How to set up Auto-payments

With the Hostaway auto-payments system, you can automatically schedule the charges that would need to take place for your incoming reservations, and you handle the payments.

Create an Auto-payment

To create an Auto-payment, please follow the next steps:

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Reservations > Guest Payments
2. In the top bar, go to Auto-payments > Add auto-payment
3. Fill in the required information
   1. Title. This will be a title for internal use to recognize the template used for charges
   2. Channel. Select the Booking Channel, and the Auto-payment will apply
   3. Auto charges. Build your template with one or more automated charges based on the events/timing
   4. Listings. Select if the template will apply to all new add listings or select specific listings
4. Save
   
   

Add Auto Charges

Once you have titled the Auto-payment and selected the channels you would like to apply to, it's time to add auto charges. 

To add auto charges:

1. Inside the Auto payment > Click the button +Add auto-payment on the right side
   
   
    

2. On the right side, a new sidebar will open for you to enter the following:

   • Type. 

     1. Charge. Used for payments taken from the guest

     2. Pre-authorization. Used to put a hold on a Credit Card, for example, to hold a security deposit amount a day before Check-out temporarily

   • Name. Will indicate internally what the specific charge rule is based on

   • Amount. This can be a percentage, flat, or the remaining balance left to charge based on the remaining unpaid balance of the reservation

   • Payment method*. The type of payment method to use for the auto payment

   • Schedule. The timing of when the charging event should take place

3. Save
   
   

*To use the Credit Card (Online) method, a payment processor such as Stripe must first be connected to your account. The Credit Card (Online) option is used when a charge needs to be automatically taken from the Guest's credit card by your connected payment provider. Other payment methods can be used if you take payments manually, such as cash on arrival, bank transfers, and others.

Important Notes

• Auto-payments only apply to future reservations, not to existing bookings. When you set up a payment automation, it won't create new charges for reservations that were already in your system.

• For existing reservations requiring payment, you'll need to either create manual charges or send guests the Guest Portal link where they can complete their payment.

• If a guest pays for an add-on through the Guest Portal during the booking process before any previous automatic charges are generated, those automatic charges will not be created.

• If the payment is not completed within 10 days of the scheduled date, it will be automatically canceled by the system. You will be able to identify this by hovering your mouse over the information symbol next to the "Canceled" sign, where you will read the reason: "The charge was canceled by the system due time limit".

Split Charges for Vrbo API

If you have configured split charges in Hostaway for the Vrbo channel, it will reflect in Vrbo as well. However, do bear in mind the following:

• Vrbo supports a payment schedule per day, not hours. That means that any setup that includes a difference of hours from the event trigger will be rounded. The rounding is done to the nearest day to the event. For example, a trigger of 36 hours after Check-in will be rounded down to 1 day after Check-in. A trigger of 36 hours before Check-in will be rounded up to 1 day before Check-in. A trigger of 3 hours after the reservation will be rounded down to a reservation
• Vrbo requires charging an amount at the moment of reservation; therefore, if no charge exists for that moment, the guest will only be charged Vrbo's service fee (do remember that Vrbo's service fee is always charged at the moment of reservation)
• When the auto-charged is configured with a combination of percentage and flat fees, in almost all cases, the auto-charges will not be equal to the total reservation amount

Auto-payments for Booking.com Reservations

To set up automatic payments for Booking.com reservations, you should follow the next steps:

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Guest Payments

2. In the top bar, go to Auto-payments > "Add auto-payment" or select an existing one

3. On Channels, select Booking.com

4. Save

Auto-payments for Hostaway Direct Bookings

To set up automatic payments for Hostaway Direct or Booking Engine reservations, you should follow the next steps:

1. Go to your Hostaway Dashboard > Guest Payments

2. In the top bar, go to Auto-payments > "Add auto-payment" or select an existing one

3. On Channels, select Hostaway Direct and/or Booking Engine

4. Save

Offline auto-invoice / charges

Offline charges can also be scheduled for any channel type, though this is typically used for direct/partner API reservations where the payment is managed externally.

Any offline charge created from an auto-invoice will be set to Due status by default and will not be updated automatically; the status needs to be set to Paid manually. This also applies to Expedia when using Expedia Collect, since we do not receive the offline OTA charge from this channel.

NOTE: This does not apply to Airbnb or Booking.com (when using payments by Booking.com) since we do receive the offline OTA charge status from these channels.

If a reservation is created via the Public API with offline charges on it (at the moment of creation), as a safety measure, our system will not automatically generate any charges (even if they are pre-auth).