1 Payment Options

To collect payments or send payment requests you need to activate at least one payment option.

1.1 Integrated Payment Gateways

The funds are deposited directly to your account. MASTERINSOFT will be notified about the payment and you will see the amount in the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking.

You will need an account at the payment gateway you want to use. Please contact the payment gateway of your choice for details of their fees and charges.

Integrated Payment gateways are:

  • Stripe- credit card payments. Stripe offers the best functionality including the option to automatically charge pending payments, automatically charge virtual cards from OTSs and manually charge a card directly from the booking. Register here for a Stripe account.
  • Paymill- credit cards payments. Register here for a PAYMILL account.
  • Net- credit cards payments. Register here for an Authorize.Net account.
  • Realex- credit card payments. Register here for a Realex account.
  • Bitpay- bitcoin payments. Register here for a Bitpay account.
  • Paypal- Paypal and credit card payments.

To connect your payment gateway go to  (SETTINGS) PAYMENT GATEWAYS > PAYMENTS->STRIPE/PAYPAL…

1.2 Custom Gateway

If you do not want to use one of the integrated payment gateways you have the option to set up a connection to an external payment gateway. To set a connection up you will need HTML and programming skills or hire a developer.

1.3 Credit Card Collection

This option will allow you to securely collect credit card details without the card being charged. If you want to charge the card you can do this via your bank or merchant account. MASTERINSOFT will not be notified about the payment so you will need to enter it manually into the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking.

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If leaving credit card details is the only option you want to give to your guests go to  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > CREDIT CARD COLLECTION and use the Credit Card Collection help page.

1.4 Offline Payments (Custom Instruction)

You can ask your guests to make a bank transfer or send a cheque. MASTERINSOFT will not be notified about the payment so you will need to enter it manually into the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking.

If you use this method you will need to enter the payments manually in the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking.

2 Payments for Bookings from OTAs

Some channels send credit card details. If you use Stripe as payment gateway you can choose to send credit cards supplied by all channels directly to Stripe. You will then be able to

  • automatically charge virtual cards from OTAs when they become valid. To enable this option go to  (SETTINGS) CHANNEL MANAGER and set “Channel Collect Invoice” = Charges and Pending Payments. Then

go to the channel settings (for example SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER->BOOKING.COM) and set “Auto Process Virtual Cards” = Yes and select the “Virtual Card Payment Rule”, either Auto or if you have created a Payment Rule, then select your payment rule.

  • charge a card manually from within the booking or in the Stripe extranet.

For details please see Stripe help page.

To collect payments from channels which do not provide credit card details or if you do not use Stripe you can send send payment requests (see below).

3 Create and manage pending payments

The option to automatically collect pending payments is only available for customers who use Stripe via Stripe Connect (“Connect to Stripe” button). If you connected your Stripe account via keys please remove them and connect via the “Connect to Stripe” button.

3.1 Create pending payments

Pending payments can either be

  • added via an Auto Action. The auto action will create the pending payment for the bookings which meet the trigger conditions.
  • added manually on the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking. For manually added pending payments you can choose to collect the payment automatically or manually.
  • imported as virtual cards from an OTA. To import pending payments go to  (SETTINGS) CHANNEL MANAGER and set “Channel Collect Invoice” = Charges and Pending Payments. Then go to the channel settings (for example S (SETTINGS) CHANNEL MANAGER > BOOKING.COM) and set “Virtual Cards” = Yes

3.2 Rules for pending payments

In  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > PAYMENT RULES you can create rules and info codes for pending payments.

When the payment is due, the system checks whether the selected rule applies. If this is the case, the payment is triggered and then the selected info code is added to the “Info” tab of the booking.

