Why Hotels Still Chase Payments by Email
Hotels and holiday accommodation providers deal with payment complexity that most e-commerce businesses never face.
A guest books online — card captured. But then they want to extend their stay. Or upgrade their room. Or they no-show and you need to charge a cancellation fee against a card you captured six months ago. Or the card on file declines, and now your front desk is calling the guest to collect over the phone.
Holiday lets and vacation rentals have it worse. Many operate on manual bank transfers — the guest receives an email with account details and a polite request. Some pay promptly. Others don't. Chasing late payments eats hours every week.
The pattern is the same across the accommodation sector: the initial booking payment works, but everything after that is manual, slow, and expensive to collect.
Payment links solve this by giving hotels and accommodation providers a way to collect any payment, at any point in the guest journey, without needing the guest to visit a checkout page or call in card details.
What Are Payment Links for Hotels?
A payment link is a unique URL that takes a guest directly to a branded payment page. The guest clicks, enters their card details (or pays via Apple Pay, Google Pay, or bank transfer), and the payment is done.
No app download. No login. No phone call. The link works on any device, in any browser.
For hotels and holiday accommodation, payment links cover use cases that traditional checkout doesn't reach:
Pre-arrival deposits — Send a link when a booking is confirmed. The guest pays immediately rather than on arrival.
No-show and cancellation charges — If a card on file is expired or declined, send a link to collect the fee.
Room upgrades and upsells — Guest wants to upgrade? Send a link for the difference. No need to take card details over the phone.
Damage deposits and security bonds — Holiday lets can collect refundable deposits via link before check-in.
Extended stays — Guest extends their booking mid-stay. Send a link for the additional nights.
Spa, restaurant, and ancillary charges — Collect payment for add-on services without routing through the PMS.
Group bookings and events — Send individual payment links to each guest in a group, rather than collecting one lump sum.
Outstanding balances — Post-checkout charges (minibar, late check-out fees) collected via link instead of chasing by email.
The key advantage: payment links work asynchronously. The guest pays when it suits them. Your team doesn't need to be on the phone or at the front desk to collect.
How Payment Links Work in a Hotel Context
The Flow
Your team creates a payment link — through a dashboard, API, or directly from your PMS. The link includes the amount, a description (e.g. "Room upgrade — Suite 204"), and optionally the guest's name.
The link is sent to the guest — via email, SMS, WhatsApp, or embedded in a chat message. Whatever channel the guest prefers.
The guest clicks and pays — they see a branded payment page (your hotel's logo and colours, not a third-party brand). They enter card details or use a wallet/bank transfer.
Payment is confirmed — both the guest and your team receive confirmation. The payment reconciles against the booking in your PMS or accounting system.
PMS Integration
For hotels running a Property Management System (OPERA, Mews, Cloudbeds, APALEO, or similar), the ideal setup is a payment link that posts the transaction directly to the guest folio. This eliminates manual reconciliation — the payment appears in the PMS as if it were collected at the front desk.
Some payment link providers offer direct PMS integrations. Others provide API-level connectivity that your platform or technology partner configures.
Multi-Currency
International hotels and holiday accommodation providers need payment links that handle multiple currencies. A villa in the Algarve renting to UK guests should be able to send a link in GBP, not EUR. A London hotel collecting a deposit from a Japanese guest should offer JPY.
Multi-currency payment links reduce friction and foreign exchange surprises for guests — both of which improve conversion rates.
Payment Links vs Traditional Hotel Payment Methods
Method | When it works | Where it breaks |
|---|---|---|
Card on file (from booking) | Standard charges at checkout | Card expires, guest disputes, need to collect new amount |
Phone payments (MOTO) | Guest is available and willing to call | PCI compliance burden, staff time, guest inconvenience |
Bank transfer | Guest is willing to send money manually | Slow, error-prone, no confirmation, hard to reconcile |
Invoice + chase | Corporate bookings with agreed terms | Slow payment, admin overhead, bad debt risk |
Payment links | Any payment, any time, any channel | Requires guest to have a phone or email (nearly universal) |
Payment links don't replace card-on-file for standard charges. They cover everything card-on-file can't — which, for most hotels and holiday accommodation providers, is a significant portion of revenue collection.
Holiday Lets and Vacation Rentals: A Specific Use Case
Holiday accommodation — cottages, villas, apartments, Airbnb-style rentals — operates differently from hotels. Bookings are often higher value (a week vs a night), payments are typically split (deposit + balance), and many operators still rely on bank transfers.
Payment links are particularly valuable here:
Deposit collection. When a guest books (via your website, Booking.com, or direct enquiry), send a payment link for the deposit immediately. No waiting for a bank transfer. No chasing.
Balance collection. 4-6 weeks before arrival, send a link for the remaining balance. Set a due date. If unpaid, send a reminder link automatically.
Security/damage deposits. Send a separate link for a refundable deposit. Refund via the same system after check-out inspection.
Late cancellation fees. If a guest cancels inside the cancellation window and you can't charge the original card, a payment link collects the fee without confrontation.
Cleaning and additional charges. Pet fees, extra cleaning, lost key charges — send a link with a clear description rather than an awkward phone call.
For operators managing multiple properties, payment links with reporting give a single view of all outstanding and completed payments across the portfolio.
What to Look For in a Hotel Payment Link Solution
Branding
The payment page should carry your hotel or accommodation brand — logo, colours, property photos. A generic or third-party branded page undermines guest confidence, especially for high-value payments.
