How to authorize a card with the payment gateway feature

When you have the Payment Processing feature enabled on Cloudbeds PMS, you can authorize the guests' credit cards to hold a certain amount on their card to guarantee the stay and charge (capture) this amount later.

This article shows how to authorize a credit card using a payment gateway connected to Cloudbeds PMS.
If you are connected to Cloudbeds Payments, refer to this article: Cloudbeds Payments - How to Authorize Incidentals

Authorizing a credit card that has not been authorized

If the credit card has not yet been added to the reservation, add the credit card by following these steps:

1. Inside the reservation, click on the Credit Cards tab.
2. Click +ADD.
3. Enter all the card details

When the credit card has been added:

1. Select the credit card you want to authorize (in case multiple cards are added to the reservation).
2. Click AUTHORIZE.
   
3. Enter the amount to be authorized and click AUTHORIZE.
   

Authorization Period

• The authorization period depends on the payment gateway — check with your gateway how long the authorized amount will be blocked on the card.
• On Cloudbeds PMS, the maximum authorization period is 30 days for Cloudbeds Payments and 7 days for other payment gateways.
• Important exception: If your property is in Mexico and the transaction's origin is Mexico (i.e., the guest’s issuer bank is in Mexico), the authentication will expire after 7 days.
• An authorization beyond this period is considered expired and will be voided. The authorization amount will be removed from the Details, and there will be no option to capture or void.
• You can always reauthorize the credit card if the check-in date is far ahead to hold the deposit amount (see the section Actions for a credit card that has been authorized) and include this information in your policy.

Actions for a credit card that has been authorized

When the credit card has already been authorized, you will see two buttons next to it:

1. Capture

• Will capture the funds of the existing authorization. A field will appear to enter the amount, which can be less than or equal to the authorization amount.
• If a smaller amount is entered, the remainder will be voided. If a larger amount is entered, the transaction will fail.

2. Void

• Will void the existing authorization and release the hold.
• The void is processed when requested on our end, but it can take up to 14 days to release the hold on the side of the financial institution that issued the card.
  

Logging the Authorization and Capture

You can find the details of the authorization and capture (date/time, type, transaction ID, and amount) as shown below:

1. Access the Credit Cards tab.
2. Click Logs.
   

• The ID above is the transaction ID generated by your payment gateway to identify a financial operation that involves funds movement from one bank account to another (e.g., from the guest's bank account to your account or vice versa).
• You can use the ID as a reference when searching for the transaction details inside your payment gateway extranet.
• Depending on the gateway, you might see the payment ID instead in the Payment Processing Report — most payment gateways do not generate a transaction ID for transactions that don't involve funds movement (i.e., authorization).