1. Guesty Help Center
  2. Guest Payments
  3. Security deposit and authorization hold
  4. Authorization hold

Managing authorization holds

An authorization hold freezes funds on a guest's credit card for a limited time to guarantee reservation payments or secure funds for potential damages. Use this article to manage your active or scheduled holds, including modifying dates, charging funds, or releasing holds back to the guest.

An authorization hold expires automatically after seven days, or five days for Visa credit cards. You can charge or release the funds manually at any time during this period.

Note:

Guesty doesn't support authorization holds for Virtual Credit Cards (VCC).

Manage scheduled holds

Manage holds that you set for a future date by authorizing them early, editing the details, or canceling them completely before they trigger.

Authorize a scheduled hold early

Follow the steps below to authorize a scheduled hold before its scheduled date

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Select the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the side panel, click Authorize hold now.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, hold now.

Edit a scheduled hold

Follow the steps below to change a scheduled hold date or amount.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Select the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the top-right corner of the side panel, click the vertical ellipsis and select Edit hold.
  7. Make the relevant changes.
  8. Click Save.

Cancel a scheduled hold

Follow the steps below to cancel a scheduled hold before it triggers.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Select the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the side panel, click Cancel hold.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, cancel hold.

Process active holds

When a hold is active, you can either charge the held amount to collect the funds or release the hold to return the funds to the guest.

Charge an authorization hold

Follow the steps below to collect the held funds from the guest's card.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Select the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the side panel, click Charge authorization hold.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, charge payment.

After taking this action, two line items appear in the ledger:

  • The original transaction type "Authorization hold" updates to the status "Completed"

  • A new transaction type "Charge" appears in the status "Approved"

Cancel a charge

Follow the steps below to cancel a charged authorization hold.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Select the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the relevant payment line.
  6. In the side panel, click Cancel charge.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, cancel charge.

Release an authorization hold

Follow the steps below to release the held funds back to the guest manually.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Click the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the side panel, click Release now.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, release now.

The transaction type remains "Authorization hold" and the status updates to "Funds released". When you release an authorization hold without charging it, the amount disappears from the guest's credit card statement because the funds were only held aside, not actually charged.

Cancel a release

Follow the steps below to cancel a released hold.

Step by step:
  1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
  2. In the side navigation menu, click icon Reservations.
  3. Click the relevant reservation.
  4. In the left submenu, click Payments.
  5. Click the payment line with transaction type "Authorization hold".
  6. In the top-right corner of the side panel, click the vertical ellipsis and select Cancel release.
  7. In the pop-up, click Yes, cancel release.

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