Refundable Damage Deposit or Pre-Auth FAQ

What is a pre-authorization?

Authorization hold (also card authorization, pre-authorization, or pre-auth) is a service offered by credit and debit card providers whereby the provider puts a hold of the amount approved by the cardholder, reducing the balance of available funds until the merchant completes the transaction (capture) or cancels it, or the hold expires.

When does a pre-auth expire?

A pre-auth expires after 7 days of the pre-auth creation. This timeframe is set by Stripe and it cannot be changed from Hostaway. Once the pre-auth expires, the amount held will be released and the guest will have that amount available in their credit/debit card again.

What is the minimum amount that can be held / pre-auth’d?

The minimum amount is 0.5 cents or is it equivalent in any currency.

What is the difference between Capture and Charge?

Capturing an amount only applies to pre-authorization. It is basically instructing Stripe to charge the requested amount from the pre-authorized amount. It can be a full or a partial capture.

Charging a card means taking an amount from a debit or credit card. Charging is independent of any pre-authorized amount. You could charge a card that already has hold but it will not mean that the held amount will be captured. You would just take the amount charged from the card.

When a credit card is authorized, it places those funds on hold for a period of time determined by the bank. Capture will charge the person's card and remove the previous authorization from the credit card. Charge simply charges the credit card and doesn't remove the authorization amounts placed on the card.

What happens when you partially capture a pre-authorized amount?

Capturing can only happen once. If you capture part of the pre-authorized amount, Stripe will immediately refund/release the remaining amount to the guest card. For instance, if you have pre-authorized 400$ and capture 100$, Stripe will immediately refund 300$ to the guest card.

Can pre-auths be created with Braintree?

Not at this point. This implementation only works with Stripe connected accounts.

Will I see captured amounts in Financial Reporting?

The first version of the pre-auth feature does not support reporting captured amounts in Financial Reporting. You will have to use the Charges tab in Guest Invoicing to see reports (csv) on pre-auths and amounts captured/released.

Will I see pre-autorized amounts in reservation breakdowns for Hostaway Direct Channels?

Not at the moment.

Can I create a manual pre-auth?

No, at the moment Hostaway only supports automated pre-auths. In order to create a pre-auth, you will have to create an auto invoice with an auto charge of type “pre-authorization”.

Does an auto charge need to be created for pre-auths to work?

No, an auto-charge of the type “charge” is not needed for pre-auths to work. You will only need to create an auto-invoice with an auto-charge of the type “pre-authorization” for the feature to work.

When creating a pre-auth for a %, what is the % calculated against?

The % is calculated against the total price of a reservation. So, if a reservation is 1000 $ and the pre-auth is for 10%. The amount held (pre-authorized) will be 100$.

Can I create pre-auth for authorize.net?

Yes, you can create a pre auth for authorize.net A pre-auth expires after 30 days of the pre-auth creation. This timeframe is set by Authorize.net and it cannot be changed from Hostaway. Once the pre-auth expires, the amount held will be released and the guest will have that amount available on their credit/debit card again.

Please follow the user guide on How to create an auto Pre auth / Refundable Damage Deposit 

Important Note : For Authorize.net A pre-auth expires after 30 days of the pre-auth creation, so create the invoice before X days or X Hours before the checkout 

Can I create another pre-auth for the same reservation once the first one has expired?

Because Hostaway doesn't allow creating manual pre-auths (only automated ones) this is not possible. You can do this, however, directly in Stripe by searching for the customer and creating a payment only as pre-auth: