Ask Guests to Pay or Leave a Card at Booking
Each cancellation policy has a setting called What the guest must do to book. It decides what a guest is told to do to secure the room and, once a payment gateway (Stripe or Apaleo Pay) is connected and selected under Payments, whether they receive a secure link to pay a deposit, pay in full or leave a card as a guarantee; with a PMS that holds rooms the room stays held in the meantime, while with Apaleo nothing is held until the payment or card comes through.
The five choices
| Choice | What the guest does | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Nothing — no payment or card needed | No payment and no card are requested. Guests are told they pay at the hotel. With automatic reservation creation, the booking is confirmed automatically when the guest accepts; there is no hold stage. Without it, the quote stays Accepted by Guest and your team confirms the booking directly. | Rates you settle at the desk with no guarantee. |
| Per the payment instructions — the hotel collects | No link. Guests receive your payment schedule and your own How to pay the hotel text. This is the default for every policy. | Bank transfers, card details by phone, or anything Brixa cannot collect for you. |
| Card as a guarantee (nothing charged now) | The guest saves a card. Nothing is charged now; the card is there for a late cancellation or a no-show, as described in your cancellation terms. | Free-cancellation rates. |
| Deposit at booking | The guest pays the deposit amount by card. The rest is settled later, as described in the payment schedule. | Rates with a percentage or fixed deposit. |
| Full payment at booking | The guest pays the full amount by card. The booking is confirmed once the payment goes through. | Non-refundable rates. |
For a deposit, only the amount due at booking is collected through the link. Any later payments are explained to the guest in words but are not collected by Brixa.
Where to see and set it
- Open Hotel Settings and go to your cancellation policies (see Guest Categories and Policies).
- Open a policy. The form has three sections: Cancellation terms, What the guest must do to book and Payment.
- For hotels without a connected PMS, choose an option under What the guest must do to book and save. The choice applies to quotes that reach the guarantee stage from now on; links already sent keep the terms they were sent with.
If your hotel has a connected PMS
Your PMS is the source of truth for these terms. The cancellation terms, the choice under What the guest must do to book, any deposit amount, the free-cancellation window and the Payment schedule are copied from your PMS, and the form shows Synced from PMS next to them. To change any of them, change them in your PMS; the update appears in Brixa after the next sync.
Two things stay yours: the How to pay the hotel text (for example, your bank details or a phone number for card details) and whether the policy is active. A synced policy can also show Per the payment instructions; your own text is then what guests see. In that case the choice under What the guest must do to book stays editable: pick a card guarantee, a deposit or full payment yourself if that is what your PMS enforces, and the choice is kept until your PMS provides one. Nothing — no payment or card needed appears only when your PMS provides that setting; not every PMS does, and policies with no payment or card at booking then show Per the payment instructions instead.
When a link is sent
A link is sent for full payment, a deposit or a card guarantee, as long as a payment gateway is connected and selected under Payments and, for Stripe, its card there reads Can accept payments. If it is not, guests receive your payment schedule and your How to pay the hotel text instead, and you collect the payment yourself. Nothing and Per the payment instructions never send a link.
What the guest experiences
- When the quote reaches Awaiting Guarantee, the message asking for the guarantee carries the link. In your conversation view it appears as Secure your booking; the quote page shows the same action as a button to pay or to add a card.
- The link opens a secure checkout page in the guest's language, showing your hotel's name and the stay dates. It works until the end of the day the quote is valid, the same deadline as the offer. A guest who leaves the page can come back and try again before then.
- When the payment or the card goes through, Brixa sends the guest a short receipt in the conversation, in their language, and the quote moves to Confirmed by Hotel. With a connected PMS, Brixa confirms the hold or, where the PMS cannot hold rooms, creates the booking at that moment; if that fails, you receive the Payment received — create the booking in your PMS alert and create it yourself. Hotels without a PMS confirm the booking in their own systems as they do today.
For what guests are told at each stage, see What Guests Are Told About Your Cancellation Policy.
Brixa never tells a guest that a payment was received unless it really went through. If a guest says they have paid and you cannot find the payment in Brixa or in your payment gateway, ask them for their receipt or the last digits of the card they used before you confirm anything.
Hotels whose PMS cannot hold rooms
If your PMS cannot hold a room, no hold is created when the guest accepts, and the guest still gets the pay link. When they open it, they may see one of two messages instead of the checkout page:
- This offer has changed. The guest is pointed to the conversation, where the new options are waiting. Nothing is charged.
- A page saying Brixa could not confirm their booking details and asking them to try again in a few minutes. Your team gets the Could not check the room before taking the guarantee alert. Check your PMS, then click Request guarantee or ask the guest to open the link again. See When Brixa Asks for Human Help.
What you see
On the conversation and on the quote page, two small pills sit next to the quote status. The first shows your PMS record: Held #123 until 12 Oct, Booked #123, Not in your PMS yet or Held by hotel. The second shows the collection and reads Awaiting payment, Awaiting deposit or Awaiting card while the link is open, then Paid, Deposit paid or Card on file. For a deposit the guest's receipt says a deposit was received, and Payments at Check-in explains what to collect at the desk. Hovering over it shows the amount and when it was received; a click opens the payment in Stripe when Stripe is your gateway; with Apaleo Pay the payment travels with the booking into Apaleo.
If a payment needs a decision from you, the conversation shows an alert like any other escalation (see When Brixa Escalates). The banner tells you what happened and what to do — for example, to send the guest your payment details yourself, to confirm the reservation in your PMS, or to check the payment in your payment gateway before you confirm the booking or refund the guest. While a payment is waiting for that check, the pill reads Needs review. Hotel collects means you take the payment yourself, as your instructions describe.
Before you rely on it at the desk
With Stripe, payments and saved cards live in your Stripe account, not in your PMS. Read Check Stripe Before Charging at Check-in so nobody charges a guest twice. With Apaleo Pay, the payment or saved card is on the booking in Apaleo.