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Set Up Your Payment and Cancellation Policies

Define how bookings are charged and canceled to give your guests a clear, safe, and transparent experience.

Written by Lisa

Starting Point

Payment and cancellation terms have a direct impact on your guests’ booking experience and how you manage your payments.

With the Booking Conditions module, you can define how bookings made on your Web and certain portals are confirmed and paid, which payment methods are available, what amounts are charged at each stage, and what penalties apply in case of cancellation.

You can also apply a single rule to all your Accommodations or create specific conditions for each one as needed.

What will you learn in this article?

You’ll learn how to create and set up your payment and cancellation conditions, define different payment stages, and adapt rules based on the Accommodation, amount, or length of the booking.

Benefits

  • Clearly define when and how your guests should pay.

  • Adapt payment and cancellation conditions for different Accommodations.

  • Provide transparent information during the booking process and reduce possible misunderstandings.

When should you use this feature?

You should use this feature when you want to define or modify the payment and cancellation rules for your Bookings, set up different deposits or payment methods, or apply specific conditions for your Accommodations.

You can also use it to adapt conditions based on the season, booking amount, or length of stay.

Before you start

It’s a good idea to review in advance:

  • What percentage you want to charge at the time of booking and in later payments.

  • Which payment methods you want to offer your guests.

  • Which Accommodations should share the same conditions and which need specific rules.

It’s also recommended to define your cancellation policies in advance and check if you use Avantio Payments, since some options, like card payments, require an integrated payment platform.

Keep in mind that new Accommodations will automatically adopt the rule set as default.

Follow these steps

  1. Create a new payment and cancellation condition.
    Go to:

    VRMS → Bookings → Booking Conditions → List

    Click on New payment and cancellation condition.

  2. Name the rule and assign Accommodations.
    In Name / Reference, enter a name that will help you easily identify the condition.

    Then, in Select Accommodations, check the Accommodations you want to apply this rule to and click Next.

  3. Set up how the booking is confirmed and paid.
    In How bookings are confirmed and paid, define the different payment steps:

    • Step 1 — At booking: indicate the percentage to be paid and select the payment method. If you use Avantio Payments with credit card, you can set 0% at the time of booking.

    • Steps 2 and 3: set up the remaining payments until the total amount is covered.

    For later payments you can select:

    • Before check-in: indicate how many days before check-in the payment should be made and the corresponding percentage.

    • At check-in: set up the payment to be collected at check-in.

  4. Select payment methods and save the configuration.
    Choose which methods you want to accept, such as card, bank transfer, or PayPal.

    Also specify the beneficiary and account number to be used by default, or set up specific information for certain Accommodations.

    Review all the details and click Save.

Expected result

Once saved, the associated Bookings will use the payment and cancellation conditions defined for their Accommodations.

Guests will see the available payment methods and the amounts due at each stage of the booking.

You can review and edit these conditions later from:

VRMS → Bookings → Booking Conditions → List

Recommended next steps

After saving your configuration:

  1. Review the Accommodations associated with each condition to make sure the rules are applied correctly.

  2. Test the booking process to check that the percentages, dates, and payment methods shown match your strategy.

Main fields and options

  • Name / Reference: helps you easily identify each condition.

  • Select Accommodations: determines which properties the rule will apply to.

  • Payment steps: allow you to split the booking amount into different stages.

  • Payment method: defines the options available to the guest.

  • Beneficiary and account number: indicate who receives the payments.

  • Cancellation conditions: let you set penalties based on when the cancellation occurs.

  • Advanced configuration: lets you adapt certain rules based on the booking amount or duration.

Limitations and considerations

Keep in mind:

  • If a booking is made closer to the check-in date than the time set for a second payment, the guest will need to pay 100% of the booking.

  • Payment percentages are calculated only on the rental amount, not on Extras.

  • Extras must be set up separately in their corresponding tab.

  • New Accommodations will automatically use the default condition.

