What Is ChargeAutomation and How Do I Connect It to Smoobu?

This guide explains what ChargeAutomation is and how it helps automate guest payments and communication for short-term rentals. It also walks you through the steps to connect ChargeAutomation with Smoobu so your bookings, guest data, and payment workflows stay automatically synchronized.

Why use ChargeAutomation? 

• Set up payment workflows like: 20% on booking day and the rest 48 hours before check-in
• Take deposits from Stripe directly
• Generate a unique payment link to send to guests
• Connect multiple Stripe accounts for different properties
• Online check-in process
• Free of charge Chargeback protection
• Automate refunds according to your cancellation policy
• Collect security deposit from any booking source in a form of authorization.
• Capture partial or full amount in case of damage.
• Deposit can be released automatically or manually

Workflow example for website / Booking Engine booking payments

ChargeAutomation is not part of Smoobu's payment methods, but an external integration only. This means that any guest who books online on Smoobu booking engine will not pay directly on your website page but via a link provided by email.

The workflow while using ChargeAutomation is independent to Smoobu's Booking Engine. This means that no option in Smoobu Booking Engine has been specifically created for hosts who use ChargeAutomation. Therefore, you need to find the workflow which you think is the most convenient.

For now, we suggest the Invoice option as it's an offline option which will not trigger ANY actions by Smoobu (opposite to options like using Stripe), and will allow for ChargeAutomation to do its job.

Choosing the Pay upon arrival option may be confusing, so best to only choose the Invoice option.

ChargeAutomation will at this point email your guest and request for their credit card details. 

Here is a suggestion of a simple workflow. The prepayment and balance of 50% is a suggestion, you may choose whichever % you wish.

Keep in mind: You should not be offering Stripe or PayPal + also use ChargeAutomation. You will need to remove those options from Payment Methods.

Remember you want the Guest's card/payment details captured in ChargeAutomation, which then transfers into your Stripe account. If you continue to offer Stripe as a payment method in our Booking Engine, it will bypass ChargeAutomation.

A note about the prepayment value:

The Prepayment % value set in Smoobu’s Booking Engine should match your ChargeAutomation settings/workflow also.

In Smoobu, 0% equals 100%. 0% doesn't exist, it will always default to the full amount of 100%. 

It's not possible to ask for "no" money to secure the booking, therefore the lowest price you may ask for is $1, or 1%.

Step-by-step: Connect ChargeAutomation and Smoobu

1) In Smoobu: Copy your Smoobu API Key from Advanced / API Keys .

2) Open your ChargeAutomation account, go to Settings / PMS connection . Select Smoobu and paste the API key there. Save.

3) Then copy this webhook URL: https://app.chargeautomation.com/api/smoobu/booking 

4) In Smoobu: Paste the webhook URL into Advanced / API Keys under Webhook URLs. Press Save.

Set up all of your automations on ChargeAutomation's end, and the app will do the rest :)

Optional: Use the placeholder [caPreArrivalLink] in your automated messages in Smoobu to send guests your ChargeAutomation check-in link. Guide: How do I create automated message templates? 

Contact ChargeAutomation

Please email support@chargeautomation.com or use their live chat.

Additional Information

ChargeAutomation will allow to create one-time payment link, connect multiple Stripe Accounts, collect Credit Cards Information from Booking.com and much more!

More information here: Smoobu Marketplace > ChargeAutomation

Kindly note that this integration is currently in BETA. We appreciate all feedback and we will keep working alongside ChargeAutomation. For any questions, please contact support@chargeautomation.com