Getting Started

Managing payments manually can increase the time spent on each booking and create more follow-up points with the guest. Avantio Payments allows you to automate much of this process and manage card payments for bookings from portals, your own website, or those created manually.

From its configuration, you can define how certain payments are processed, what level of authentication to apply, what happens when a payment fails, when a booking status should change, and what communications the guest receives during the process.

In addition, Avantio Payments lets you securely manage card requests, payment retries, and certain operations related to security deposits.

What will you learn in this article?

You’ll learn how to set up the main automations in Avantio Payments, apply security measures to payments, define what happens when a payment fails, and manage the notifications the guest receives.

Benefits

Reduce manual tasks by automating payments, retries, and certain changes in bookings.

Enhance payment security with authentication options and protection against possible chargebacks.

Improve guest communication thanks to automatic notifications about payments, issues, authorizations, and deposits.

Centralize payment management within the booking and make it easier to track each operation.

When should you use this feature?

You should use this feature when you want to automate and standardize card payment management, reduce manual interventions, and predefine how the system should act in different payment scenarios.

It’s also especially useful if you want to strengthen the security of certain operations or keep the guest automatically informed throughout the process.

Before you start

It’s a good idea to check beforehand:

That Avantio Payments is available and properly set up in your account.

How you want to manage payments for bookings from the web, portals, and manual bookings.

What behavior you want to apply when a payment fails.

If you need to request enhanced authentication for certain operations.

What notifications you want the guest to receive.

To properly use the request, authorization, or card update flows, you need to have a website, an integrated booking engine, or a secure environment that allows you to display the payment form and tokenize card data.

It’s also recommended to review your business’s payment and cancellation policies in advance so that your Avantio Payments configuration is consistent with them.

Follow these steps

Go to Configuration → Avantio Payments.
Enter “Avantio Payments Configuration” and click “Edit”.
Review the payment security (PSD2) settings and select the behavior you want to apply:
- No two-factor authentication: the guest does not perform any additional validation during payment.
- With two-factor authentication (SCA)*: enhanced authentication is requested to increase transaction security (this option only needs to be configured for payments coming from the Channel Manager, as manual bookings and bookings made through your website are processed with SCA by default)
Set up payment automations according to your business operations.
Define what should happen in case of failed payment:
- Mark booking as failed.
- Cancel the booking.
If needed, set up the automatic change of booking status:
- From “Pre-booking” to “Confirmed” when the first payment is made.
- To “Paid” when the total amount has been successfully completed.
Go to the “Guest Notifications” section and review the available notifications:
- Payment notice.
- Authorization.
- Payment completed.
- Payment failed.
- Retry.
- Booking cancellation.
Also review deposit-related notifications if you use this feature.
Save the configuration and test its behavior with a test booking or the next relevant payment flow.

* Chargeback prevention: a chargeback is a refund request that a customer submits to their bank to recover a charge they consider unknown, duplicated or fraudulent on their card. In the case of cards coming from portals such as Booking or Vrbo, regulations establish that charges are processed without prior authorization from the customer. This increases the risk of chargebacks.

With the PSD2 (Payment Services Directive 2) configuration in Avantio Payments, you can ask the customer to authorize the charge, thereby strengthening the security of your transactions.

Expected result

Once configured, Avantio Payments will be able to automatically manage different steps of the payment process according to the rules you’ve set.

Depending on your setup, the system can:

Process payments automatically.
Request authorizations from the guest.
Notify about upcoming payments.
Handle retries when an operation fails.
Change the status of a booking.
Notify about certain payment results.
Manage communications related to deposits.

You can review the result from the booking details and the corresponding payment history.

Recommended next steps

After saving your configuration:

Check several bookings from different sources—web, portal, and manual—to make sure payments and communications behave as expected.
Over the next few days, review failed payments, retries, and authorization requests to ensure the setup fits your operations.
Periodically review your payment and cancellation policies to keep them aligned with the configured automations.

Main fields and options

Payment security (PSD2): lets you define if certain operations should request enhanced authentication from the guest.

Payment automation: determines how Avantio Payments should process certain payments.

In case of failed payment: defines what should happen when all configured payment attempts are exhausted.

Booking status change: allows you to automatically update the booking based on payment progress.

Guest notifications: manages automatic communications related to the payment process.

Retries: allows new attempts when a payment is not completed successfully.

Deposit notifications: informs the guest about holds, charges, and refunds related to the deposit.

Limitations and considerations

Keep in mind:

Avantio Payments notification templates are predefined and cannot be edited.

Operations from certain channels may have different authorization requirements.

If you set up automatic cancellation after a failed payment, check how each connected portal handles this change. In some channels, you may also need to cancel the booking manually from their extranet.

