Important to know:
To enable deposits for your direct booking rates, go to Direct booking > Direct rates.
This article covers deposits for guests booking through your direct booking engine. If you need to set up deposits on your channels, please refer to their extranet or contact their support team.
You can only add deposits after the room rates have been set up in Direct booking.
Deposits in your direct booking engine
By configuring deposits in your direct booking engine, you can secure a portion of a reservation and keep it in the event of cancellations or no- shows, as stipulated in your payment policy.
Each room rate in your booking engine can also be set up to require a specific deposit amount at the time of booking.
A "deposit" is normally defined as:
a portion of a reservation’s total amount;
a sum paid at the time of booking (with the rest paid later).
A deposit in the context of your direct booking engine, however, is defined as any payment made at the time of the booking, whether it is a portion or the full amount of a reservation.
If you have an integrated payment gateway, setting up deposits is essential: once active, you can ensure credit cards are validated and deposits are charged automatically without you needing to take any action.
Deposits process
There are two ways that deposits can be enabled for a direct booking rate:
With an integrated payment gateway — the required deposit is automatically processed by the payment gateway.
Without an integrated payment gateway — after a guest completes their booking, you use the card details they have provided to process the payment manually. Note that with this method, the deposit you set up in our platform will NOT automatically debit your guest’s card; instead, guests will see messages in your direct booking engine notifying them that an amount will be debited.
Set up a direct booking rate to require a deposit
You can easily set up your direct rates in such a way that guests are required to pay a deposit at the time of booking.
Go to Direct booking > Direct booking rates.
On the Show rates status , filter by Added.
Locate the direct rate you want to set up a deposit for and click on it.
On the Direct booking rate actions menu, select Edit.
A window will appear on the right hand side of your screen with direct booking rate information. Locate the Additional direct booking controls section.
Click the Deposits toggle to enable it, then select a Deposit type from the following options:
Full amount — reservations need to be paid in full at time of booking.
First night — the first night rate (excluding extras) is required as a deposit.
Fixed amount — a specified amount is required as a deposit.
Percentage — a specified percentage of the total room rate (excluding extras) is required as a deposit.
Click on Save, then repeat the process for any room rate that you would like to have a deposit.
Notes:
Avoid setting a Fixed amount deposit that is higher than the price of the reservation.
If you want reservations to be non-refundable and charged at the time of booking, set the rate to charge a Full amount deposit.
If multiple rooms are booked in a single reservation, the First night deposit type will charge the sum of each room 's first night rate.
Ensure you set up the credit cards that your property accepts.
Deposit types and corresponding messages
The rates in your direct booking engine show messages according to the type of deposit that has been set:
No deposit — 'Book now, pay later'.
Full amount deposit — 'Pay today'.
First night deposit — 'One-night deposit required'.
Fixed amount deposit — '(Currency) X deposit required'. (The ‘(Currency)’ is the currency used by your property, and the ‘X’ is the amount you have set for the deposit.)
Percentage deposit — displays ' X% deposit required', the percentage you set is shown in place of ‘X’.
Guests are shown the debited amount in both the booking summary during the booking process and in the confirmation e-mail after the booking has been made.