Smart Policies and Payment Gateways

Smart Policies can automate charges, authorizations, captures, refunds, and cancellation penalties, 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.

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

Benefits

• The system enforces your policy without staff intervention.
• Financial outcomes match the policy 100% of the time.
• 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 penalties
• No-show charges

Smart Policies still calculate the correct fee or refund, but your team must complete the payment or refund manually.

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 calculates the correct cancellation fee or refund
• 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 process all payments 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.