Console takes a guest's card payment through your own payment account: your bank's virtual POS (the bank's online card terminal) or your account with a payment company. You choose which account charges each currency, then take the money from a booking's Payments panel, hold it on the card first, or send the guest a payment link. For example, for a 720 EUR stay at Hotel Sunrise you can hold 720 EUR on the guest's card at booking and capture it when the guest checks in.
Card details never reach Console. The guest enters the card on your bank's or payment company's page, or on your web shop's card step, which sends it straight to the bank. The 3-D Secure check (the code the card's bank sends to the cardholder) runs there too. Your team never sees or types a card number.
Set up your payment accounts
Open Financials > Payment settings. Everyone who can see your Organization's details can read the page; adding or changing an account needs permission to manage Organization settings.
| Tab | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Accounts | Choose Add account, pick the account type and enter the details your bank or payment company gave you, such as the merchant number, users and keys. Choose the currencies your agreement allows. For a bank account, turn on Holds allowed and choose installment counts only when the bank allows them for your merchant. Then choose Test connection: the bank or payment company checks the details and no money moves. |
| How you get paid | One row per currency, with the account that charges it under Charged by. When two accounts take the same currency, choose the one for new payments. |
- Your first account is always used. It charges every currency it takes until you add another.
- An account takes every currency it accepts. If your bank account takes TRY and EUR and you choose it for EUR, it also takes new TRY payments. Console asks before it moves the other currency. To keep TRY on another account, change the bank account's currencies on the Accounts tab first.
- A change applies to new payments only. A payment keeps the account it started on for its capture, cancel and refund.
- Passwords and keys are never shown again once saved. To change one, enter a new one.
Stop an account instead of replacing its merchant. The merchant number cannot be changed. To use another merchant, choose Stop using on the old account and add a new one. A stopped account takes no new payments, but the payments it already took still use it for their cancels and refunds. Use again brings it back.
Take a payment from a booking
Open the booking and go to its Payments panel. Each payment due on the booking shows its open amount and three actions:
| Action | Use it when |
|---|---|
| Collect online | The guest pays by card now, with you. |
| Send payment link | The guest is not with you and pays later from a link. |
| Record payment | The money already arrived by POS terminal or bank transfer. |
A booking with nothing left to pay, because it is paid in full or was cancelled or refunded, shows what was paid and refunded and offers none of these actions. A fee a cancellation left on it stays open.
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Choose the payment and the amount
Choose Collect online, then the payment. Leave the amount empty to take the whole open balance, or enter part of it, for example a 180 EUR deposit on a 720 EUR stay.
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Choose when to take the money
Under When to take the money, choose Take it now to charge the card, or Hold it on the card to block the amount and decide later. Holding appears only when the account taking this currency allows holds.
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Choose installments
When you take the money now and the account allows installments, choose Single payment or the number of installments, for example 3 installments. A hold is always a single payment. Card rules tie installments to the country where the service takes place: a service in Turkey offers the counts the account allows, one in Northern Cyprus at most 3, and a booking with any service abroad is paid in a single payment.
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Complete the card step
The bank's or payment company's card page opens. After the card and the 3-D Secure check, the result shows in the panel: Succeeded for a charge, On hold for a hold.
Capture or release a hold
A hold blocks the amount on the guest's card without taking it. The booking's balance stays open until you capture: a hold never pays the booking.
- Capture takes money from the hold. Enter an amount up to the hold amount. What is left of the hold goes back to the card and cannot be captured later. Example: you hold 720 EUR for three nights; the guest leaves after two, so you capture 480 EUR and 240 EUR returns to the card.
- Release hold returns the whole hold to the card and takes no money. Enter the reason.
If the bank did not answer a capture or a release, the panel says so. Sending it again cannot charge or release twice.
Refund an online payment
Choose Refund on the payment, then enter the amount and the reason. The money goes back to the card through the account that took it. If Console says that only the whole payment can be refunded before the bank's end of day, refund the whole payment now or try the partial refund again after the end of day. See Refunds & payment disputes.
