A deferred payment is a payment where the amount is held against the cardholders card but not actually taken. This payment can then be redeemed (taken), or the hold can be released with no funds taken.
This functionality can be considered for refundable deposits, because the release can happen automatically x days after the guest departs, but please be aware that while the usual length of the hold is up to 30 days it is not guaranteed for more than 6 days and can vary by card provider.
Note: Deferred Payments are currently only supported for the Stripe Connect and Opayo/Elevon payment gateway. If you are using Elevon you need to ask them to turn on the ability to take deferred payments on your account.
Taking a deferred payment at check-in
GemaPark lets you set the option to ‘Hold refundable deposits’ as part of the check-in process. This option is set at a park level and will override the collection timeline for all refundable deposits for the given park.
If this is set the customer will be asked to provide their card details and agree to the deferred payment as part of the check-in process.
Turn on taking deferred payments:
Turn it on in GemaPark as follows:
Admin > Park > Park Settings > General Settings
Held payments will be released automatically a given number of days after departure. You can set the number of days up to 30 days, but be aware the card provider may release the payment early, so payments are only guaranteed to be held for 6 days from the day they are held.
Taking Deferred payment via GemaPark
You can take a deferred payment via GemaPark. If you have deferred payments switched on there is an additional tickbox on the card payment screen to do this.
The hold will be released x days after the booking has departed or between 6 and 30 days unless released manually.
Redeeming or releasing a deferred payment
A deferred payment does not show on the ledger unless it is redeemed, in which case it turns into a real payment.
On the bookings screen there will be an additional icon which takes you to a page showing the held payments on the booking. This icon only shows if there are currently held payments against the booking.
Clicking the icon shows you the refundable deposits page:
From this page you can redeem the held payment by clicking the Redeem icon, or release the hold by clicking the cross.
