Guest Credits let you offer guests credit toward a future stay instead of issuing a refund, either during cancellation or afterward. Each credit generates a unique code that can be emailed to the guest, tracked through reporting, assigned an expiration date, and redeemed online or manually on a future invoice.
Issuing a Guest Credit - At Time of Cancellation
This option is available from the Cancel Reservation window...
Record a guest credit: Set to Yes
Cancellation Credit: Enter the credit amount.
Send to Guest: Choose whether to notify the guest via email of the credit.
Issuing a Guest Credit - After a Cancellation is Processed
This can be used on invoices that have been canceled, but are left with a refund owed status. To issue a guest credit and zero out the invoice on canceled invoices with a refund owed status, use the Record Refund button on the Transactions tab of the guest control panel...
Choose Guest Credit as the payment method, and choose if the code should be emailed to the guest...
Issuing a Guest Credit - Without a Reservation on File
You may need to enter a guest credit that is not associated with an existing reservation. You can do that from Guests > Guest Credits. Click the "+Add Credit" button...
The Create Guest Credit window will display...
Search for and select the guest. The guest must already exist in the system.
Set the Amount of the credit
Choose when the credit expires
Optionally add notes about the credit
Select this to send the guest an email notification
Create
Notes About Guest Credits
If guest credit refund is deleted from the canceled invoice, the associated guest credit will also be deleted
Lifewise if a guest credit was redeemed, a guest credit refund can't be deleted from a canceled invoice.
Only one guest credit will be allowed per reservation
If a subscriber edits the guest credit refund amount on the guest control panel, it will update guest credit code amount, as long as it has not yet been redeemed.
If a guest credit has already redeemed, it won't let a user update the guest credit refund amount.
The guest credit refund owed amount (if it exists) is shown as as a default value when Record Refund is clicked. There is a warning message "Note: Refund owed amount is indicative only. Please confirm the amount."
Guest Credit Notification Email
You can view and edit the email template that is used to send the guest credit to the guest. This can be done from Settings > Saved Replies & PDFs...
Click the Guest tab
Select the "Guest Credit Notification"
Edit the email content
Reporting on Guest Credits
You can view all guest credits in your account from Guests > Guest Credits. Guest Credits will show all issued credits as well as the redemption date and the invoice the credit was redeemed on. Use the filter to show only redeemed or only outstanding credits...
Redeemed Guest Credits will also be shown on the Guest Transactions Report when the Payment Methods filter is set to "Credits"...
Guest Credit Expiration
There is a setting within Settings > Important Settings > Bookings where the default guest credit expiration date can be set...
The expiration date of a specific guest credit can be changed manually by clicking on the expiration date within the Guest Credits Interface...
Guest Credit Redemption
Before guest credits can be used to pay for a reservation (or applied to a reservation by an admin), you must turn that option on from Settings > Payment Gateway Setup...
Redeeming a Guest Credit via an Online Booking
Guest will have an option to pay using a guest credit code...
The guest credit code does NOT apply a credit to the invoice and then allow the guest to pay the remaining balance with an alternative form of payment. Instead a message is displayed to the guest informing them that whether the balance is positive (more owed) or negative (refund owed), this issue will be addressed by the property manager after the booking is made.
Redeeming a Guest Credit Manually
From the Transactions tab of the guest control panel, choose Guest Credit as the payment option...
Search for the guest name in the Guest Credit window and select the correct Credit Code...
Once applied, the guest credit will show as a payment to the invoice and any additional payments of refunds owed as a result of the credit will still need to be taken care of prior to check-in to bring the invoice to a zero balance.
Notes
If a guest credit is deleted from an invoice, the guest credit will be removed from the reservation and set back to a "not redeemed" status .
Only one guest credit can be applied per invoice. If a guest credit already exists on a reservation and another guest credit is used, the existing credit will be replaced and returned to a "not redeemed" status.
When a guest credit is applied to an invoice for payment, the credit amount can be changed by editing the guest credit payment within the Transactions tab of the guest control panel. This isn't recommended however as it will make it more difficult to trace a credit from it's issuance to redemption.
Coupon codes will work in conjunction with a guest credit.
If a guest credit is applied to an invoice and if that invoice then has a "refund due" status, a refund must be processed to get the invoice to a zero balance. It is not currently possible to issue another guest credit if the guest credit amount is > then the invoice total.
For online bookings and guest credit redemptions, remaining balance owed on the invoice (if any) does not take into consideration any security deposits that might be required.