  • The conditions set up in Avantio do not override the policies of all portals.

Before making changes to conditions already in use, always check which Accommodations and Bookings may be affected.

Best practices

  • Use clear names to easily identify each condition.

  • Keep your payment structure simple and easy for guests to understand.

  • Avoid creating more rules than necessary if several Accommodations share the same strategy.

  • Test the booking process after saving your changes.

  • Clearly communicate your cancellation conditions on your Web.

  • Regularly review your conditions to make sure they still fit your operations.

Practical example

An agency wants to charge 30% at the time of booking and the remaining 70% 15 days before check-in.

To set this up:

  • In Step 1, set 30% and select the available payment methods.

  • In Step 2, select Before check-in, enter 15 days, and set up the remaining 70%.

  • Assign the condition to the relevant Accommodations.

  • Set cancellation penalties based on the number of days before check-in.

If a guest makes a booking, for example, only 10 days before arrival, the system will automatically request 100% of the amount, since the scheduled date for the second payment has already passed.

How to hide bank transfer based on days remaining

If you want to prevent a guest from selecting bank transfer when the check-in date is too close, you can use the Hide payment method based on days option.

In Step 1, enter the number of days in advance after which you want to hide this method.

For example, if you enter 5 days, bank transfer will no longer be available for any bookings made less than five days before check-in.

Once this option is set in Step 1, it will automatically apply to later steps.

Advanced configuration

You can apply additional rules based on the characteristics of the booking.

In Step 1, the Advanced configuration section is available by default.

In steps 2 and 3, it will appear when you select Before check-in.

From here you can use:

  • Configuration based on booking amount.

  • Configuration based on booking duration.

For example, you can set that bookings under €100 must be paid in full at the time of booking.

You can also limit certain payment methods by:

  • Hiding options based on days.

  • Hiding options based on amount.

Set up cancellation conditions

In the Cancellation conditions section you can set different penalties depending on how much time is left before check-in.

You can also define the penalty that applies in case of a no-show.

For example:

Cancellation between 0 and 2 weeks before check-in → 80% penalty on the rental amount.

Make sure these conditions are clear and properly communicated to the guest to reduce confusion and possible chargebacks.

Common mistakes

  • The expected payment method doesn’t appear: check that it’s selected in the condition and, for card payments, that you have an integrated platform with Avantio Payments.

  • The guest has to pay 100% even though you set up several installments: check how far in advance the booking was made.

  • The percentage doesn’t match the total booking amount: remember that deposits are calculated only on the rental amount.

  • A rule is applied to the wrong Accommodations: review the Accommodations selected in the relevant condition.

  • Bank transfer doesn’t appear as a payment method: check if you have any restriction enabled based on the days remaining before check-in.

If something isn’t working

If the conditions aren’t working as expected, check these points before contacting our customer support team:

  1. Make sure the condition is properly saved.

  2. Verify that the affected Accommodation is linked to the correct rule.

  3. Review the percentages, days before check-in, and payment methods set up.

  4. Check if there are any advanced rules based on amount, duration, or days that might be affecting the behavior.

  5. Refresh the page and review the configuration again.

If the problem persists, contact our customer support team and include screenshots, the name of the condition, the affected Accommodation, and the booking dates where it should apply.

Frequently asked questions

Can I set up different payment and cancellation conditions based on the season?

Yes. You can use the New season option to define different periods and apply different conditions based on the selected dates.

Why don't I see the card payment option?

You may not have a payment platform integrated with Avantio Payments yet. Please check with your implementation specialist or our team to see which platforms are available for your configuration.

How are advance payment percentages calculated?

The percentages are always calculated based on the rental amount, excluding Extras. These need to be set up separately.

Do the conditions set up in Avantio change Airbnb or Booking.com policies?

No. Airbnb and Booking.com have their own payment and cancellation policies.

Currently, Vrbo can use the payment and cancellation conditions set up in Avantio.

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