Payment terms let you offer guests the flexibility to pay in up to three easy installments, at no extra cost. It’s a wonderful way to encourage more bookings, especially for longer stays or higher-value reservations. Learn more about how payment terms work.
Guests always have the option to pay in one upfront payment, if they prefer. When they select to make multiple payments, Hospitable will automatically capture the funds according to the payment schedule. An email reminder will be sent before we capture the second payment to avoid confusion. This will also include a link to allow them to pay using a different form of payment as needed.
Align payment terms with your cancellation policy,
Set a custom payment schedule, or
Guests always pay 100% upfront (ie. disable payment terms)
We recommend the first option as it saves you the hassle of setting a schedule and it ensures Hospitable collects payments in time to fund the non-refundable portion of your cancellation policy.
You are also required to add a grace period which is the period when payment will be retried and cancelled at its end if collection is unsuccessful.
An important note: we can only offer guests the option to make multiple payments if you have a cancellation policy with sufficiently spaced refundable checkpoints. Once a reservation has been accepted, payment terms for that specific booking cannot be modified. This ensures that expectations are clear for both guests and hosts.
Altering Bookings on Payment Terms
When altering a booking, payment terms will be handled as follows:
If the check-in date changes or the alteration results in a refund, we will automatically remove any existing payment terms. The remaining balance will be collected immediately.
In all other cases, we will keep the payment terms as they are and only collect any gap to the next scheduled payment.
This ensures that your payments are adjusted accordingly based on the nature of the booking alteration.
Cancelling and Refunding Bookings on Payment Terms
Once a booking is fully paid, the refunds and cancellations are treated the same way as other bookings, aligned to your cancellation policies. You may cancel a booking at any time even when the entire amount is not yet collected to stop the next payments.
When a payment fails, we retry collecting it within your set Grace Period. When it ends and payment is not collected, the booking will be cancelled and we will process a refund based on your booking cancellation policy. You may opt to extend the grace period before it fully expires.
The guest will not receive a full refund of what was initially paid if your policy at the time of cancellation does not allow it. You can process a cancellation as a host to bypass the set cancellation policy and provide a 100% refund.
Tips for Efficient Payment Management
Configure payment terms such as partial payments or deposits before sending booking offers to guests.
Educate guests about the timing of payment collections to reduce confusion between holds and completed transactions.
Promptly address payment failures by confirming browser compatibility and ensuring accurate payment details are provided.
Troubleshooting Payment Issues
If a guest is unable to make a payment, the issue might originate from browser compatibility or incorrect payment details. Verifying that payment information is entered correctly often resolves such issues. For instance, payments typically proceed successfully when guests update their payment details or switch to a different device.