3.3 Manage pending payments

3.3.1 Using Stripe

Under “Pending Payments” on the “Charges and Payments tab of the booking you can:

  • Schedule outstanding payments. Pending payments can be collected manually or automatically.
  • For automatic chargingset the “pending payment” to “auto” OR the Payment Rule you have created and enter a due date in the future.  The option to automatically collect pending payments is only available for customers who use Stripe via Stripe Connect (“Connect to Stripe” button).
  • Manually collect a pending payment if the credit card has been sent to Stripe by clicking on the … menu and then clicking on “charge now”.

Successful collections will be moved from “Pending Payments” to “Payments”.

After the payment was collected you will see a status information on the “Info” tab.

3.3.2 Without Stripe

If you do not use Stripe you can use a pending payment

  • As a reminder for yourself
  • For reporting
  • To send a payment request (see below)

3.4 Cancellations

If you want to cancel a pending payment if the booking is cancelled you can use a payment rule which does not apply to cancelled bookings.

4 Payment Request

You can set up an Auto Action with a payment request. The guest can then make a payment through the payment option(s) you support. If you use one of the integrated payment gateways MASTERINSOFT will be notified about the payment and it will show in the “Charges and Payments” tab of the booking.

To use this option you need to activate at least one payment option (SETTINGS-> PAYMENTS> PAYPAL/STRIPE…)

You can show a custom message in header section of the payment request and in the confirmation which the guest sees after they have completed the payment. The settings are  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS ” Payment Request Header” and “Payment Request Confirmation”.

  • Go to  (SETTINGS) GUEST MANAGEMENT > AUTO ACTIONS and create an Auto Action. Use the context help (?Icons) and the help page (click on HELP in the top right menu) for general instructions.

In the “Email” tab click on “Edit” and enter your text.

You can use either template variables for a pre canned link (recommended) or create your own custom URL.

4.1 Using Template Variables

  • The template variable [PAYLINK] creates a payment link (HTML A tag) for the payment request for the amount in the booking deposit field if non zero, otherwise the outstanding balance.
  • [PAYLINK:25%] -Creates a payment link (HTML A tag) for the payment request for a percentage of the outstanding balance. Use 100% to specify the full outstanding balance.You can also use a percentage over 100% if you want to charge extra for example for credit card payments.
  • [PAYLINK:200] – Creates a payment link (HTML A tag) for the payment request) for a fixed amount.
  • The template variable [PAYBUTTON] creates a payment button for the payment request for the amount in the booking deposit field if non zero, otherwise the outstanding balance.
  • [PAYBUTTON:25%] – Creates a payment button for the payment request for a percentage of the outstanding balance. Use 100% to specify the full outstanding balance. You can also use a percentage over 100% if you want to charge extra for example for credit card payments.
  • [PAYBUTTON:200] – Creates a payment button for the payment request for a fixed amount.
  • The template variable [PAYURL] creates a payment url for the payment request for the amount in the booking deposit field if non zero, otherwise the outstanding balance.
  • [PAYURL:25%] – Creates a payment url for the payment request for a percentage of the outstanding balance. Use 100% to specify the full outstanding balance. You can also use a percentage over 100% if you want to charge extra for example for credit card payments.
  • [PAYURL:200] – Creates a payment url for the payment request url for a fixed amount.
  • Add a H to exclude a gateway from displaying. Example: [PAYURL:200:HST] will hide Stripe

4.2 Using Request URL Parameters

You can also use a direct link. The link uses the booking number and the requested amount.

For Auto Actions you can use the [BOOKID] template variable to automatically populate the bookid URL parameter:

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[BOOKID]

For custom Emails you can type the booking number in directly:

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=1234567

The parameters below can be added to the URL to customize the behaviour of the payment request.

These are the parameters for the different payment options:

4.2.1 Parameters for different payment options

By default all payment gateways enabled for your booking page will show on the payment request page.

You can override which gateways are shown on the booking request page using the URL &g= and &h= parameters. You can specify multiple payment gateways comma separated for both the &g= and the &h= parameter.

