How Charges and Payments Work
A charge is an amount of money your guest owes you. A payment is when the guest pays you. For example, if a guest makes a reservation for 3 nights for a total of $95, a $95 charge will be added to the reservation and the charge will be 'Unpaid'. When the guest pays for the reservation, a $95 payment will be applied to that charge, and the charge status will now be 'Paid'. If multiple unpaid charges exist, one payment can be applied to all unpaid charges. You can also apply multiple payments to one charge. If a $50 payment has been applied to a $100 charge, the charge will have a status of 'Partially Paid'. All charges have a due date, and if the charge is still unpaid after the due date has passed, the charge will be 'Overdue'.
One Time and Recurring Charges
Both types of charges support either selecting an existing Add-on item (you can configure your add-on items in your settings) or a custom description. Add-on items make it easy to add charges you often add, whereas a custom item is for adding a one-off charge.
One Time Charge
One time charges are for one off charges such as a short term reservation charge. You can choose when the payment is due and whether or not to send a 'New Charge' email notification.
Recurring Charge
A recurring charge can be set up to be added to a reservation on a recurring basis of your choice, either annually, monthly, weekly, or daily. This type of charge is used for long term reservations which automatically adds a monthly charge to the reservation. It can also be used for storage units or any other recurring fee. Recurring charges can be configured to automatically add and process a payment when the charge is created, and to send an upcoming payment notification so the guest is aware of the upcoming payment.
Payments
Select charge(s) to apply the payment
When adding a new payment, you must select one or more charges to apply the payment to. If you select multiple charges, you must pay the entire total with the payment. If you only select one charge however, you have the option of entering a custom payment amount to only partially pay the charge.
Select payment option
The two payment options available are either collect the payment now or schedule the payment for a future date. If you choose to schedule a payment, you must select a future date, and the guest must have a payment method of file.
Choose a payment method
Cash, Check, Gift Card, Credit Card, and Bank Transfer are the available payment method options. The payment method on file will be listed if available.
Choose options
Selecting the 'Charge the card on file' checkbox will process the payment through Stripe which you can configure in property settings. The guest must have a payment method on file for the option to appear. If you want to process the payment through an external credit card processor, do not select this option if it is visible. The 'Email payment receipt' checkbox can be selected to send the guest the 'New Payment' receipt email. The 'Email payment notification x days before' checkbox allows you to schedule an 'Upcoming Payment Notification' email to be sent to the guest before the payment is processed for schedule payments. If you are processing the payment now, this option will not appear.
Reservation Charges and Payments
The reservation detail page will list all reservation charges and payments under the 'Charges' tab. The top overview panel includes the total payments, balance due, and overdue charges totals. You will also see the payment method on file if available.
The recurring charges panel includes all recurring charges, their status, and other details.
The bottom charges panel lists all reservation charges, and each charge will list all payments applied to that charge. If the charge is unpaid, the due date is displayed as well.
Reservation charges and payments overview