The new European directive on payment services (PSD2) has led to new standards of authentication and security to authorize banking transactions. ZaK therefore offers you the possibility to set up different methods to guarantee your reservation, as simply having a guest's Credit Card details available is no longer sufficient, unless they are from outside the EU.
We will briefly explain the Guarantee Methods, for which you can find more information in the article linked below:
ZaK provides you with 4 guarantee methods and you can enable more than one at the same time:
1. Standard Credit Card
ZaK requires Credit Card data as a guarantee. Due to PSD2 this method is no longer sufficient, unless you are a non-EU customer. If the reservation is already guaranteed by Credit Card, you can display the CC data by accessing the reservation detail and clicking in the appropriate box:
☞ Docs: ZaK - Reservation detail
Remember that to view the CC of your customers you must enter your password for the Credit Card. If you haven't set it up yet or if you have forgotten it, you can proceed by following the instructions in the articles linked below:
Since you are in possession of the customer's CC, you can make the charge independently, through a POS. For non-EU customers there should be no authorization problems.
In case you do not have the customer's CC data yet, it is not possible to proceed in this way. You need to get the data first. For this purpose, you can send the link to the Online Check-in page to the customer, either manually or via automated messaging.
2. Credit Card with billing authorization
ZaK will request the customer's Credit Card information and authorization to charge at a later date. To enable this method, you must have Stripe configured. This authorization will be requested from the guest on the Online Check-in page.
3. Credit Card, Freezing Money
ZaK will ask the guest for permission to "freeze" a certain amount, equal to the total amount of the reservation or just a part (fixed or percentage). This is the so-called pre-authorization. The amount will only be retained temporarily, usually for 7 days (this depends on Stripe). You can also choose a maximum advance, i.e. a number of days within which you will withdraw the money from the customer's Card. Again, this requires you to have Stripe configured.
You can then withdraw the pre-authorized amount from the reservation detail, by clicking on the "Payments" box (as explained in the following link). Anything that is not withdrawn will automatically be recorded as a refund and can no longer be withdrawn.
4. Payment
The guest will be able to make the payment immediately to confirm the reservation, for the total amount or just a part (fixed or percentage). The payment will be made through the Payment Gateways that you have enabled (Stripe, PayPal, MercadoPago or Yandex).
Instant Payment from Online Reception
Finally, we remind you that, if you use the ZaK Booking Engine, you can receive the payment directly during the booking process, always through the Payment Gateways you have enabled. You just need to choose, in the Booking Engine settings, the Guarantee Method you configured with the immediate payment.
↳ Useful Link: ZaK > Sales > Online Reception > Reservation Model