The &g= parameter forces the gateway to be shown, the &h= forces the gateway to be hidden.

an AuthoizeNet

bp Bitpay

cc credit card collection

cg Custom Gateway

op Offline Payment

pm Paymill

pp Paypal

ra Realex A

rb Realex B:

st – Stripe

Capture for Stripe:

capture=0 do not capture payment

capture=1 capture payment

Examples:

https:/.MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[BOOKID]&g=an creates a payment link for Authorize.Net

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=1234567&g=st,pp creates a payment link showing Stripe and Paypal

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[BOOKID]&g=st&capture=0 creates a payment link for Stripe without capturing

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=1234567&h=cc creates a payment link hiding credit card collection

4.2.2 Parameters for amounts

If you do not specify an amount parameter the amount requested for individual booking is the outstanding balance. For group booking the outstanding balance of the group invoice will be requested.

&pay=deposit for a payment request collecting the amount from the “Deposit” field in the booking

&pay=100 for a payment request for the specified amount (in this example 100)

&pay=bookbalance for a payment request collecting the outstanding balance for this booking  If the booking is part of a group booking and there is no outstanding balance in this booking the value of the group balance will be requested.

&pay=groupbalance for a payment request collecting the outstanding balance for the group booking (the default)

&pay=na for a request to collect credit card details without showing an amount

Examples:

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[BOOKID]&pay=70 creates a payment link requesting a payment of 70

4.3 Payment Request without Payment Options Activated

If you do not use one of the payment options you can set up an Auto Action with a Paypal payment request. Click here for instructions how to set this up.

5 Request Guests to Submit Credit Card Details

You can set up an Auto Action with a request to sub mit credit card details. Guests will be able to submit their card details on a secure form.

To use this option you need to

  • activate credit card collection in  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > CREDIT CARD
  • set which credit cards you accept  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > CREDIT CARD COLLECTION
  • Go to  (SETTINGS) GUEST MANAGEMENT > AUTO ACTIONS and create an Auto Action. Use the context help (?Icons) and the help page (click on HELP in the top right menu) for general instructions.

Template variables are used to link to the form.

In the “Email” tab click on “Edit” and enter your text. Template variables are used to specify the requested amount:

  • The template variable [PAYLINK:NA:CC] creates link to the form where guest can securely enter their credit card details.
  • The template variable [PAYURL:NA:CC] creates URL for the form where guest can securely enter their credit card details.
  • The template variable [PAYBUTTON:NA:CC] creates button with a link to the form where guest can securely enter their credit card details.
  • If you want to use custom text you can use an a link Your text

You can show a custom message in header section of the payment request and in the confirmation which the guest sees after they have entered their details. The settings are SETTINGS-> PAYMENTS ” Payment Request Header” and “Payment Request Confirmation”.

You can also use a direct link. The link uses the booking number plus the parameter &g=cc&pay=na

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=1234567&g=cc&pay=na

https://MASTERINSOFT.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[BOOKID]&g=cc&pay=na

6 Collect only Credit Card Details for Web Site Bookings

If you only want to securely collect credit card details without charging them go to  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > CREDIT CARD COLLECTION. The guest will only be able to complete the booking if they leave their credit card details. The card processing must be handled manually by your bank or merchant account. You can find more information on the Credit Card Collection help page.

Guests will be asked to enter their credit card details with their details.

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  • Go to SETTINGS->PAYMENTS and use these instructions if you want to
    • automatically collect a deposit/payment though an integrated payment gateway.
    • require guests to make an offline payment (i.e. bank transfer).
    • connect your own payment gateway.
    • want to give guests the option to choose from two or more options (online deposit payment, offline payment, leave their credit card details)

After the guest clicked “Confirm Booking” they are directed to the payment screen.

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7 Collect Deposits for Web Site Bookings

If you use this method the guest will not be able to complete the booking without making a payment.

