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Hi, I’m new to the forum and was hoping all you experienced hosts could help me out with something.
We’ve been hosting for about a month now and things have been going greater than expected with Airbnb.
We have also listed our apartment to rent on other sites and have some bookings through Booking.com.
We have Square to process payments. Which needs CVC codes. I think you know where I’m going with this. Booking.com doesn’t provide the CVC code. How can I verify cards without the CVC codes?
I’ve had a no show and we haven’t been able to process their payment, again because no CVC code.
I wouldn’t have the first clue, since AirBnB handles all this on our behalf. Try posting your question to the homeaway forum, or look through their threads, since most of the owners there take their own payments.
When you process your own payments you subject yourself to the possibility of chargebacks.
How exactly does it work on that particular site? The site relays the user’s credit card information to you? That’s troubling in its own way.
I would imagine the best bet you have is swiping the cards upon arrival. Not only will you save on Square’s additional processing fees for a manual entry, you also won’t have to worry about trying to get the CVC through the booking service as you will have the physical card in front of you. There’s also a reason they charge less with swiped vs. manually entered cards…
Kona, thanks for the suggestion, I’ll try them next.
Hi Felix, Booking.com provides the user’s credit card information without the CVC code. I’ve been swiping cards on arrival, but after a no show where I couldn’t collect, I want to verify cards when booked, as they suggested I should do.
I had seen on another thread that some users here were listed on other sites so I was hoping they would chime in and tell me how to figure this payment stuff out. I’ll try the Home Away forum next like Kona suggested.
Hi there.
There is an incorrect thread going around. Contact your market manager at Bookings.com and tell them that you need the CVC code on every reservation you take from them. I’ve done that for about a year. The only card I’m now having trouble with is American Express. Also be sure to opt for the 30% cancellation after booking. Guest can’t cancel after booking without loosing 30%!
And…; once you get a Booking.com booking make sure that you charge 30% right away. You know the card is good and you’ve got money in the bank. When the guest arrives, swipe the card for the balance due.
I dropped Square as they have almost zero customer support. Instead I use PayPal. Much better with extraordinary customer service.
Good luck
Desiree and Peter
From their message, it seems like I’ll get the CVC code for all reservations starting tomorrow, but will only see the code once. If I only see it for one reservation, I’ll contact the account manager to get that option enabled.
I’d really prefer a payment in advance or 30% deposit option by my account says “Non-refundable and prepayment are temporarily disabled. Rooms with these policies will not be shown to guests on our website.” and my only policy options appear to be “Is there a period that a guest can cancel free of charge” and “would you like guests to pay a damage deposit”. If you’re able to charge a deposit maybe I can talk with the account manager to see if I can have that activated as well. I’m a Canadian host, so I may have fewer options than you do though if you’re from the States.
I’ll look into PayPal’s options. I use them for other online businesses, but the last time I had checked (it was a while ago) their Square - like swipe option wasn’t available in Canada yet.
This was exactly the kind of answer I was hoping to find here, thanks!
Definitvely talk to your market manager and let him/her walk you through your Bookings.com options.
And yes; BE CAREFUL when opening the CVC number. I leave the window open on my PC and print it straight out. Once I got it how I want it (backpage of the reservation etc…) I close the window. If you need to open it a second time it’s gone.
Take care
Peter
Does Paypal allows you to process a credit card charge by just having the credit card numbers and the CVC code?
I mean, if I receive a reservation through Booking.com, they will provide me just the CC numbers + CVC. I won´t have the plastic card yet to use with a regular card reader.
Not sure how it works in your country. But I am in the U.S. and PayPal told me that I would have to pay a monthly fee if I wanted to enter the credit card info myself. But it is free to just send the guest the PayPal invoice.
I always call Booking.com guests first…since many don’t understand the full cost, etc. And I need them to confirm they understand my policies, etc. Once they confirm all of this then I explain to them that even though Booking.com provides me their credit card information…I need the guest to fill out the PayPal invoice. I assure the guest that Booking.com does not process payment for my guests. And I even tell them that it is noted in the fine print on their receipt (just in case they think they are being double charged).
I send the guest instructions on how to pay the invoice without needing a PayPal account. They used to be really confused.
Another thing to note…PayPal invoices used to add my lodging tax to the total instead of to each item line. Then they stopped. This caused the invoice sometimes to be off by a penny or two. So now I create one line item and in the “description” section I note the nightly rate, the dates, and the cleaning fee. That way the taxes come out correctly.
I edited this to reflect that it used to be the “total” but then started doing it by line item.
