Important: Smart Policies availability status
Smart Policies are currently available to eligible properties as part of a limited rollout. Availability may vary by property and enabled feature set.
Smart Policies can automate charges, authorizations, captures, refunds, cancellation and no-show fees, and eligible fee posting to the folio, but the level of automation depends on the payment gateway your property uses. This guide explains what to expect with each type of gateway and how this affects your Smart Policy setup and daily operations.
Fee calculation, folio posting, and payment processing are separate actions. Smart Policies may be able to calculate the applicable cancellation or no-show outcome even when automatic folio posting or card processing is not available. The level of automation depends on the reservation's Smart Policy setup and connected payment gateway.
Manual financial actions and Smart Policy automation: When Smart Policy is active and pending scheduled payments exist, certain manual financial actions can display a warning that continuing will turn Smart Policy off and cancel the pending scheduled payments.
- Cloudbeds Payments (fully automated): The warning can appear because the Smart Policy includes automated payment activity.
- Third-party payment gateways (partially automated): The warning can also appear when the reservation still has Smart Policy automation and pending scheduled payments.
- No Smart Policy automation: The warning does not appear.
This can apply to actions such as adding a manual payment, processing a refund, canceling a scheduled payment, or voiding a payment or authorization. For details about the affected actions and what happens after confirmation, see Managing Payments on Smart Policy Reservations.
1. Cloudbeds Payments - Full Smart Policy Automation
If your property uses Cloudbeds Payments (CBPay), Smart Policies can automatically execute all configured actions, including:
- Charges (at booking or before arrival)
- Authorizations
- Captures of authorizations
- Refunds
- Cancellation penalties
- No-show charges
- Automatic posting of eligible cancellation and no-show fees to the folio, including applicable policy taxes and fees
When a reservation is canceled or marked as no-show, Cloudbeds calculates the applicable Smart Policy outcome and, when the automation requirements are met, posts the confirmed cancellation or no-show fee to the folio and processes the corresponding guest charge or refund.
Posting a fee to the folio does not by itself confirm that the guest's card was successfully charged or refunded. Folio posting and card settlement are processed separately.
Benefits
- The system enforces your policy without staff intervention.
- Financial outcomes follow the configured policy.
- Ideal for policies with multiple scheduled payment steps.
If you're interested in Cloudbeds Payments, check here What regions are Cloudbeds Payments available in?
2. Third-Party Payment Gateways - Partial Automation
If your property is in a region where CBPay is available but you use a third-party payment processor, Smart Policies:
Supports Automated Actions for:
- Charge at booking
- Authorize at booking
- Charge X days before arrival
- Authorize X days before arrival
Does Not Support (must be done manually):
- Remaining balance collection
- Capturing authorizations
- Refunds
- Cancellation penalty payment processing
- No-show charge payment processing
- Automatic cancellation and no-show fee posting to the folio
Smart Policies still calculate and display the applicable cancellation or no-show outcome, including associated taxes and fees where applicable, but your team must complete the required financial actions manually.
With a third-party gateway, seeing the calculated cancellation or no-show fee does not mean that the fee has been posted to the folio or processed through the gateway. Complete the required folio and payment actions manually when automatic Smart Policy processing is unavailable.
3. No Connected Gateway - Manual Processing
If your property does not have a payment gateway connected:
- You can still create and use Smart Policies
- Cloudbeds can calculate and display the applicable cancellation or no-show fee and associated policy taxes and fees
- Automatic cancellation and no-show fee posting to the folio does not run
- All financial actions must be performed manually by your staff
Smart Policies bring clarity to your financial rules, but without a gateway your team must manually manage the applicable folio entries and process all payments or refunds through your preferred external method.
Digital Wallets and Bank Transfers
Smart Policies support Apple Pay, Google Pay, and bank transfers, with one important rule:
- These payment types are available only when the policy does not contain future automated payments.
- They are available for policies such as:
- 100% charge at booking
- No-prepayment / card-capture only
-
They are not available when:
- A remaining balance will be charged later
- Any future authorization or capture is required
- Cancellation tiers require potential new charges
This ensures that if the system needs to run an automated payment later, the guest has provided a payment method capable of supporting it.
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