Reservation credits allow you to assign a credit to a specific reservation which can be applied as a payment toward a future charge. This is a great way to compensate a guest for an issue during their stay, or a great way to avoid refunding a credit card payment and paying unnecessary fees.
A credit can be assigned to a specific reservation or a specific guest, and can be transferred between the two. Credits assigned to a guest can automatically be used to pay when they make a new reservation through the reservation portal.
Quick Links
- Adding or deleting reservation credit
- Adding or deleting credit on a guest account
- Refunding a Payment to Reservation Credit
- Using reservation credit
- Transferring reservation credit to a guest account for later use
- Using guest credit on a reservation
- Guest use of reservation credit
- Using reservation credit for Point of Sale
- Refunding a payment made with reservation credit
- Transferring funds between reservations
Adding or deleting credit on a reservation
To add a reservation credit to a reservation, just go to any reservation and click the Charges tab. On the summary pane at the top, you will see the amount of available reservation credit as shown below.
Click the gray reservation credit button to edit the amount of available credit.
Enter whether you want to increase (add more credit) or decrease (take away credit), then enter the amount you would like to add or take out. For example, if the credit available is $50 and I now want them to have $100, I would click "Increase" then enter "50" in the box. This will add $50. Vice versa, if they have $50 and now I want to make them show $0, I would click "Decrease" then enter "50". This will subtract the amount entered. Click Update when done. You will now see the amount of available credit in green.
This reservation now has credit available that can be used to make a payment.
Adding or deleting credit on a guest account
You can also add credit directly to a guest by editing the guest. You can edit a guest from the Guest tab of a reservation by clicking Edit guest. The red box shows where you will enter the amount of credit a guest should have.
You can also search for and edit a guest by clicking the Search Guests menu item under the Guests section of the main menu. To update guest credit manually, from the guest page click on the Reservation Credit tab
Update guest credit in guest account.
Here you can proceed to update the guest credit using the same Increase/Decrease method as described above for reservations. Hit Save when all fields are filled out correctly.
Refunding a Payment to Reservation Credit
Credit may also be added to a reservation through a payment refund. Selecting reservation credit as the refund method automatically adds the refunded amount to the credit on a reservation.
Using reservation credit
To use reservation credit, click Add Payment to add a payment to an unpaid charge, and select Reservation Credit as the payment method. This option will only appear if the reservation has available credit to use. The payment amount cannot be higher than the amount of credit available.
Once you click Save, you will then see the payment listed with the payment method of Reservation Credit.
Transferring reservation credit to a guest account for later use
If a guest will not be able to use the credit on their current reservation, you can transfer the reservation credit to the guest so it can be used on a future reservation. Just click the Guest tab, and click Transfer reservation credit to guest.
You will then see the amount of credit is attached to the guest, and there will no longer be any credit available for the reservation.
Using guest credit on a reservation
If a credit is available for the guest and you want to use it on a reservation, click Transfer guest credit to reservation.
This will remove the credit from the guest account and add it to the reservation so it can be used as a payment method.
You can choose to allow a guest to use available credits automatically on future charges. To activate this setting, go to Property Settings under Settings on the main menu. On the Payments & Charges tab, you will scroll to find the Recurring Charges section. Check the box to activate the setting and click Save.
Once this setting is activated, if a guest has available credit and they make a new reservation from the reservation portal, their available credit will be used as a payment method before their credit card will be charged for the deposit due. For example, if a guest has $10 in reservation credit available and they make a new reservation in which they owe a $50 deposit, the $10 will be used first and their credit card will be charged for the remaining $40 balance.
This same use applies to recurring charges on a guest's reservation. If the guest has reservation credit available when a recurring charge with auto payment posts, the reservation credit will be applied to the charge balance before the guest's card is charged.
Using reservation credit for Point of Sale
A guest may use reservation credit to pay a Point of Sale transaction. the transaction must first be charged to a current reservation. Once the Point of Sale is charged to the guest, you may make a payment with reservation credit.
NOTE: The guest name will not appear when charging a Point of Sale to a reservation if the reservation is not current.
You may use credit on a guest account to pay a Point of Sale if the credit is transferred to a reservation. See directions above to use guest credit on a reservation. Just remember, the guest credit must be transferred to the same reservation the Point of Sale is charged to.
Refunding a payment made with reservation credit
A payment made with reservation credit may be refunded to reservation credit, cash, check, or an offline card. If you would like funds paid with reservation credit to be refunded to a credit or debit card, this is only possible if Firefly has a payment from the desired card and the payment amount is equal to or more than the refund to be given. If you identify a card payment to refund to, you will refund the card payment for the desired refund amount then transfer funds from the reservation credit payment to "pay back" the refunded charge.
Transferring funds between reservations
Sometimes it is necessary to move funds from one reservation to another. If the reservations are under the same guest, you can follow the steps above to transfer reservation credit to the guest account then use the guest credit on the reservation. However, if the reservations are under different guests, you will move the funds with reservation credit. Here's the quick and easy steps:
- refund the associated payments to reservation credit
- decrease the reservation credit on this first reservation
- navigate to the second reservation
- increase the reservation credit there