Channel Flexibility
You need to send links via the channel the guest uses: email, SMS, WhatsApp, web chat. A solution that only supports email misses guests who respond better to text messages.
PSP Flexibility
This matters more than most accommodation providers realise. If you're a hotel group with properties in multiple countries, each property may have a different acquiring bank or payment processor. A payment link solution that locks you into a single PSP means some properties pay higher cross-border fees than necessary.
For platforms serving multiple accommodation providers — property management platforms, booking engines, holiday rental marketplaces — PSP flexibility is essential. Each property or operator may have their own preferred payment processor.
Payment Methods
Cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) are the baseline. But increasingly, guests expect:
Apple Pay / Google Pay — especially for mobile link clicks
Pay by Bank (Open Banking) — lower fees for high-value payments like holiday rental balances
Local payment methods — iDEAL in the Netherlands, Bancontact in Belgium, Klarna in Scandinavia
Reconciliation
Payment link transactions need to appear in your accounting or PMS alongside other payments. Look for solutions that provide structured data exports, API-level transaction data, or direct PMS integration — not just receipt emails.
PCI Compliance
Any payment collection involves PCI DSS obligations. With payment links, the card data is captured on the payment page hosted by the link provider — meaning **your hotel or accommodation business never touches card data**. This keeps your PCI scope minimal, which is a significant compliance and security advantage over phone-based card collection.
Payment Links for Hotel Groups and Accommodation Platforms
Individual hotels and holiday let operators benefit from payment links. But the bigger opportunity is at the platform level.
Hotel groups with 10, 50, or 200+ properties need consistent payment collection across all sites — with reporting that rolls up to a group level. Each property might need its own PSP, its own branding, its own settlement account. A payment link solution built for platforms handles this out of the box.
**Property management platforms** (software that manages bookings, guest communication, and operations for multiple properties) can embed payment links as a feature of their platform. Instead of each property figuring out payment collection independently, the platform provides it — branded as the platform, powered by a payment layer behind the scenes.
Holiday rental marketplaces act as intermediary between guest and property owner. Payment links let the marketplace collect payments on behalf of the owner, with funds routed to the correct settlement account — potentially through the owner's own PSP.
This is where the distinction between a merchant payment link tool and a platform payment layer matters. A merchant tool (like Prommt or standalone Stripe Payment Links) serves one business at a time. A payment layer lets a platform offer payment links to hundreds or thousands of accommodation providers through a single integration.
Voice Payments: The Other Hotel Payment Channel
Payment links handle asynchronous collection — the guest pays in their own time. But hotels also need real-time payment collection over the phone.
A guest calls to book. A front desk agent processes a cancellation charge. A concierge takes payment for a restaurant reservation.
These phone-based payments have traditionally required agents to ask for card details verbally — which creates PCI compliance obligations and security risk.
Voice payment solutions solve this by moving the card capture to a secure channel (IVR, DTMF tones, or a payment link sent mid-call) while the agent stays on the line. The card data never passes through the hotel's systems.
For a complete hotel payment collection strategy, payment links and voice payments work together: links for asynchronous collection, voice for real-time phone-based collection. Both should route through the same PSP and reconcile in the same system.
For more on voice payments in hospitality, see AI Voice Payments for Hotels & Travel.
FAQ
How much do payment links cost?
Pricing varies by provider. Most charge a percentage per transaction (typically 1-3%) plus a small fixed fee. For high-value payments (holiday rental balances, group bookings), percentage-based pricing adds up — so look for providers that offer tiered rates or flat fees at volume. Pay by Bank (Open Banking) typically costs less than card-based links.
Can payment links handle recurring payments?
Payment links are primarily for one-off collections. For recurring charges (monthly rent on long-term lets, subscription-based hotel services), you'd typically capture a card via a payment link and then set up recurring charges via the underlying PSP. Some platforms support this in a single flow.
Are payment links secure?
Yes — payment links hosted by a PCI DSS Level 1 compliant provider are as secure as any other online card payment. The guest enters their details on a secure hosted page. Card data is tokenised and never stored on your systems. This is significantly more secure than taking card details over the phone.
Can I customise the payment page?
Most providers support white-label branding — your logo, colours, and property name on the payment page. Some allow custom fields (booking reference, guest name, room number) that appear on the page and in the transaction record.
What happens if the guest doesn't pay?
Payment links can be configured with expiry dates and automated reminders. If a link expires unpaid, your system can trigger a follow-up — a new link, a phone call from your team, or an escalation in your booking workflow.
Related Reading
AI Voice Payments for Hotels & Travel — real-time phone-based payment collection for hospitality
What Are Payment Links? — the basics of payment link infrastructure
PSP-Neutral vs Single-PSP — why hotel groups and platforms need multi-PSP flexibility
How Platforms Monetise Payments — for property management platforms and booking engines embedding payments
Gateway vs Orchestrator vs PayFac vs Payment Layer — understanding the infrastructure categories
Contact Centre Payments — PCI-compliant phone payments for hotel call centres
Payment Solutions for Travel Platforms — multi-PSP payment infrastructure for airlines, OTAs, and tour operators
Enterprise PSP Mandates — when hotel chains require specific payment processors
Need payment links for your hotel, holiday accommodation, or property platform?
Shuttle gives platforms and accommodation providers branded payment links across 40+ PSPs — with voice payments, multi-currency support, and PCI DSS Level 1 compliance included. Each property uses their preferred payment processor. One integration covers everything.