Payment automations FAQs

If a credit card isn't available for a reservation, the payment remains in "Pending" status. The system collects the payment and marks the reservation as "Paid" once you add a credit card.

The outcome depends on whether the reservation has a credit card on file.

No credit card on file

• Scheduled payment automations are removed because the reservation balance becomes 0.
• Payment automations stop updating if you manually adjust a payment. In these cases, canceling the reservation doesn't change existing payments.

Credit card on file

• Pending payments, authorization holds, and charges are canceled.
• If an authorization hold is active, the future charge is canceled. You can still collect or release the funds manually.
• Refunds aren't issued automatically. You can issue a refund manually according to the cancellation policy.

The way payment automations are structured depends on the booking channel:

• Airbnb: Payment automations are ignored because Airbnb exclusively handles guest payments.
• Booking.com: Payment automations don't apply to reservations handled through "Payments by Booking". To process these through Guesty, use GuestyPay to automate your transactions.
• All other channels: Payment automations are created based on the relevant listing's payment automation rules.

You can edit rules whenever you need to, regardless of reservation status. However, the change only applies if the reservation meets specific conditions. When you edit a rule, you must decide if the changes apply to existing reservations:

• No: Changes apply only to new reservations.
• Yes: Changes apply to existing reservations only if no payments have been collected yet and the check-in date is in the future.

Currently, you can create payment automation rules per listing, but not per booking channel.

When you create a payment automation rule, it triggers a payment at the scheduled time whether you check the Use guest card box or not.

• Checking the Use guest card box charges the guest's card.
• Deactivating it records a cash payment instead.
• Vrbo exception: Vrbo always charges the guest's credit card regardless of this setting.

Any change to the total payout—such as changing the accommodation fare or an update from the booking channel—automatically updates the pricing of pending payment automations. Charged payments remain intact.

If you update the total payout after one or more payments are charged, only the remaining unpaid payment updates to match the preset rules.

Example: A payout is $1000, and rules are set for two payments of 50% each ($500). If the payout increases to $1500 and the first $500 is already charged, the remaining payment updates to $750 (50% of $1500). This leaves an unpaid balance of $250.

You have two options for collecting the remaining amount:

• Manually: Add a new payment for the balance and charge it.
• Automatically: If the rule is set to Rest of payment, the system collects the full remaining balance automatically.

Existing payment automations don't update if you perform any of the following actions. In these cases, you must cancel and re-add them or collect payment manually:

• Change actual payments, such as adding, canceling, editing, charging, or refunding a recorded or live payment.
• Change an authorization hold, such as adding, canceling, editing, charging, or releasing a hold.

You can add manual payments to a reservation that already has automated payments, but you cannot add automated payments after a manual payment has been collected. Once a manual payment has been added, future scheduled payment amounts do not adjust automatically and may need to be edited. Learn more about turning a scheduled payment into a recorded payment.

Payment automations are processed in batches at hourly intervals, usually around seven minutes after the hour. If a payment wasn't charged, it is typically for one of two reasons:

• Reservation confirmed after the batch: If a rule charges "at confirmation," the actual charge occurs during the next hourly batch. For example, if a reservation is confirmed at 11:25 and the next batch is at 12:07, the payment remains pending for 42 minutes.
• Charge attempt failed: Guesty attempts to process a payment three times. If all attempts fail, the status changes to "Failed".

It can take up to two hours for a payment automation to complete its processing cycle.

If a transaction isn't approved on the first attempt, Guesty retries twice more at one-hour intervals. If all three attempts fail, the status switches from "Pending" to "Failed". Contact the guest to collect an updated payment method and charge the payment manually. A processing fee applies to each attempt made.

If a guest books a listing close to the check-in date, multiple rules may trigger simultaneously. For example, if rules are set for 50% at confirmation and 50% at 30 days before check-in, and the guest books 25 days before check-in, both payments are collected at confirmation.