Record a payment taken outside Console
Choose Record payment for money you already received, for example 720 EUR taken on the POS terminal at your front desk. Choose the Receiving source, such as that terminal or your bank account. You keep these sources under Financials > Collections > Payment sources, where Add source asks for the source type, a name and the currencies it receives. No bank or terminal is contacted.
When recorded payments settle everything a prepaid booking owes now, the booking is confirmed, as it is after a card payment.
To undo a recorded payment, choose Reverse and pick the type:
- Correction: the entry was wrong, for example it named the wrong source. It lowers what was collected and does not count as a refund to the guest.
- Customer refund: you already returned the money outside Console.
A reversal reopens the amount due and leaves the booking's status as it is.
Send a payment link
A payment link lets the guest pay the booking by card on your web shop, for example from a hotel lobby or from home the evening before arrival.
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Create the link
Choose Send payment link, choose the payment, then Create link. The link asks for that payment's open amount, in its currency.
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Share it
Choose Copy link to paste it into your own message, or send it to the booking's guest by email. The panel shows when the guest opened it.
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The guest pays
The link opens on your web shop. The guest sees what they are paying, enters the card on the card step and completes the 3-D Secure check. Your shop's iOS and Android apps open the same page.
The link's state shows in the panel: Waiting for payment, Payment in progress, Paid, Expired or Cancelled.
One link per payment, for up to 24 hours. A link is valid for up to 24 hours, and it stops earlier when an unpaid booking is released. To send a new link, choose Cancel link on the old one first. Cancelling stops new attempts; it does not undo a payment the guest already started. Payment links need your web shop to have an active address.
Card guarantee for pay-at-property rates
A rate paid at the property can ask the guest for a card that guarantees the booking. Nothing is charged when the guest gives the card: Console charges it only the late cancellation or no-show fee that the rate's cancellation terms state. For example, a guest books two nights at Hotel Sunrise at 90 EUR a night, on terms that charge the first night for a cancellation within two days of arrival. If the guest cancels the day before arrival, Console charges 90 EUR to the card; a stay that goes ahead is paid at the property.
Turn on Card guarantee on the rate plan. The switch appears when the plan is paid at the property; see Payment method. Your card vault keeps the cards, so your Organization needs one before guests can give a card.
| Where the booking is made | How the guest gives the card |
|---|---|
| Your web shop and its apps | On the checkout's card step, before the booking is made. The booking is made only once the card vault has the card. See Online shop bookings. |
| Console, a sub-agency or the AI Operator | The booking is made and its guarantee shows Waiting for card. On the booking's Payments panel, choose Ask for card to create a card guarantee link, and share it as you share a payment link. The guest opens it on your web shop and enters the card. |
| A sales channel or an API partner | No card is asked for. The channel or the partner guarantees its bookings. |
The Payments panel shows the guarantee with the card's brand, last four digits and expiry date, and one of these states:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Waiting for card | The rate asks for a card and the guest has not given one yet. |
| Card held | The card vault keeps the card. Nothing has been charged. |
| Fee charged | The cancellation or no-show fee was charged to the card. |
| Charge refused | The bank refused the fee, which stays owed on the booking. |
| Released | The card vault no longer keeps the card. |
When a guaranteed booking is cancelled with a cancellation fee, or is marked as a no-show, Console adds the fee to the booking's payments as a Cancellation fee or No-show fee and charges it to the card through your payment account for the booking's currency. A booking is charged once. The card vault keeps the card until seven days after departure and releases it earlier once the fee is charged, or when the booking is cancelled with no fee.
The guest is not present when the fee is charged. The charge runs without a 3-D Secure check, so your bank must allow such charges under your merchant agreement; otherwise it refuses them, and a refused charge is not sent again. Not every payment account can charge a card that the card vault keeps. When the account for the booking's currency cannot, the fee stays owed; if you add an account that can while the vault still keeps the card, Console charges the fee through it.
When the sub-agency collects
A sub-agency on the LITE access profile records what its own customer paid it with Record payment. Online collection, refunds and payment settings stay closed to it. See Access.
Where to next
- How every payment appears on the booking → Booking money flow
- Refunds and payment disputes → Refunds & payment disputes
- Your web shop, where guests pay → Online shop bookings
- Where guarantee cards are kept → Card vault
- Ask the AI Operator to take payment actions → Tools