How do I set up Stripe payments?

To let guests pay online with a credit card when they book on your website, you connect a Stripe account to Smoobu once, then switch on the card payment (and any other online payment methods) at your checkout. The whole connection takes a few minutes plus Stripe's own account checks.

Before you start

You need both of these before you connect:

• A Stripe account in live mode, not test mode. Smoobu only connects to live Stripe accounts. If you don't have one yet, you create it during the connection below; Stripe verifies your identity and bank details before payments can flow, so have your ID and bank account ready.
• Your Booking Engine set up on your website, so there is a checkout to pay at. See .

What Stripe costs you

Stripe charges its own fee per transaction, taken out of the amount before it reaches your bank account. Smoobu adds no fee on top of that: the Stripe fee is the only per-payment cost. Your exact rates are shown in your Stripe account.

Steps

1. In Smoobu, open Configuration > Booking Engine and go to the Booking System Settings tab.
2. In the payment-methods list, click the link "click here for Stripe connect". Smoobu's Stripe page opens.
3. Click Connect. You're forwarded to Stripe.
4. Log in to Stripe (or create your account there), fill in the details Stripe asks for, and authorize the access.
5. You're returned to Smoobu, and you receive a confirmation email saying Stripe was added to your Smoobu account as a payment method.
6. Back in Booking System Settings, tick each Stripe payment method you want to offer, starting with Stripe Connect (Credit Card), and save.

Which methods are worth offering, and what each one is, is covered in .

Check it worked

In Booking System Settings, the Stripe payment methods are active instead of greyed out. Make a test booking on your own website ( shows how to do that without charging real money): the card payment appears at checkout, and a completed test payment shows up in your Stripe account.

Common problems

The Stripe payment methods are greyed out in Smoobu

The connection hasn't been completed yet. The Stripe methods only unlock once you've been through the Connect flow and back to Smoobu, and Stripe has accepted your account details. Start again at the "click here for Stripe connect" link and finish every screen on Stripe's side.

The connection worked but payments fail

Check your account status on Stripe's side. Payments fail while Stripe is still waiting for identity or bank verification; resolve any open verification tasks in your Stripe dashboard. Then try a small test payment again.

Stripe pays out different amounts than my booking totals

Your Stripe account currency and your Booking Engine currency are probably different. Stripe then converts every payment and adds a conversion markup, and Smoobu shows no warning about the mismatch. Set both to the same currency to avoid the markup.

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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.