When switching payment processors in Guesty, it's important to understand how this affects both existing and future payments. The key factor determining which payment processor handles a payment is which payment processor tokenized the card (i.e., which payment processor was assigned to the listing when the card was added to the reservation).
While keeping the old processor active
If you want to change the payment processor for a listing, while keeping the previous one active, follow these steps:
- If the payment processor account you wish to use is not yet connected to Guesty,
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Assign the listing(s) to the new payment processor so that future payments will be processed with the new processor. If you wish to have the existing scheduled payments processed with the previous payment processing account, you need to leave it active and connected to Guesty.
Managing reservations with scheduled payments
You have two options of how to manage reservations with scheduled payments:
Option 1: Process existing payments with the old payment processor
- Keep the old payment processor active
- All existing scheduled payments will continue to be processed through the old payment processor
- New reservations will be processed through the new payment processor
Option 2: Process existing scheduled payments with the new payment processor
First, you need to assign the relevant listing(s) to the new payment processor account and then re-add the guest credit card to each relevant reservation by either:
- Manually adding the credit card details, if you have them
- Or sending your guest an invoice to collect the payment details anew.
Once you have added the credit card with the new payment processor, you will need to make sure the payments have the newly added credit card assigned to them by either:
- Editing the existing payment(s) to select the newly added card (under Payment Methods).
- Or cancelling the existing payment and creating a new payment with the newly added card. You can identify the newly added card in the list by checking the date at which they were added to the reservation.
You will find the recommended steps to locate all the relevant reservations below.
Note:
Any of the actions mentioned above (creating, editing, or canceling a payment/auth hold) will stop auto payments from automatically updating, meaning the existing scheduled payments will be charged "as is" unless they are edited or cancelled.
Deactivate the old payment processor
Info:
Relevant for “Per listing auto payment rules", not "Payment automation rules".
Important:
If there are pending/scheduled payments on a payment processor you want to disable (meaning payments with a payment method added with that processor), and these payments are not cancelled before the processor is disabled, they will all be charged if you ever re-enable the processor, regardless of the reservation status.
Before deactivating a payment processor or a payment processing account associated with a listing, check for scheduled payments in reservations already confirmed on the listing. The best way to do this is by adding filters on your reservations page. Add the following filters:
- Reservation status is confirmed
- Balance due is more than zero
- Payment processor is the payment processor you want to disconnect
- If you’re planning to disconnect the payment processor only from specific listings, add a listing filter as well.
Open each reservation and identify scheduled payments. At this point you can choose to either charge them early or to cancel them.
Once the listing is connected to the new payment processor, add new payments to replace the scheduled ones you canceled.
Considerations
Virtual credit cards (VCC)
For reservations with a VCC, you will not be able to change the payment processor, as the VCC cannot be recollected from the booking channel.
Refunds
When processing refunds for payments that were originally charged through a specific payment processor, you need to use the same payment processor for the refund.