Setup

  1. Go to  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > PAYMENT COLLECTION
  • Set “Non Payment Booking Status”. Failed or non payments can be set to leave the booking in either cancelled or request status.
    • Request: When the guest clicks “Confirm Booking” the room gets reserved for the guest and will not be available for other guests to book. When they make a successful payment the status of the booking will automatically change to confirmed. If the payment is aborted or not successful the status of the room will still be blocked with the request status. You will then either need to change the status manually to cancelled or use an auto action to automatically change the status of Request bookings to Cancelled after a preset time. Auto Actions can be set up in  (SETTINGS) GUEST MANAGEMENT >AUTO ACTIONS.
    • Cancelled: When the guest clicks “Confirm Booking” the room will not be reserved until the payment has completed. Other guests can still book the room until a successful payment has been made leaving a small risk of double bookings.
  • Set the required amount. It can be a fixed amount, a percentage of the total or the value of the first nights accommodation.
  • The currency used by will be the currency you have set in the PROPERTY -> DESCRIPTIONcurrency to receive payments setting.
  1. To add general information to the header section of the payment screen go to  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS-> and click on “Deposit Payment Header”
  2. Enable one or more payment options.
  • Choose the gateway and or method(s) you want to use ( (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > PAYMENT GATEWAYS > PAYPAL/STRIPE….. and enter the required account information to connect your payment system to your account. Use the context help (? icons) and the page help (top right menu of each page) for instructions.

If you want to offer your guests a choice between different options you can select in which order the options display.

To override the default title which the guest sees enter your custom text in the “Title” field.

  • In “Instruction” you can enter a custom information to display under the payment button.

For detailed instruction for each gateway/method when you click on the context help (? icons) and on HELP in the top right corner of the payment method help page.

  1. Go to  (SETTINGS) PROPERTIES >BOOKING RULES
  • Set “Booking Type” to either the Deposit Collection 1 or Deposit Collection 2.

Each of Deposit Collection 1 and Deposit Collection 2 can collect different deposit amounts.

Individual rules can be set for Normal, Near term and Exceptional period bookings. Individual rules can also be set directly within rates or offers.

This allows you for example to take a different deposit in high and low season or for normal and last minute bookings.

Note that booking rules for rates will override rules for rooms and booking rules for offers will override property booking rules.

If you set “Booking Type” in = “Collect CC – auto confirmed with Credit Card” or “Request CC – Request only with credit card number” in SETTINGS->PROPERTIES->BOOKING RULES the guest will submit their credit card detail but the card will NOT be charged.

8 Reports

You can set up an Auto Action (S (SETTINGS) GUESTMANAGEMENT- > AUTO ACTIONS) to flag bookings for which a payment and set up a custome report for these bookings (REPORTS-> CUSTOM REPORTS) which you show on the dashboard.

In REPORTS-> STANDARD REPORTS you can choose from a wide range of financial reports.

9 Frequently asked questions

9.1 How do I receive the payments?

MASTERINSOFT never handles any payments from guests. All payments go directly into your account with the payment gateway you use.

9.2 How can I collect payments from guests booking through an OTA?

MASTERINSOFT is not involved in deposit collections for bookings from booking channels. Each booking channels handles them according to their rules/your account settings. If you use Stripe you can send cards send from OTAs to Stripe to charge them.

9.3 How can I collect outstanding payments from guests booking through my website (Direct)?

If you have activated Stripe and have collected the guest credit card details then you can create a Pending Payment in the booking to collect the outstanding payment at a specified date/time. See the section on Pending Payments above.

If you do not have the guest credit card details, then you can send a Payment Request link in an email so they can make a payment via the activated payment gateways. See section on Payment requests above.

9.4 Can I use a payment gateway to which MASTERINSOFT does not integrate?

In  (SETTINGS) PAYMENTS > CUSTOM GATEWAY you can connect to your own payment gateway. If you do not have the required programming skills you can hire a developer to set this up for you. If you do not work with a developer you can hire with us. Contact support@masterinsoft.com