Virtual Card Automation for VCC

Virtual Card Automation is now available for GuestPay customers.

Please note this will only take effect for NEW bookings made with a VCC AFTER the feature has been enabled.  Any existing bookings received PRIOR to the activation of this feature will still need to be charged manually.

Features are detailed below:

When a Virtual Credit Card (VCC) is identified on a supported OTA (Booking.com & Expedia), the card will be captured using Trust Payments CardStore and then displayed in the reservation on the Guarantee tab.

Once a card has been processed, this will be reflected in the VCC panel on the guarantee tab. Users will be able to see the resulting payment token, which will also be reflected in the Payment Gateway panel.

It's important to note that VCC handling will only work for these channels when they are connected directly to Roomlynx.

If they are going via a 3rd party channel manager or a CRS such as Booking.com via Best Western, they cannot be identified as VCCs and will not be handled using this new logic.

OTA Specific Logic
Not all VCCs are equal. The processing of cards depends on a number of different factors. For example, the channel they are received from and the Effective Date supplied.

Booking.com

Expedia behaviour:

1. VCC's where the Effective Date matches the Current Date. These will be processed immediately as AUTH payments. They will appear in both the VCC grid and the Payment Gateway grid.
2. VCC's where the Effective Date is in the future. These will be processed using Trust Payment's Card Store feature and will appear in the VCC grid within Rezlynx. At 5am (moved to 7pm) on the effective date, they will be charged. The resulting Payment AUTH will appear in the Payment Gateway Grid. (note there is a 1 hour tolerance).
   1. Why 7pm? Guests are able to cancel on the day dependent on cancellation policy. The earlier time of 5am meant that sites had a lengthier process which included having to refund the payment.
   2. The change from 5am to 7pm will mean sites, for a short while, will have a mix of the 2 types on future bookings. The time is captured/stipulated at the initial capture of each VCC.

If the booking is pre-arrival when payment is taken, a deposit will be added. If the booking is Resident, Payment will be added to Room Billing.

What if the automation fails?

If the automation of charging a VCC fails, this will be captured as a failed tokenisation within Tasks. An example of a failure is when a user has already manually processed the card within Trust Payments.

There are other instances where processing may fail. Booking.com advises that this can sometimes occur and recommends waiting and trying again after a few hours.

With this in mind, there is also a manual 'charge' option that displays within the Virtual Card panel. This can be used in the aforementioned scenarios, but also in some cases where you wish to charge the card earlier than the processing schedule listed above

If processing manually and a successful payment is achieved, the same rules for automation will be applied. If the booking is pre-arrival when payment is taken, a deposit will be added. If the booking is Resident, a payment will be added to Room Billing.

For further FAQ's please click here