Can we send or schedule a payment request email for a specific amount to a guest?

Our payment settings say that the guest must pay 50% to confirm the booking and the remaining 50% is due 45 days before arrival.

However, once in a while we might want to be more flexible in the guest's payment schedule.

Let's say I'll allow a guest to make a down payment of $500 to confirm the booking. The remaining balance would be divided in half, with the first payment due 90 days in advance of arrival and the final payment due 45 days in advance of arrival.

I can't figure out how to send a payment link to the guest for a random, specific amount.

I found the "2018 Year in Review" article on the Support side, which says:

"We also added several other features to improve the guest experience:

Specific amount when making a payment request - Prior to this, you could only request a scheduled payment amount. You can now give an amount (and optional description) when sending a payment request to the guest. This is also accessible as an email merge field link so you can set up automatic payment requests and triggers."

But I can't find any instructions on how this can be done.

Can anyone help?

Thanks!

Yes, it's easy once you know how, but hard to find. :-)

Go to the Booking, Transactions tab. Look for the Request button, which is actually a drop-down menu. Select Request Payment.

This pops up a screen which ultimately leads to an email being sent to the guest with a payment link. But at the top of the first popup there's a radio button option with several choices that should meet your needs.

Once you've selected the appropriate setting, make sure to complete the process so that email gets sent!

Thank you for this. So, following your instructions I see the options are:

How much should the guest pay?

Whatever is due at the moment (based on the booking's rules)
Whatever the guest wants to pay (the booking's rules will not be enforced)
A specific amount of:
$ . Only show this amount

I don't see a way that we can schedule these requests, though.

So should my work-around be to create an email template to request the payment that includes the URL for the 3rd option (A specific amount) and then schedule that email to be sent when we wish?

It would be nice if we could use a calendar to schedule the requested payment when we use this option under Transactions.

Oh, I don't think using an email template (scheduled) will be the best work around, because I'd have to create an email template for every transaction. It is too bad we can't edit the scheduled messages to be able to personalize them with things like this (adding a specific link for payment for a particular booking).

You can put in the specific link for payment on an email template!

To do that, use the Insert Fields button while editing an email template and find the payment link field which is {BUPAY}.

Hello,

No, that won't work for the purpose of requesting a payment for any amount other than the "total amount due", will it?

What I'm talking about is sending a request for a specific amount, not the total amount due. As far as I can tell the only way I can do that is to go to TRANSACTIONS > REQUEST PAYMENT > and select the "A specific amount of...." option. That WILL present a link that the guest can use to pay the specific amount, but I can't schedule that email unless it is a template. And I'd have to create an email template for each individual situation, which of course I don't want to do.

What I've decided to do (when setting up the booking when it is first confirmed) is to create a "Payment is due" reminder email to automatically be scheduled to send to ME, and then when I receive such a reminder I will take the steps that I outlined above to send the payment link to the guest.

Luckily, it is not too terribly often that we need to collect a payment that is not the initial down payment or the final payment.

You could maybe put it on your "to do" list of things nice to have to make it possible for us to be able to schedule a payment reminder email that allows us to specify the amount to be paid, other than the total amount due.

Thanks!

I like Valerie's idea. VRBO automatically sends these emails based on payment owner set payment schedules - e.g. 1-2-or 3 payments and the time they are due e.g.-all at the time of booking or final payment in 1 or 2 installments. It would be awesome to be able to set up automatic reminder emails to our direct booking guests when the next installment is due.
Tracy

Yep, we've got it on the todo list to support a payment schedule with multiple vs just one final payment. Hopefully later this year, but I really shouldn't be talking about ETA's yet :-)

Chris / Ken / Paul & Paul

Any updates on the ability to be more flexible with payment schedules? Thanks.