Important:
The legacy auto payments feature will be discontinued soon. Switch to the new payment automations for a more flexible and powerful way to manage payment schedules.
Guesty's auto payment feature removes the manual effort from collecting payments from your guests. By setting up rules for each listing, Guesty automatically charges guests at specific points in the reservation lifecycle. This ensures payments are collected on time without you needing to do it yourself.
For example, you can schedule 50% at confirmation and the rest at check-in.
Important:
- Auto payments aren't available for Airbnb and Misterb&b reservations.
- If a returning guest adds a new credit card to their reservation, the new card will be used even if a previous one was already in the system.
Vrbo payments
For Vrbo reservations, Guesty automatically schedules a 100% collection at confirmation, even if you don't have auto payment rules set. This charge is skipped only if you don't have a payment processor connected.
Requirments
Confirm the following requirements for listings published to Vrbo:
- Connected listings must have payment rules to sync properly.
- Set at least one auto payment rule to "at confirmation" or "at booking".
- Fully collect all payments before check-out.
- Auto payments don't automatically update after they're created. Update auto payments manually if you change reservation pricing.
- Payments for non-instant book reservations won't be generated automatically upon confirmation. Manually create payments for non-instant book reservations when you confirm the booking.
Authorization holds
Authorization holds are created at the designated time, even when auto payments cover 100% of the reservation amount. While funds are reserved, you can't charge these funds without first updating the guest folio breakdown to increase the total reservation amount.
To charge against held funds, add the amount you need to charge to the guest folio to prevent the system from blocking the transaction as an overcharge.
Create an auto payment rule
Follow the steps below to create a new auto payment rule for your listing.
Tip:
Read our suggested best practices to optimize your setup, prevent payment discrepancies, and handle specific booking scenarios effectively.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- Ensure that a payment processor is connected to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Operations mode.
- Click Properties.
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Click the relevant listing.
For a multi-unit, access the main settings. The auto payment rule will apply to all sub-units automatically.
- In the left-side menu, click Pricing & policies, and select Auto payments.
- Next to "Rules", click Edit.
- Under "Auto payments", click Add rule.
- Click Payment.
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Edit the relevant fields.
Uncheck the Use guest's card box if you plan to charge the guest manually, such as via cash.
Vrbo: For reservations booked via instant booking, the guest's card will always be charged even if Use guest's card is unchecked. You are required to create a rule to collect the remaining balance before check-out.
- At the top-right, click Save.
- In the pop-up, select Yes to update existing reservations or No to keep the rule in place for current bookings.
Edit or delete an auto payment rule
Note:
Vrbo: Don't delete auto payment rules. If you delete them, the system applies a default rule (100% at confirmation), which disrupts the connection.
Access the Auto payments page using the instructions above. Next to "Rules", click Edit.
- To edit: Update the relevant fields and click Save.
- To delete: Click Delete next to the rule, then click Save.
New rules apply to all confirmed reservations after you save the changes.
Changes don't apply retroactively to reservations with manually handled payments (manually collected payments, edited scheduled auto payment, or canceled scheduled auto payment).
You can cancel an auto payment that was not yet charged.