Payment Link - Save payment details for future use

Payment Links are available for all Hostaway-supported payment providers — Stripe, Authorize.net, and Braintree — so you can share a payment link with a guest regardless of which processor your account uses. The Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) described in this article are offered through Stripe Connect and can be managed per Hostaway-connected Stripe account, depending on how you've set up payments.

Save payment details for future use function

When you use Stripe as your payment provider with Hostaway, you can manually create or edit an unpaid charge by setting Payment Link to ask the guest if they allow you to save the payment method for future use. This works per charge by a checkbox and defines what payment methods the connected Stripe account can offer to the guest for payment. 

1. When you enable the save payment details for future use on a charge,
   1. The guest can pay the charge with methods that are also securely stored on the Stripe account side, and
   2. You can use this method for the next payments that you wish to automatically charge without the guest being on a payment link page.
2. When you disable the "save payment details for future use" on a charge,
   1. The guest can pay the charge with more methods that will not be stored inside the Stripe account, and
   2. These methods can not be used by you for the next payments that you wish to automatically charge without the guest being on a payment link page again for the next scheduled charge.

This function is only available for type charges and so not for Pre-Auths. Pre-Auths will always request the guest to save payment details authorization to reuse it during auto-renewal of the pre-Auth. The method saved can be used for future charges as described in point 1.

Working with the saved payment details for future use is enabled:

1. When you have the saved payment details for future use enabled, then you will see that:
   1. The guest can pay the charge with Card, Link, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and optionally Klarna, Amazon Pay, or Revolut Pay. (These payment methods are Stripe-specific.)
   2. The charge, when successfully paid, will show the payment method and other details the guest used.
   3. A new payment method for reuse has been added to the reservation that you can use for new charges to manually or automatically charge without the guest paying through a new payment link.

Example for the guest view on the payment link page showing methods and request for future use authorization:

Example of the reservation, add or edit charge showing a new method, Klarna, after the first charge for reuse assigning:

Working with the saved payment details for future use disabled:

1. When you have saved payment details for future use disabled, then you will see that:
   1. The guest can pay the charge besides your default selection, a longer list of other payment methods you have optionally enabled on your Stripe account.
   2. The charge, when successfully paid, will show the payment method and other details the guest used.
   3. No new payment method is added to the reservation, and so it can not be reused for the next automated charges.

Example for the guest view on the payment link page showing methods without reuse authorization request:

Good to know

• We recommend you, as a host, to make a selection of the most popular payment methods based on your business location and the most frequent guest countries' bookings. This is to prevent guests from getting overwhelmed with to many payment methods to choose from. The default recommended methods, Card, Link, Google Pay, and Apple Pay, will cover all guest booking cases and should be left enabled on your Stripe account.
• The optional and allow-to-save payment methods will cover during H1-2026 the Booking Engine, Guest Portal, and payment link systems.
• The optional no-saving-allowed payment methods will cover payment links first during H1-2026. These options become available for Booking Website and Guest Portal use at the end of H1 and during H2.

• Booking Website 100% payments: When a Booking Website reservation is paid 100% at reservation creation, Hostaway does not store the payment method on the reservation (equivalent to disabling "Save payment details for future use"). Even if the guest paid with a card, no card is saved for future charges; any additional payment must be requested via a Payment Link or the Guest Portal.

• Availability per account: Payment links for Authorize.net and Braintree can be enabled or disabled per account, so availability may differ between accounts. If you don't see the option to send a payment link, contact Hostaway Support.