innRoad Payments - Auto Charges overview

Scheduled Payments and Payment Links in innRoad automate the process of collecting reservation deposits, based on the Deposit Policies you configure for your Rate Plans. 

This allows your team to save time, reduce manual payment collection, and ensure consistency across all reservations.

Scheduled Payments and Payment Links are only available to innRoad Payments users. Please contact support@innroad.com if you'd like to learn more.

How it Works

When you use innRoad Payments as your payment gateway, you can define Deposit Policies that control the payment schedule and amounts for your Rate Plans.

Based on the policy’s schedule, the system will automatically attempt to process the guest’s card on file. If the charge is unsuccessful, innRoad will automatically send a Payment Link to the guest’s email so they can complete the payment online. 

Charge Options

Each Deposit Policy can include one or more scheduled charges (called “clauses”). Each clause defines how much and when to charge the guest. You can choose from:

• Flat Fee - a fixed dollar amount per reservation
• Number of Nights - the cost of a specific number of nights from the reservation
• % of Charges - a percentage of room charges or total charges

Each clause can be set to process the charge either:

• On booking - immediately when the reservation is created
• X days before check-in - a set number of days prior to arrival

Learn more about creating Deposit Policies with automated charges here: Create an Automatic Deposit Schedule with innRoad Payments

Overriding Deposit amounts

If you create a reservation in innRoad manually, and click the option to Override Deposit Due, the reservation will be created without automated charges.  

Instead, it will use the amount you've entered as an override.

Reservation Modifications

When you change a Reservation's Stay Details, this could lead to a modification of Automated Charges. This includes:

• Stay dates changes could lead to updates in the charge schedule, or if the reservation is extended or reduced, a reduction in the total amount.
• Room Class changes could lead to total amount changes.
• Rate Plan changes could lead to a total amount changes.

The changes you apply to a reservation will not change the deposit policy, or the payment structure. Those changes will only adjust scheduled payment timing, or the charge amount.

You can always cancel an automated charge 

Consolidation Rules

If multiple scheduled payments fall on the same date, innRoad will automatically consolidate them into a single payment to simplify processing. 

If a reservation is booked after one or more scheduled charge dates have already passed, the system will automatically include those payments in the next scheduled charge to ensure the correct total is collected. This means that on booking payments could include deposit payments from other clauses.

Payment Links and Failures

If an automatic charge fails, innRoad will automatically create a Payment Link for the same amount and send it to the email address on the reservation. Guests can use this link to securely complete the payment online. 

Once paid, the link’s status updates automatically in the system.

Viewing Scheduled Charges and Payment Links

You can view all scheduled charges and payment links for your account in the Auto Charges & Links Dashboard under Reports > Payments Dashboard. You can also view them on the reservation level in the Auto Charges & Links tab of each reservation.

You can find more information about the Dashboards here:
Scheduled Charges and Payment Links for a specific Reservation
Scheduled Charges and Payment Links Dashboard for your entire Property

Limitations

• Automated payments for charges routed to Account Folios are not supported. This includes:
  • OTA Collect reservationsfrom Booking.com or Expedia:
    • The OTA Collect model use Virtual Credit Cards (VCCs), which only have available funds on specific dates set by the OTA. Because of this, automated scheduled charges cannot be processed using VCCs at this time.
  • Reservations associated with accounts that have routing enabled
    • If room charges or total charges are in a separate folio from the primary guest folio, those charges will not be included in the automated charge.
• Changing the deposit policy on a reservation is not supported. You can only cancel the existing scheduled charges.