Pilot: Managing automated payments

Scheduling payments allows you to handle payment collection before it is time to actually collect the money. If you want these scheduled payments to be collected automatically, you can use payment automations to create a series of payments throughout the reservation life cycle. After the automation is activated, the payments will be added to the relevant reservations as they are created in Guesty.

The payment automation will apply to reservations based on conditions you set, such as channel and listing. This means a single listing can have more than one payment schedule - to meet the unique payment requirements of different booking channels, for example.

Follow the instructions below based on your current needs.

Create a payment automation

You can use one of our templates or create your own automation. Either way, make sure you create payment automation to cover all of your reservations.

We recommend categorizing the types of reservations that require a unique payment schedule and aligning the automations with your cancellation policies to reduce guest complaints and chargeback risks. For example:

• If channel X has a strict cancellation policy, you may want to create an automation for it to collect 100% at confirmation for reservations from that channel.
• If listings A, B, and C allow very long stays, you may want to create an automation for them to collect several payments after check-in, with 3 weeks between each payment.
  

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Guest experience mode.
3. Click Automations.
4. In the left menu, click Payments.
5. In the top-right corner, click Add payment automation.
6. To use a template, click Add on the relevant template. Otherwise, click Create custom automation in the top-right corner.
7. To the left, choose which reservations will get this payment schedule:
   Reservation conditions

   • Properties:
     • All (you can exclude specific properties)
     • Specific
   • Channels:
     • All (you can exclude specific channels)
     • Specific
   • Advance notice - can be set if the channel is only "Manual": Number of days between confirmation and check-in, for example:
     • You may want to collect 100% at check-in for reservations that were confirmed less than 2 days before check-in.
   • Length of stay - can be set if the channel is only "Manual": Number of nights that were booked, for example:
     • You may want to have 4 payments for reservations that are more than 30 days.
8. To the right, create the payment schedule by clicking Add payment as much as needed and filling in the information:
   Payment settings

   1. 1. Select Collect payment.
      2. Choose when the money should be collected during the reservation life cycle.
      3. Choose how much money should be collected - percentage or fixed amount.
         • We strongly recommend keeping the "Collect the remaining balance" payment we added for you by default to help prevent over or undercharging the guest.
      4. Click Save.
9. In the bottom-right corner, click Save & Activate (or Activate, if you made no changes).
10. In the pop-up, name the payment automation, review its settings, and click Add payment automation.

Edit a payment automation

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Guest experience mode.
3. Click Automations.
4. In the left menu, click Payments.
5. Find the payment automation you want to update and click the three dots at the right end of the row.
6. Click Edit.
7. To the left, choose which reservations will get this payment schedule:
   Reservation conditions

   • Properties:
     • All (you can exclude specific properties)
     • Specific
   • Channels:
     • All (you can exclude specific channels)
     • Specific
   • Advance notice - can be set if the channel is only "Manual": Number of days between confirmation and check-in, for example:
     • You may want to collect 100% at check-in for reservations that were confirmed less than 2 days before check-in.
   • Length of stay - can be set if the channel is only "Manual": Number of nights that were booked, for example:
     • You may want to have 4 payments for reservations that are more than 30 days.
8. To the right, create the payment schedule by clicking Add payment as much as needed and filling in the information:
   Payment settings

   1. 1. Select Collect payment.
      2. Choose when the money should be collected during the reservation life cycle.
      3. Choose how much money should be collected - percentage or fixed amount.
         • We strongly recommend keeping the "Collect the remaining balance" payment we added for you by default to help prevent over or undercharging the guest.
      4. Click Save.
9. In the bottom-right corner, click Save & Activate (or Activate, if you made no changes in the end).
10. In the pop-up, name the payment automation, review its settings, and click Add payment automation.

Deactivate a payment automation

You can deactivate a payment automation if the schedule is not relevant right now.

Reservations that already exist in Guesty will keep this deactivated payment schedule, but you need to make sure there is a payment automation to cover new reservations.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Guest experience mode.
3. Click Automations.
4. In the left menu, click Payments.
5. Find the payment automation you want to deactivate and turn off the toggle at the right end of the row.
6. In the pop-up, click Continue.

Activate a payment automation

If a payment automation was deactivated in the past or never activated when it was created (saved as a draft), you can activate it to start using it.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Guest experience mode.
3. Click Automations.
4. In the left menu, click Payments.
5. Find the payment automation you want to activate and turn on the toggle at the right end of the row.
6. In the pop-up, decide if you want the scheduled payments to be added to existing reservations (that are already in Guesty):
   • Yes, apply: Payments will be added to existing reservations ONLY IF check-in is in the future AND no payments have been made yet.
   • No: Payments will only be added to future reservations.

Delete a payment automation

You can delete a payment automation if you want to stop collecting payments on reservations that should receive this payment schedule.

New reservations will not have these deleted payments. As for reservations that already exist in Guesty:

• If check-in is in the future AND no payments have been collected (all still "Pending"), the deleted payments will be removed from the reservation.
• If check-in is in the past OR if any payment has already been collected, the deleted payments will remain on the reservation and continue to be charged.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Guest experience mode.
3. Click Automations.
4. In the left menu, click Payments.
5. Find the payment automation you want to delete and click the three dots at the right end of the row.
6. Click Delete.
7. In the pop-up, click Delete.