No shows are a pervasive problem in our industry. As unpleasant as it may seem, you can protect your restaurant by requiring upfront payment or by capturing a guest's credit card details when they make their booking to charge them a penalty if they no show or cancel too last minute.

This article shows you first how to set up the credit card detail capture and then how to charge them from the FOH.

 1.     Log onto the admin and find the restaurant you want to edit in My Restaurants

2.     Click on the Seating Rules tab

3.     Click on Add Rule if you do not currently have any rules in place or if you wish to set up a specific scenario where you would like to capture credit card details. Or, click on the Edit icon next to an existing rule. If in doubt, chat with our support team or send us an email at support@rsvp-popup.com. 

4.     A dialogue box will appear. If you only want to capture credit card details rather than take full or partial pre-payment, leave #1 unchecked. Select the currency you wish to charge in as well as the amount you want to check is available on the card at the time of booking.

Note: We cannot guarantee that funds are available when you do decide to charge a penalty if option #1 is not marked. We do ensure the credit card is valid and that there are funds at the time of booking.

5.     Repeat this for any of the other rules where credit card capture may be relevant.

NOTE: Please reach out to our support team so we can check that this has been implemented correctly before you begin using it to avoid any errors in the guest experience or in the ability to charge your guests.

If you need to charge a guest, you have the option to do so as long as the rules were set up to capture their credit card details.

 1.     Log onto the FOH.

2.     Mark the booking as a cancellation or no show. See how to do so at https://intercom.help/rsvp-pop-up/en/articles/3226820-mark-a-guest-as-a-no-show. The booking will be removed from the Upcoming tab and only show in the All tab when the Cancelled box is checked.

3.     Find the booking in the All tab and click on it. The booking panel will expand with a new option to Charge Deposit.

4.     Click Charge Deposit. The system will ask you if you are sure you want to proceed. Click Yes.

5.     You will see a notification at the bottom of the screen if the guest was successfully charge. Should you have any doubts, please reach out to our support team via chat or at support@rsvp-popup.com.

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