A chargeback is process whereby a cardholder (the guest) demands to stop payment in dispute of the payment’s validity, with the end goal of receiving a refund. When a guest begins a chargeback process through their credit card processor, the money is refunded to them and the credit card processor contacts you to begin an investigation into the payment's validity. Based on the result of the investigation, the money may either stay with the guest or be repayed to you.
If you receive a chargeback for an entire payment or part of it, reporting it in Guesty will help you show the owner you can't pay them money you no longer have. It will also help you see if a guest still owes you money.
You can only add a chargeback to payments that are processed through Guesty, not payments that are collected outside of Guesty and only recorded in Guesty.
The chargeback can't be reversed. We recommend adding it only when you are sure you are not going to get the money back.
Note:
Payments processed via GuestyPay do not offer the option to record a chargeback. Chargebacks automatically synchronize from GuestyPay to Guesty, making manual recording unnecessary.
For transactions processed with American Express through GuestyPay, chargebacks do not automatically sync with Guesty. In such cases, users must manually reach out to Guesty to have these chargebacks recorded. Contact us to provide the following details:
- The reservation ID(s) (confirmation code) of the relevant reservation(s)
- Identification of which payment(s) to record the chargeback(s) for (if there are multiple payments on the reservation)
- The precise amount of the chargeback
Before you begin
When adding a chargeback, the reservation's credit card is marked as "invalid", and any pending auto payments are blocked, unless you add a new payment method to the reservation. We recommend asking the guest why they issued the chargeback to decide if you should collect a new credit card from them. If you suspect fraud, we recommend canceling the reservation.
Once this information is submitted, our team will process your request to record the chargeback.
To better understand this situation, please refer to our article What is the Amex Direct Settlement Deduction Fee in GuestyPay?.
Record a chargeback
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Financials mode.
- Click Reservations.
- Select the reservation that received the chargeback.
- At the top right, click Balance due / Payout.
- In the "Payments" section, click Payment actions and select Record a chargeback.
- In the pop-up, fill in the following details:
- Amount: How much money was returned to the guest. By default, this will be the original amount of the payment. You can enter a new amount, but it must be smaller than the original amount.
- Date: When the money was returned to the guest. By default, the date will be today, i.e., the day you are adding the chargeback. You can enter a new date, but it must be a past date compared to today.
- Chargeback reason: Why the money was returned to the guest. By default, this will be set to "Fraudulent". You can select a different reason from the dropdown menu, based on the payment processor's decision.
- Click Record.
A new column "Chargeback" will appear on the payment line, and will be added to the reservation's balance due. To view details of the chargeback, click on the payment line to expand, then click "Disputes" from the menu to the left.
Tip:
If you mistakenly recorded a chargeback, as a workaround to undo the chargeback, you can record a payment for the same amount.