The Checkout Balance Collection agent is an automated tool that helps you collect outstanding balances from guests after they check out. This is useful for charges that weren't collected during the stay, such as for split payments, post-stay fees, or charges related to a security deposit.
Limitations
Keep the following in mind when working with the Checkout Balance Collection agent:
- The agent can only process a charge if a valid payment method is stored in Guesty for the reservation. If no card is on file, the agent skips and flags the reservation.
- The agent charges the exact amount recorded in the reservation's outstanding balance.
- This agent works in conjunction with the Security Deposit Defender but handles different payment flows.
Understanding the agent
The agent runs automatically after a guest checks out as part of Guesty's payment automation features. There is no option to run it on-demand.
During its scheduled run, the agent performs the following actions:
- Scans all checked-out reservations that have an outstanding unpaid balance.
- Verifies the amount owed and the payment method on file.
- Attempts to charge the guest's stored payment method for the outstanding amount.
- If the charge is successful, the agent marks the reservation as balanced and adds a payment confirmation note.
- If the charge fails, the agent flags the reservation for manual follow-up and adds a note with the reason for the failure.
Access the agent
Follow the steps below to access the agent.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the side navigation menu, click
Agents hub. - In the left submenu, click Agent activity.
- Select the Checkout Balance Collection thumbnail.
- The agents runs once a day. Click Run now to run on demand.
Managing agent runs
When the agent runs, you will see the following updates in your Guesty account.
Activity feed entry
The agent adds an entry to your Activity feed showing a summary of its run, including:
- The number of checkouts processed
- The number of successful collections
- The number of failed collections that require manual action
Run status
The Activity feed entry also shows a status for the run:
- Done: All outstanding balances were processed, either by being collected or automatically deemed unrecoverable.
- Action needed: One or more payment collections failed and require you to follow up manually.
Reservation notes
The agent adds a note to each reservation that it processed, showing the amount collected and the result of the transaction.
Taking action with the agent
The agent is designed to collect outstanding balances automatically, so you usually do not need to do anything. However, you will need to take action in the following situations:
- A payment fails: This can happen if a guest's card is declined, has expired, or has insufficient funds. In this case, you will need to contact the guest or process the payment via another method. See our article onCollecting a payment manually for more information.
- A dispute or chargeback is filed: The agent automatically skips reservations that have an active dispute or chargeback.