Payment Type
Payment Type is the method of payment used by the guest for this activity. This should only ever be selected once the guest has actually made payment unless it is being charged to the guest’s folio in Cloudbeds using the “Room Charge” selection (see below).
In Settings > Payment Types you can customize the labels for the types of payments you collect.
Note: Only Room Charge and House Account post to Cloudbeds. Room Charge posts to guest folios and House Account posts to the House Accounts cash drawer.
Here are some examples of payment types your hotel might use:
- Room Charge directly bills the guest’s Cloudbeds folio. In order to do that, you will need to have a corresponding product in Cloudbeds. Since Planniac takes care of the details, your corresponding item can be very broad like “Tours” and then every Planniac-generated tour can map to that. At the end of this article, you'll see a more detailed description of applying a room charge through Planniac.
- Room Charge Manual means you posted the activity directly to Cloudbeds, you did not use Planniac to send the charge to the folio.
- Cash is just a label to record that the payment was made in cash. You’ll need a separate cash ledger.
- Credit Card is also a label when the guest paid for the activity with a credit card. You may also wish to specify which credit card terminal you are using, such as Onsite cc Terminal or Reservation Desk cc Terminal in order to quickly reconcile any payment issues.
- Mixed Payment could be used as a label when the guest split the payment between different methods. However you cannot select those methods. So in this case Front Desk would want to include a note to explain the payment.
- House Account follows Cloudbeds’ naming protocol for charges posted through Cloudbeds but not from hotel guests. For example you could bill a facility rental activity to Cloudbeds’ House Account which means Planniac would directly post the charge to Cloudbeds’ cash drawer.
- House Account Manual describes a non-guest or non-folio activity that is posted from within Cloudbeds to the House Account cash drawer.
- Paying Operator Directly. This means the guest is planning to pay the operator itself, and the hotel will not be taking payment.
- Paid Operator Directly. This means the guest has actually paid the operator directly. We recommend distinguishing between Paid and Paying in case plans change. For example, a guest could be intending to pay the operator but forgets their credit card on the day of the tour. You would not want to assume that payment was made if there is a possibility it wasn’t. That’s why Planniac recommends both options.
- Included in Package. If an activity was part of a package, you would most likely not need to bill it separately.
- Part of Upsell. If the guest has already paid for this activity via an upsell (often at the time of reservation), you can use this label to indicate the payment.
- Complimentary. Use this when an activity is offered free-of-charge to the guest.
Zero balance payment types. There may be times when there is no charge for an activity. These are examples of payment types that, by default, will zero the balance due shown on Planniac:
Complimentary
Part of Upsell
Included in Package
All other payment types require you to enter the amount paid. Examples:
Cash
Credit Card
This can be less than the total in the case that the guest just pays part of the total amount. If the guest pays with multiple payment methods (eg. part cash, part card), record the total amount as mixed payment and put the details into the Notes field. If the payment is part Room Charge and part something else, you cannot use the normal Room Charge option. In this case, it is necessary to manually charge the Room Charge portion to the CloudBeds folio (select mixed payment) and explain in the notes.
Room Charge
This feature allows activities to be charged directly to the guest’s Cloudbeds folio. If you use Cloudbeds for billing incidentals to guests, this would be the preferred method to use. By enabling your Tour Desk, Concierge, Reservations or Front Desk staff to post the charge when an activity is booked, you reduce the chance of it ever going unbilled.
The default date for the charge is the date of the tour, although this can be changed prior to charging if necessary. By charging on the tour date (which is typically some date in the future), the charge will stay as pending on Cloudbeds until one minute past midnight on the day of the tour. If you view the guest folio prior to the tour / charge date, the charge will not show on the folio unless you select to include Pending Transaction (Cloudbeds default does not include Pending Transactions, this must be manually selected each time you view a folio). The charge will however be included in the outstanding amount owed by the guest.
Cancellations or other reasons for removal of charge. If the activity is cancelled prior to the date of the tour, the folio transaction can be easily reverted by removing the payment through the same detail form. In this case, the transaction is deleted from CloudBeds and will not show up on any accounting. If the payment is removed on or after the date of the activity, it will show up as a charge and then a charge reversal as once a transaction moves from Pending to Posted on CloudBeds, it cannot be deleted.
Linking Cloudbeds items. In order to use the Room Charge payment method, it is necessary to have corresponding product items in Cloudbeds.
When setting up Items in Cloudbeds, you must define the name of the item, the category, a unique code, the price and whether tax should be applied. The only important items for the front desk system is the name.
Be as general or as specific as you like with the Cloudbeds items setup.
For example, you could choose to call your Cloudbeds item “City Tour” and then map multiple, more specific Planniac activities to “City Tour.” In this case the guest’s folio would only say “City Tour.”
If you want more tour specifics in Cloudbeds, then you could have a Cloudbeds item for each activity and vendor, for example “City Tour 1/2 Day Lunch Included”. However, this approach would require maintaining matching activities lists in Cloudbeds and Planniac.
The Cloudbeds price is overwritten by the front desk system when it posts the item to the guest folio. If tax is selected as being added, Cloudbeds will post a separate but related charge for tax to the guest folio.
If the required item has been created in Cloudbeds but does not appear on the drop-down list, click the Update Item List button to refresh the list.
Posting multiple related items. Every posting to a Room Charge can consist of up to three items. Typically you would just use one of these (eg. Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye), you would enter the number of people going in the Qty box, the price per person and any notes you want to add. When this is posted to CloudBeds, the notes are added to the standard notes which include the name of the user who posted the charge and the date and time of the charge. In the case where a tour has adults and children (with different prices for each), you would use the first item to post the number of adults and the second item to post the number of children. If there is some additional charge that is not included within the price per person (such as transfer fees), this could be added as the third item. If the division of charges is more complex than this, it will be necessary to post the charges manually into Cloudbeds and the payment type for the tour should be recorded as Room Charge – Manual. Cloudbeds would handle tax according to your Cloudbeds settings.
The final option on this page is whether to post all the items together or to post them separately. Assuming there are three adults and two children going snorkelling to Tiny Little Caye, posting together will create the following charges on the Cloudbeds folio. Normally you would use this method if the group is a single family and all charges are going to a single folio.
3 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
Tax for 3 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
2 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
Tax for 2 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
If the group is made up of multiple people who each have their own folio, you would use the Post Separately option and the charges would appears as follows. Cloudbeds will only post to a primary guest folio, but your staff will find it easy to move the charges since the guest names will be attached.
1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
Tax for 1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
Tax for 1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
Tax for 1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Adult)
1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
Tax for 1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
Tax for 1 x Snorkelling – Tiny Little Caye (Child)
Payment locked
After you apply a payment type, the payment area will be shaded grey. Grey fields can't be changed.
You can revert a payment though, by clicking the trash can icon next to the payment method that you selected. This will open it up (unlock it) so you can make changes. After that you will need to apply a payment type again.
If the payment type you are reverting was a Room Charge billed directly to the Cloudbeds guest folio, then Planniac will remove that charge from the folio.
Note: If you revert a Room Charge before the posting day on Cloudbeds, when it is considered still pending, it will just delete it from the folio. If the charge is already posted by Cloudbeds it will create a reversal instead, and both the charge and the reversal will be visible on Cloudbeds. This is an accounting setup issue.
Other fields locked after payment applied
Once a payment type has been applied, no more changes are allowed to the tour, operator or number of guests participating in the tour. You'll see those areas greyed out on the screen. If there are changes, the payment must be removed (trash can beside Payment box) before any changes can be made.
