What is Payments by Booking.com and how do I set it up?

Not available everywhere. Booking.com offers this service only in the markets it supports, and only for some property types. If Payments by Booking.com is missing from your Extranet's Finance menu, it is not available for your property yet.

Payments by Booking.com is a Booking.com service that collects the guest's payment for you and pays you out afterwards, by bank transfer or virtual credit card depending on your location and property type. You sign up in the Booking.com Extranet; there is no Smoobu setting for it, and your Smoobu booking sync carries on exactly as before.

What it does and what it costs

• Guests pay how they prefer. They can pay in their own currency with local or global payment methods. Booking.com reports that up to 25% of bookings through the service use a payment method other than a credit card, which reaches guests in markets where card use is limited.
• Fewer cancellations and no-shows. Guests who prepay show stronger intent to travel. Booking.com reports up to 40% fewer cancellations and up to 80% fewer no-shows for partners on the service.
• Payment is guaranteed on prepaid bookings. On bookings that are not prepaid, Booking.com validates the guest's card automatically and handles invalid cards through its own cancellation process.
• Booking.com charges you a transaction fee on the payouts it transfers to you. The service is not free, so work the fee into your pricing before you decide.
• Compliance and chargebacks move to Booking.com. Booking.com handles the online-payment rules such as data privacy and Strong Customer Authentication, along with chargeback and fraud protection.

Before you start

You need all of these before you can sign up:

• Admin or Finance access rights on your Booking.com account. Without them the financial settings do not appear. Your primary account administrator can grant them.
• A supported property location. Your property has to be in a market where Booking.com fully supports the service.
• Accurate bank and billing details stored on your Booking.com account, so the payouts reach you.
• Set it up in the Extranet, not in your channel manager. Because you manage your properties through Smoobu, Booking.com requires you to configure this payment solution in the Booking.com Extranet directly.

Steps

1. Log in to your Booking.com Extranet.
2. From the main menu, go to Finance.
3. Click Payments by Booking.com.
4. Click Sign up now and select the payout method you want.
5. Click Save.

Check it worked

Go back to Finance > Payments by Booking.com. Your account shows as signed up, with the payout method you chose. From then on Booking.com collects guest payments and pays you out; your bookings keep arriving in Smoobu as they did before.

Common problems

Payments by Booking.com is not in your Finance menu

Two things hide it. Either your Booking.com account does not have Admin or Finance access rights, in which case your primary account administrator can grant them, or the service is not supported for your market and property type, in which case there is nothing to switch on yet.

You want to set it up from Smoobu

There is no Smoobu setting for it. Booking.com's managed payments are agreed between you and Booking.com, and Smoobu's only job here is to keep importing the bookings. maps out which settings live on which side.

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Still stuck?

If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:

• Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
• The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
• The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
• The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
• A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
• Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
• Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.