Charge, refund, or release an imprint
All of these actions start from a row’s menu in The guarantees to handle.
Charge an imprint
Section titled “Charge an imprint”Charging is manual: you decide, reservation by reservation, whether to charge the card after a no-show or a late cancellation. Charge opens a window where the amount is prefilled to the full consented total. You can lower it, but not go above it: the ceiling is the amount the guest agreed to.
A charge takes real money from the guest’s account and can only be reversed with a refund. It stays possible for 14 days after the reservation; past that, the window is closed and the charge refused.
A charge happens only once. If you charge less than the ceiling, the guarantee moves to Partially charged and cannot be charged again; the rest of the ceiling is no longer collectable.
Retry a declined charge
Section titled “Retry a declined charge”If the guest’s bank declines the charge, the guarantee moves to Charge failed and a Retry action appears. A card that declines an off-session charge often declines a retry too. Common declines (insufficient funds, expired card, issuer refusal) show their reason; you can retry, with no promise of success. Some declines cannot be cleared remotely: a card that requires 3-D Secure authentication cannot be charged while the guest is not present, and the window explains this rather than promising a retry that would only re-fail.
Refund
Section titled “Refund”On a guarantee already charged, Refund returns all or part of the amount to the guest, from your balance. A partial refund leaves the guarantee refundable for the remainder, until it is fully refunded. One point to know: Service keeps its commission — the fee taken on the original charge is not returned, and neither is Stripe’s processing fee.
Release an imprint
Section titled “Release an imprint”Release gives up the charge on an active imprint: the saved card will no longer be chargeable for a no-show or a late cancellation. The consequence depends on the reservation’s status, and the confirmation window states it each time: a confirmed reservation stays confirmed; on a reservation marked No show or Cancelled, releasing forfeits the no-show or late-cancellation charge you could still collect.
Automatic release
Section titled “Automatic release”You do not have to release an imprint after a successful visit. When a reservation is marked Completed, Service releases the imprint automatically, silently. The guest gets no email: nothing was charged, so there is nothing to tell them.