Additional payments are not necessarily processed automatically and may require changing their configuration from manual to automatic.

If a deposit is managed through an external tool, that operation will not be automatically synced with Avantio and must be managed manually.

A deposit refund may take several days to appear in the guest’s account depending on their bank.

Before making changes to your usual operations, always review how the configuration will affect bookings from different sources and your payment and cancellation policies.

Best practices

Set up simple payment rules that are consistent with your booking conditions.

Carefully review what behavior you’ll apply after a failed payment.

Use enhanced authentication when you need extra protection against possible chargebacks.

Check the payment history after changing the configuration.

Clearly inform the guest about deposit refund timelines.

Always use Avantio Payments’ secure flows to request or update card details.

Regularly review failed payments and retries to spot possible friction points.

Practical example

Imagine you receive a booking from a portal and the first payment needs to be processed automatically.

You can set up Avantio Payments to:

Process the payment according to the booking conditions.
Request strong authentication when required.
Notify the guest if the payment cannot be completed.
Retry the payment according to your established configuration.
Change the booking status once the corresponding payment has been received.
If all attempts fail, mark the booking as failed or cancel it, depending on the option you have defined.

This way, most of the follow-up is handled automatically and your team only needs to step in when it's really necessary.

Common errors

The guest does not receive a request or notification: check the booking type, payment status, and notification settings.

The payment is not processed automatically: make sure the operation is set as automatic and matches the booking type.

A payment fails due to authentication: the guest will need to complete the required validation correctly.

The booking does not change status: check that the relevant automation is enabled and that the payment conditions have been met.

A cancellation does not appear on the portal: check the channel compatibility and perform the cancellation manually in its extranet if needed.

An operation managed outside Avantio does not appear in the system: external transactions are not synchronized automatically.

If something isn't working

If the functionality isn't behaving as expected, check these points before contacting our customer support team:

Make sure your Avantio Payments configuration is saved correctly.
Check the source of the booking and the type of operation you are trying to process.
Review the payment status, configured automations, and transaction history.
Check if the payment requires authentication from the guest.
If it's a cancellation, also verify the booking status on the relevant portal.
Refresh the page and check the result again.

If the issue persists, contact our customer support team and include screenshots, booking reference, date and amount of the payment, booking source, and any error message if available.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens if a payment is declined?

If a payment cannot be completed, the system can automatically notify the guest and apply the configured retries.

Avantio Payments can make up to three automatic retries within 72 hours after the first failed attempt, giving up to four opportunities to complete the payment including the initial attempt.

With each retry, the guest may receive information about the payment status and, when applicable, instructions to update their payment method.

What happens if the guest does not complete strong customer authentication (SCA)?

If the required authentication is not completed correctly, the payment is considered failed.

From there, the behavior you have set up for failed payments will apply, including possible automatic retries.

Can I send a link for the guest to enter their card details?

Yes. When you need to request a card, Avantio Payments can send the guest a secure link so they can enter their details directly in the appropriate form.

This way, you don't need to request card details through less secure channels.

How long does it take to process an automatic payment for a manual booking?

For manual bookings with automated payments, the payment request is sent about 30 minutes after saving the booking and the charge is processed about 60 minutes later.

If you prefer not to wait for these times, you can set manual bookings not to be automated and use the “Request card and charge” option whenever you want to start the process.

When is a portal booking processed if the payment is due the same day?

When a booking from a portal is registered and the payment needs to be made that same day, Avantio Payments processes the charge about 90 minutes after the booking has been synchronized.

For bookings made on your own website with immediate payment, the charge is processed during the booking process itself.

When does the guest receive a payment confirmation?

The confirmation is sent, among other cases, when:

The payment does not require direct authorization from the guest.
A first attempt failed and one of the subsequent retries is completed successfully.

Can I use Avantio Payments if I don't have a website or integration?

To use Avantio Payments flows that require entering, requesting, authorizing, or updating a card, you need a secure environment capable of displaying the payment form and tokenizing the card data, whether through a website, integrated booking engine, or another compatible system.

Can I manage a security deposit outside Avantio Payments?

Yes, but keep in mind that a deposit managed through an external tool will not be automatically synchronized with Avantio. You will need to track it manually in the system.

What is the Currency Converter in Avantio?

The Currency Converter is a module that solves the limitation of some portals that do not accept the currency your agency works with. With it, you can:

Select the currency that will be displayed on each portal.
Keep your prices consistent and automatically updated according to the exchange rate.
View Bookings in your agency’s currency, even if the guest booked in another currency.

For more information on this topic, we recommend consulting this article.

Set Up Avantio Payments and Automate Your Payments Securely