Understanding Payment Types

Understanding Payment Types

On 1 Sept 2026, we launched Payment Services in Activate, a feature that enables hotels to act as merchant of record for their own experiences.

As part of this launch, your Experiences now include a new field called Payment Type, which determines the checkout steps, when payment is collected, and how the booking appears in payment status reporting.

IMPORTANT: Payment status is separate from booking and check-in status, so each experience should use the payment type that matches how you want to collect payment.

Available Payment Types

Select when the guest will be charged for this experience, and when you will be collecting for the booking.

Instant Charge

Cards are charged immediately at the time of booking, regardless of the cancellation policy. If a booking is later cancelled and refunded, any non-refundable transaction fees will be deducted from your connected account or from your next payout.

Scheduled Charge

Card details are validated and saved securely at the time of booking, but no funds are captured immediately. The charge will be processed automatically on the date the reservation becomes partially or fully non-refundable in line with the cancellation policy. (Coming soon)

Manual Charge

Card details are securely saved, but the guest will not be charged unless it's manually triggered from the booking dashboard. (Ideal for collecting no-show fees.)

No Charge

No credit card details will be required from the guest at the time of booking, regardless of the total booking value. For complimentary experiences, always select this option.


Operational Scenarios

1. A guest makes a booking and payment is taken successfully
  1. The guest books through the normal booking flow.
  2. The system resolves which payment profile should be used.
  3. If the experience is set to Instant Charge, payment is captured at the time of booking.
  4. The booking record should show the booking details, payment status as PAID, and related customer information.
2. A guest makes a booking under Manual Charge
  1. The card details are collected and stored securely through the hosted payment flow (Website).
  2. The guest is not charged immediately as the card only gets authorised, and the resulting payment status is PENDING.
  3. The payment action needs to be intentionally triggered by the hotel through Activate from the booking page.
Important: This should be used only as a fallback for no-shows, and if not triggered, payment should still be collected on-site.

3. A guest makes a booking on an experience with No Charge
  1. No card details are collected during booking regardless of the booking value.
  2. The booking can still be confirmed, and payment status will display “Not Applicable”.
  3. Payment is expected to happen outside the online checkout flow, usually at the property.
Important: If you expect a card on file or a captured payment, you should not set your experience as No Charge.

4. A booking succeeds with a Manual Charge but a payment issue is reported later
  1. This can happen when the booking exists, but the hotel cannot charge the collected time when they go to process the manual charge. 
  2. Always confirm the payment status before fulfilling the booking. If payment status remains PENDING, please charge the guest on site.
5. A booking is cancelled before funds were captured
  1. If payment was only authorised or tokenized and not captured, the expected outcome may be a release of the authorisation or no charge being collected.
6. A booking is cancelled after funds were captured
  1. If payment was already captured, a partial or full refund may apply.
  2. The final refund amount may depend on the cancellation policy, fees, or other commercial rules.
  3. Refund timing may vary based on processor and card network behavior.