A deposit when the guest books, a balance due before arrival, a reminder ahead of each due date and a cancellation fee in bands cover most apartment bookings. Set them once for each property and every booking follows the same schedule, without you chasing anyone for money or arguing about what a cancellation costs.
This post covers the choice between full payment and a deposit, what the guest sees and when they are reminded, how to set cancellation bands, and what happens on the day you cancel a booking.
See how huttoro handles deposits, reminders and cancellations
Choose: everything upfront, or deposit and balance
In the payment terms of each property you pick a payment mode: the full amount upfront, or a deposit plus a balance. With a deposit you set its share of the total as a percentage, how many days after booking it is due, and how many days before arrival the balance is due. A balance due before arrival means the full amount is in before the guest turns up.
Save the terms for every property. Without saved terms a booking has no schedule, and incoming payments have nothing to match. You find the terms in the Invoicing tab of the property.
What the guest sees, and when they are reminded
Every booking gets a page of its own for the guest, with no login. It shows the total, what is paid and what is still outstanding, and one card for each open instalment with its amount, due date, payment reference and QR code. Your bank details are on it too. The booking mail lists both instalments with their dates.
Before an instalment is due, the guest gets a reminder that asks for that instalment and not for the whole balance. If the date passes, one overdue notice goes out while the grace period runs. With automatic cancellation on, a booking that is still unpaid after the grace period is cancelled, the guest is told, and the dates go back on sale. A website booking with nothing paid is released after 48 hours in any case.
The booking is confirmed when the first payment arrives. A guest can also pay by card if you have connected your Stripe account, as direct bookings for your apartments describes. Matching bank transfers automatically depends on your bank, and recording a payment by hand always works.
Set cancellation bands the guest can read
A cancellation policy is a table of bands. Each band has an upper bound in days before arrival and a fee as a percentage of the total price, widest band first. A separate no-show percentage applies when the guest cancels on the arrival day or later, or never turns up. A button offers common terms to start from, and without any band no fee is charged.
The fee is always a percentage of the total price, and it is never more than the guest has paid. A guest who paid nothing owes nothing, whichever band the cancellation falls in.
While you edit, a preview shows the policy as the guest reads it. The terms document that huttoro generates for the property prints the same bands, so the terms and the fee cannot disagree. Consumer rules differ from country to country, so check what yours allows before you set high fees.
Cancel with the numbers in front of you
When you cancel a booking, huttoro first shows what the cancellation costs: the band that applies, the fee, and the refund, which is what was paid minus the fee. A cancellation you start yourself charges nothing, and so do force majeure and a duplicate booking. For any other reason you can waive the fee or change it, still capped at what was paid.
The refund is recorded in the booking. A card payment can be refunded from its row, in full or in part, through your Stripe account. A bank transfer you send back yourself, and huttoro keeps the record.
A no-show is not a cancellation. The booking keeps its balance and the reminders stop, and whether to cancel it and charge the no-show fee is your call.
Summary
- Choose full payment upfront or a deposit with a balance, and save the terms for each property.
- The guest has one page with every instalment, and reminders and overdue notices go out on their own.
- Cancellation bands set a percentage of the total price, never more than the guest paid.
- The cancel dialog shows the fee and the refund before anything happens.
- Refunds are recorded, and a card refund can be sent from the payment row.
What to do now
- Pick the payment mode for each apartment, enter the deposit share and the due days, and save.
- Add your cancellation bands, start from the common terms if you like, and read the preview as a guest would.
- Preview the booking-received mail in the Emails tab and check that it lists the deposit and the balance with the right dates.
