Bookings far in advance
Some payment providers cannot hold a card for a booking that is months away. This page explains why, and what your two options are.
Business owners and managers whose payment provider is Mercado Pago. If you use Stripe, this does not affect you and the setting does not appear.
What a guarantee normally does
When you ask customers to back a booking with a card, no money moves at the time of booking. Your provider places a hold: the amount is set aside on the customer's card so it cannot be spent elsewhere, and you can either take it or release it later.
If the customer arrives, the hold is released and they were never charged. If they do not show up, or cancel too late, you take the money.
That is the ideal arrangement. Nobody pays anything up front, and you are still protected.
Why it does not always work
A hold does not last forever. Card networks and payment providers cap how long one can sit on a card before it expires on its own.
Mercado Pago's limit is five days. We stop a day short of it, because a card network can release a hold early, so a booking more than four days ahead cannot be held.
So for a booking in December, taken in March, a hold placed today would be long gone by the time the customer arrives.
Providers solve this in one of two ways.
Some can save the card and charge it later. The card is stored securely at booking, and shortly before the date the provider places a fresh hold without needing the customer to do anything. Stripe works this way, which is why Stripe venues never see this setting.
Some cannot. Mercado Pago requires the card's security code every time it charges a card, including for a card it already has on file. Since the customer is not there months later to type it, there is no way to place that later hold. Mercado Pago has confirmed this to us directly, and it is not something we can work around from our side.
Your two options
Because we cannot hold the card, you choose what should happen instead. The setting sits on your payment provider card, on the Payments page.
Do not ask for a card
This is the default.
The booking is accepted normally and no card is requested. Nothing is held and nothing is charged.
What this means for you: for bookings far enough ahead, you carry the no-show risk yourself, exactly as you would with a phone booking. Bookings close to the date are unaffected and still get a proper hold.
What the customer sees: a normal booking with no payment step.
Charge the guarantee in advance
The guarantee amount is charged at the time of booking, as a deposit. This is real money leaving the customer's account, not a hold.
What this means for you: you are protected on distant bookings too, but you take on three responsibilities.
- The money is yours to deduct. When the customer arrives, the deposit is not returned automatically. You subtract it from their final bill yourself. Nothing in the platform does this for you.
- You are holding their money for the whole wait. On a booking six months out, that is six months. Be sure your cancellation terms make that clear.
- Refunds take time. If the customer cancels within your cancellation window, the deposit is refunded automatically, but a refund typically takes several days to appear on their statement. A released hold is instant; a refund is not.
What the customer sees: a payment step at booking, and a charge on their statement.
What happens on a cancellation
This follows the same cancellation window you already set on the Payments page.
| When the customer cancels | Charged in advance | No card asked |
|---|---|---|
| Inside your cancellation window | Refunded in full, automatically | Nothing to refund |
| After your cancellation window | You keep the deposit | Nothing to keep |
| They do not show up | You keep the deposit | Nothing to keep |
Which bookings this applies to
Only the ones your provider cannot hold. Everything else behaves normally.
- Bookings close to the date get an ordinary hold, whichever option you pick.
- Events and paid extras are charged in full at booking regardless, because they always were.
- Chile, Colombia and Uruguay are a special case: Mercado Pago offers no holds there at all, so your choice applies to every guarantee booking, near or far.
If you would rather not choose
There is a third path, and it does not need this setting.
On the Booking policies page you can limit how far ahead customers are allowed to book. Set that window to four days or less and the situation never arises: every booking you take can be held properly.
You will turn away some early bookings, which may or may not suit your business.
Changing your mind
You can switch between the two options whenever you like. It applies to bookings made from that point on, and does not retroactively change anything already booked.