not the same thing, and the difference matters when something changes.
We get asked for our deposit terms fairly often, and the answer surprises people: we don't take one.
Here is what happens instead. You choose your hotel. You pay the travel planning and reservation service fee — that is the advisory work, and it is quoted to you in writing before you commit to anything. At that point we make the reservation, and the room is confirmed and held in your name.
The cost of the booking itself is then paid off in instalments, on a schedule you receive up front, which completes before the supplier's own deadline. You get a reminder before every due date, because nobody should lose a rate to a forgotten payment.
Two things worth being clear about. The service fee is not a deposit and it is not applied against the cost of your trip — it pays for the planning, the reservations and the support around them. And the instalment schedule is set by the supplier's deadline, not by us, so the earlier you book the more room there is to spread it.
Most of our bookings run on three or four instalments. Some run on two. It depends on how far out you are travelling.