The Guest Payments Module is Hostaway’s centralized system designed to simplify, automate, and track all charges, invoices, and receipts for your reservations. Whether you receive automatic payments via online gateways or record manual payments (cash or bank transfers), this module ensures seamless financial control.
1. Key Concepts: Understanding the Basics
To master the module, it is important to distinguish between these three core elements:
- Payment Status: A quick indicator of how much the guest has paid towards the total reservation amount.
- Invoices: A single document generated per reservation that dynamically updates if dates, rates, or services change. Note: "Automatic invoices" have been replaced by Automatic Payments linked to the reservation.
- Receipts: A proof of payment for each individual charge. Once a charge is marked as paid, a downloadable PDF receipt is generated.
2. The 4 Payment Statuses
Every reservation displays a label indicating its current financial state:
- Paid: The guest has covered the total amount of the reservation (or more).
- Partially Paid: A payment has been recorded, but there is still an outstanding balance.
- Unpaid: No payments have been recorded for this reservation yet.
- Unknown: Typically seen on imported reservations from external channels without prior payment details. This status updates to "Partial" or "Paid" as soon as a charge is added.
3. Key Features & Visibility
A. Inside the Reservation (Visual Control)
Within each reservation, you can monitor payments through:
- Payment Balance Bar: A visual progress bar showing the percentage of the reservation already paid.
- Charges Timeline: A chronological history of all charges, payments, and transaction attempts.
- System Alerts: Hostaway warns you if the system detects overcharging or missing payments based on the total reservation cost.
B. The Charges Table
Located in the main menu under Reservations > Guest Payments > Charges, this table centralizes every financial movement across all reservations.
- Filter & Sort: Find charges by status, date, or channel.
- Custom Views: Reorganize columns to suit your reporting needs.
- Export: Download full reports in CSV format for accounting.
C. Automatic Payments & "Remaining Balance"
When setting up Auto Guest Payment rules, charges are tied directly to the reservation.
- Dynamic "Remaining Balance": You can create rules (e.g., 50% at booking and the "Remaining Balance" 7 days before check-in). The second charge automatically adjusts if the total reservation price changes or if manual charges are added beforehand.
D. Offline Charges (Manual Entry)
For payments made outside your payment gateway (e.g., Cash or Bank Transfer), you can manually record them to keep your balance accurate.
4. Step-by-Step Guides
How to View Payment Status in the Reservation List
To monitor your collection status across all bookings at once:
- Go to the Reservations list or Reservations Report.
- Click on the Gear icon (Column settings) in the top right corner.
- Search for and enable Payment Status.
- (Optional) Enable Balance, Remaining balance, and Paid amount for a complete financial overview.
How to Record a Manual Payment
If a guest pays you via an external method:
- Open the specific Reservation.
- In the payments section, click Add Charge.
- Enter the amount.
- Under Payment Method, select the appropriate type (e.g., Cash or Bank Transfer).
- Mark it as Paid to generate the PDF receipt and update the reservation status.
How to Customize Invoices and Receipts
Give your documents a professional brand look:
- Navigate to Guest Payments > Document templates.
- Upload your Logo, set brand colors, and add your company’s tax/contact info.
- Configure which guest and reservation details should appear on the final PDF.
5. Advanced Configurations & Channel Specifics
A. Guest Portal Document Visibility & Upsells
You can customize what documents are displayed to guests in their Guest Portal:
- Invoice & Receipt Visibility: Choose whether guests can view or download these documents. You can set them to display: Always, After check-in, After check-out, or Only when fully paid.
- Portal Add-ons / Upsells: When a guest purchases an upsell (such as an early check-in) directly via the Guest Portal, the system immediately generates a dedicated charge for the purchased amount to keep financial reporting updated.
B. OTA Payments (Airbnb & Booking.com)
When online travel agencies handle payment collections on their side:
- Auxiliary Charges: Hostaway automatically generates an auxiliary charge internally to reflect the amount paid by the guest to the OTA. This updates the Payment Status to "Paid" without triggering automated charges on your connected gateway.
- Booking.com Virtual Credit Cards (VCC): To prevent duplicate payment failure alerts on your charges screen, adjust your Auto Guest Payments settings to exclude channels where payments are collected directly by the OTA.
C. Understanding Stripe Setup Intent (0 € Bank Authorizations)
If you are using Stripe as your payment provider, European guests (or cards requiring 3D Secure verification) may see a 0 € authorization prompt in their banking app.
- This is expected behavior under EU regulations. Stripe first triggers a Setup Intent (which shows as 0 €) to securely save the credit card details for future scheduled payments. Once authorized, Hostaway immediately initiates the Payment Intent with the actual booking cost.
D. Managing Refunds, Pre-authorizations, and Modifications
- Status Limitations: Unpaid charges (with Due, Failed, or Paused status) can be freely edited, retried, or canceled directly from Hostaway. However, once a charge has been successfully processed online and marked as PAID, it cannot be edited or canceled from the dashboard.
- Security Deposit Pre-authorizations: You can schedule a pre-authorization hold (e.g., a $200 security deposit) to occur dynamically a few days before arrival and automatically release it after check-out.