Payment Management Part 3: Payment Policies

Introduction

GuestWisely makes it easy to manage payment and policy settings for both short- and long-term stays. From deposits and installments to cancellation rules and long-stay configurations, the platform offers flexible options to fit your rental strategy. This guide outlines the key settings and customization tools available to help you streamline bookings and clearly communicate your policies.

Please refer to the full Property Management tutorial here for more details.

Short Stay Logic Settings

General Payment Settings

To set up your property's payment structure, go to Portfolio > Payment Settings > Policies within your GuestWisely dashboard. Here, you can configure key payment-related options:

1. Deposit Amount: Define the required upfront payment—either as a percentage or a fixed amount—to confirm a reservation.

2. Installment Options: Choose whether to allow guests to pay in installments.

3. Extended Payment Installments: Applicable for direct bookings only. 

4. Customize Statements:  Use GuestWisely’s built-in text editor to tailor the Payment Policy language displayed in your Rental Agreement and on your website.

Flexible customization of Payment Policies for Individual Bookings: Although default policies apply across all bookings, you can modify them on a per-reservation basis when needed. To do this:

• Navigate to the Reservation Manager. 

• Select the reservation by double clicking on it so that you can access the Booking Editor . 

• Next, go to Manage > Payment Policy > General Payment Settings.

• Make the necessary changes and click “Save” or “Save & Notify” at the bottom of the page.

Advanced Online Booking Bolt-on Option

GuestWisely accommodates a wide range of booking scenarios through flexible Bolt-on options, while also improving the payment experience with multiple payment methods and available discounts.

To use this functionality, please activate the Enhanced Online Booking Bolt-on option in your subscription plan.

Cancellation Policy

1. Cancelation Policy for Direct Bookings: You can manually set a Cancellation policy for bookings made directly through your website.

2. Define Cancellation Rules: Create a rule-based policy specifying the percentage of the rental fee refunded for cancellations made within different timeframes.

3. Airbnb Integration: If you use the built-in Airbnb direct integration, you'll need to choose from their pre-defined cancellation policy options.

4. Booking.com Integration: If you use the built-in Booking.com direct integration, you'll need to choose from their pre-defined cancellation policy options.

5. Vrbo Integration: If you use the built-in Vrbo direct integration, you'll need to choose from their pre-defined cancellation policy options.

Retained Funds

Funds retained due to cancellations can be allocated to the Owner Statement for accounting purposes. This can be set as a default policy and also managed for individual bookings.

Long Stay Logic Settings

If you are planning to offer extended stays alongside short-term bookings or cater exclusively to long-term tenants, GuestWisely provides dedicated settings within the Payment Policies section. Here, you have three options to choose from:

Long-Stay not required

Select this option if your property caters primarily to short-term rentals.

Apply Long-Stay logic

Choose this option if you plan to offer long-term stays alongside short-term bookings. Here, you can define the following:

Minimum Long-Stay Duration: Specify the minimum number of nights required for a booking to be considered long-term.

Payment Regularity: Determine how often you'd like to collect rent payments (e.g., monthly, quarterly).

Refundable Damage Deposit (Optional): Decide whether to include a refundable damage deposit for long-term stays.

Rates: Long-term pricing can differ from short-term rates. The Rates Table defines these Rates.

Apply tenant logic

This option is ideal if you exclusively offer long-term rentals. Here, the system disregards the Rates Table and instead applies a fixed monthly charge for rent.

Total rental per month: Indicate the rental amount for a 30-night stay that qualifies a booking as a tenancy.

Payment Regularity: Determine how often you'd like to collect rent payments

Refundable Damage Deposit (Optional): Decide whether to include a refundable damage deposit for long-term stays.

Customizing the Guest Experience

For both Short-Stay and Long-Stay setups, the system offers default text for your Rental Agreement and website to explain your policies. You can review and customize this text for improved clarity.