Understanding Payment Collection Sources
Each reservation from an OTA (Online Travel Agency) has a payment collection type, such as:
Hotel Collect (pay at property)
Channel Collect (pre-paid by the OTA, e.g., Expedia Collect, Booking Collect)
The payment type is determined and controlled by the OTA. Cloudbeds cannot change the payment collection type of a reservation.
If you want to switch from a "hotel collect" model to a "pre-paid" model for a specific channel, you must first make this change on the OTA's extranet by disabling the old rate plan and activating a new pre-paid one. Only then should you map the new pre-paid rate plan within Cloudbeds.
Cloudbeds Automatic Payment Settings vs. OTA Payment Types
Cloudbeds allows you to configure automatic payment collection for hotel collect reservations.
This setting only affects how Cloudbeds attempts to charge balances.
It does not change the payment collection type sent by the OTA.
For any assistance with your OTA's payment settings, always contact the OTA's support or your channel's account manager, as they must make the change on their end before Cloudbeds can properly map it.
Payment Models Update - OTA Source Split (Effective September 6, 2025)
Previously, only some OTAs (Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda) supported and displayed both Hotel Collect and Channel Collect. To improve accuracy across all channels, Cloudbeds now splits all OTA sources into Hotel Collect and Channel Collect.
What's new?
All OTA sources display both options.
If the OTA supports both payment types, new reservations will show the corresponding type.
If the OTA does not send the payment type information, the reservation will default to Hotel Collect.
Example: Airbnb (API) only supports Channel Collect; new reservations now display correctly as Channel Collect.
Taxes and fees from unified sources were automatically copied into both sub-sources.
Only new reservations created after September 6, 2025, reflect this change (past reservations are unchanged).
Recommended Actions After the OTA Source Split
To make sure everything works correctly after the OTA Source Split, we recommend the following:
-
Verify your Taxes and Fees:
Although these were automatically copied to the new sub-sources, take a moment to ensure that your configurations are accurate for both Hotel Collect and Channel Collect.
Go to your Account Menu
> Settings
> Property
> Sources > Third Party Sources > For each OTA, review both sub-sources (Hotel Collect and Channel Collect) and confirm the values in the “Taxes and Fees” column; adjust and save changes if needed.
For more details on how to verify your taxes, see Add or apply taxes and fees and How to Manage your Reservation Sources.
Default Payment Type: For channels that do not transmit a payment type, be aware that new reservations will default to Hotel Collect.
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Fix Specific Reservations: If you need to correct a small number of future reservations created before September 6, 2025, you can reach out to our support, asking to resend an update through Cloudbeds Channel Manager.
Be aware that if any manual changes are made to the reservation after this request, for example, rooms are assigned or moved, or rates are changed, the system will update it based on the most recent information from Cloudbeds Channel Manager, potentially overwriting those manual changes.
No Retroactive Updates: Historical reservations remain unchanged. Only new bookings benefit from the split.
Change Payment Collection Models from 'Pay at Property' to 'Pre-paid'
The payment collection model for reservations (e.g., "pay at property" vs. "pre-paid") is determined and controlled by the OTA. Cloudbeds receives the reservation details as provided by the channel and cannot change the payment-collect type from within the system.
If you wish to switch from a "pay at property" (hotel collect) model to a pre-paid (channel collect) model for an OTA, you must take the following steps:
Log in to the OTA's extranet or contact your account manager.
Disable the "pay at property" rate plan you wish to replace.
Enable or create a new pre-paid rate plan that will be used for future reservations.
Once the new pre-paid rate plan is active on the OTA's side, re-map only the new pre-paid rate plan in your Cloudbeds channel mapping.
Comments
We are using Payments by Booking.com. How can we ensure that reservations paid through Booking.com do not show an open balance in Cloudbeds?
Right now, every reservation coming from Booking.com or Agoda appears with a Balance Due at check-in, and we have to manually add a payment to the folio. Is there a way to automate this so that prepaid/channel collect reservations are recorded as paid and no balance is due on arrival?
Hello, Denis Ackerknecht,
We have already forwarded your inquiry to our Support Team, so they can review it and offer dedicated assistance.
Thank you!
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