Accept payments on a property

By the end of this guide, you'll have one of your places (or services) set to Accept payments, with a charge type, a deposit amount (if you chose deposit), a booking deadline, and a clear understanding of what the guest sees and what shows up in your admin afterwards.

Step 1: Open the property → Bookings section

Sidebar → Places → your property (or Services → your service). Scroll to the Bookings section.

The section has two columns side by side:

• Widget behaviour — three options: Availability only, Accept bookings, Accept payments
• Booking type — Instant / Request

By default new properties are on Accept bookings + Instant.

Step 2: Switch behaviour to Accept payments

Click Accept payments in the Widget behaviour switch. Two things happen straight away:

1. Booking type locks to Instant (the Request option greys out). Guests pay to confirm — paying is the vetting step.
2. A new Payments sub-section appears below.

If your account doesn't have a payment gateway yet, you'll see a note — "No payment gateways are configured on your account yet." — with a Set up payment gateway button. Click it, set up a gateway (see Payment gateways), and come back.

Step 3: Pick a charge type

The Payments sub-section shows the Payment gateway picker first — leave it on Account default unless you want to use a different gateway for just this property.

Below it is a switch with two options:

Full amount

The guest pays the entire booking total at checkout. The booking arrives paid, dates blocked, money on its way to your account.

Use it when:

• The total is comfortable for guests to pay upfront (small services, day rentals, tours)
• You don't want any chasing-up to do after the booking
• Your cancellation policy is generous enough that prepayment isn't risky

Deposit

The guest pays a fixed deposit at checkout. The booking arrives marked deposit paid, dates blocked, and you collect the rest later with a payment link.

When you pick Deposit, an extra field appears: Deposit amount. Type the amount (in your property's currency). Examples:

• Your total ranges from 3,000 to 8,000 CZK depending on length → set the deposit to 2,000 CZK: everyone pays a flat 2k now, the balance later
• Tour package at €120 → a €30 deposit locks the slot, balance on arrival

Use it when:

• Totals are large enough that asking for the whole sum upfront would scare guests off
• You want to filter out non-serious bookings without tying the guest to the full amount
• You're happy collecting the rest by hand (bank transfer, cash, a second card payment)

Step 4: Set a booking deadline (optional)

Below the charge type is Booking deadline — a number, in hours. Default is 0.

This is the cutoff by which guests must finish paying. At 0, dates stay bookable right up until the start time. At 48, they stop being bookable 48 hours before — handy if you need lead time to prepare.

Step 5: Notifications

The last setting in the section is a Notify me toggle for new-booking emails. With it on, you get an email every time a booking comes in (paid or deposit). The email shows the amount paid, the remaining balance (if it's a deposit), and a link to the booking.

Step 6: Save and test

Top of the page → Save. Reload your widget. The booking dialog now shows a payment step on the summary screen.

To test the whole flow end to end (with the gateway in test mode):

1. Open your public widget (use View public widget on the Widget edit page)
2. Pick dates → Make a reservation
3. On the summary step — Full amount shows one total; Deposit shows the total plus a short line: "You pay :deposit now. The remaining :remaining will be collected before your stay."
4. Click Pay now — a new tab opens to the payment page
5. Use the test card 4242 4242 4242 4242, any future expiry, any 3-digit CVC
6. Submit — you're sent back to a cabintale success page
7. Back in admin: the booking is now in your Bookings list with the paid amount shown inline; open it and the Payments table lists the transaction

What the guest experiences

The success screen, the booking dialog, and the payment page all show in the widget's language. Set up a Czech widget and the whole flow — including the payment page — is in Czech. 34 languages supported.

What you see in admin: the Payments table

Open any booking that has online payments. The Payments section shows everything in one table:

• Online payments at the top: amount, date, type (Card), what it was for (Deposit / Full amount / Balance), and a status — Succeeded, Pending, Failed, or Expired
• Manual payments you've recorded (bank transfer, cash) below, in the same table
• A summary row at the bottom shows To be paid — the real remaining amount (total minus every payment, online and manual combined)

Collecting the balance: payment links

When a guest has paid a deposit, you still need to collect the rest. The Payments section has two buttons next to + Add payment:

• Payment link — creates a link for the current remaining (total minus everything paid so far). Send it to the guest by email or SMS.
• Pay deposit link — only shows if the property is on Deposit charge type and there are no payments yet. Use it when a guest abandoned the dialog and you want to send them a fresh link.

Click either one and the link is copied to your clipboard automatically — no popup, no email is sent for you. The button just flips to "Payment link copied" for a few seconds. Paste the link into your reply.

The guest opens the link, sees a payment page in the language of the widget they booked from, clicks Pay, and pays. Your booking updates within seconds.

Mixing online and manual payments

A common scenario:

1. Guest pays a 2,000 CZK deposit online through the widget
2. Two weeks later they pay 4,000 CZK by bank transfer — you record this with + Add payment, type Transfer
3. Total booking: 6,800 CZK. Remaining: 800 CZK
4. You click Payment link — it's created for the 800 CZK still owed
5. Guest pays the 800 through the link. Booking is fully paid.

The remaining amount is always live: it counts both online and manual payments every time, so a payment link is always for the right balance.

Removing a pending payment

If you created a payment link by mistake (wrong amount, wrong guest), open the booking → Payments table → find the Pending row → click the Delete icon. Confirm, and the payment is removed — the link stops working immediately.

Succeeded payments can't be deleted. To give a guest their money back, use the Refund action on that row instead — see Refunds and cancellations.

Switching back to Accept bookings

You can do this anytime: open the property, switch Widget behaviour back to Accept bookings, and save. Existing payments aren't touched — past transactions and the Payments table still show. New bookings just go through the non-paying flow.

Troubleshooting

Related guides

• Payment gateways (account-level setup) — Payment gateways
• Stripe setup (Stripe-dashboard side) — Stripe setup
• Refunds and cancellations — Refunds and cancellations
• Instant vs. Request booking — Instant vs. Request booking
• Booking deadline — Booking deadline