Managing Payment Request Scheduling (Smartpay)

This guide explains how to correctly control when the automatic payment request is sent to your guests and clarifies the fundamental difference between Smartpay and Messaging Templates.

1. Fundamental Concept: Two Separate Tracks

It is essential to understand that in Smartpms there are two automation systems that run in parallel and do not affect each other:

  1. Smartpay (Payment Automation): Manages only payments. It sends its request emails autonomously, based exclusively on the cancellation terms of the rate plan.
  2. Message Templates: Manage generic communication (welcome, check-in, greetings, instructions).

āš ļø COMMON ERROR:
Many users, wanting to bring forward or postpone the payment request, create a new Message Template (e.g. "Payment Request at 24 days").
This is wrong. If Smartpay is active, the system will still send its standard request based on the rate plan, and the guest will receive two different emails for the same payment (your manual one + Smartpay's), causing confusion.

2. How does Smartpay decide when to send the request?

Smartpay does not look at your "Message Templates". Smartpay looks at the rules of the Rate Plan associated with the booking.

The rule is simple:

  • If the booking is Non-Refundable: The request is sent immediately at the time of confirmation.
  • If the booking is Refundable: The request is scheduled for the exact day when the booking becomes non-refundable (expiry of free cancellation).

Example:
If your rate plan provides "Free cancellation up to 14 days before arrival", Smartpay will send the payment request exactly 14 days before check-in.

3. How to change the advance days of the request

If you want the payment request to be sent earlier (or later), you do not need to touch the messages, but you must edit the Rate Plan.

Procedure:

  1. Go to Settings > Properties.
  2. Select Units and rates > Rate Plans.
  3. Open the rate plan you are interested in (e.g. "Standard").
  4. Scroll down to the cancellation terms section and change the value of the "Refundable until" field (e.g. set 30 days instead of 14).
  5. Save.

What happens now:

  • For new bookings: Smartpay will read the new rule and schedule the balance request according to the new terms.
  • For existing bookings: Smartpay will continue to respect the rule that was valid at the time the booking was created, as that is the contractual condition accepted by the customer.

4. Advanced Strategy: Managing different rules for different channels

It often happens that you want to apply different conditions depending on the sales channel. For example:

  • On your direct website you want to collect payment 30 days before.
  • On Booking.com you want to keep the standard policy of 14 days before.

Since Smartpay follows the rate plan, it is possible to create dedicated rate plans for each portal.

How to do it:

  1. Create a new rate plan in Smartpms (e.g. call it "Standard Booking").
  2. In the settings of this plan, set the "Refundable until" field with the desired days for that portal (e.g. 14 days).
  3. Carry out the Mapping (linking) on the Channel Manager: associate this new rate plan with the corresponding plan on Booking.com or the relevant OTA.

In this way, when a booking comes in from Booking.com, the system will associate it with the "Standard Booking" plan and Smartpay will schedule the request at 14 days. If instead a direct booking comes in on the "Standard Site" plan, Smartpay will follow the 30-day rule.

To correctly configure this strategy, you can consult these operational guides:

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