This functionality is available subject to the terms of your GuestStay plan.
Online Balance
The online balance is a page shared with guests via a link so that they can check their charges online and in real-time. This allows guests to have a better understanding of what they'll have to pay at departure and, therefore, offers a smoother check-out process. Below is an example:
Exceptions
Send balance works for the majority of guests, but there are a few exceptions:
Pre-paid OTA rates (commission deducted): Many OTA rates have commission deducted from the reservation prior to delivery into PMS (particularly Expedia). As a result, rates appearing in room billing the folio at a lower rate than the guest has paid with the OTA. It is therefore important to hotels that this rate is not displayed to the guest via the online balance. To avoid this, a toggle within room billing allows “Hide from Guest” for a specific Bill Split – alternatively, items can be moved to Ledger (which is not shared via GuestStay).
Pre-auths: The online balance doesn't consider pre-authorisations made at check-in. You can share the balance, and you will need to cancel the pre-auth at check-out guest pays online.
Bill splits and separate folios: The online balance shows charges in all guest folios and all bill splits, expect ledger or “Hide from Guest” folios. It's currently not possible to see the balance and pay only for a specific bill split or separate folios.
If your property has GuestPay enabled, then the guest will also be offered to option to pay the balance online. The balance can only available to be paid after 6am on the day of departure.
Sending Online Balances
There are 3 ways to send online balances to your guests:
Manually send balance from Room Billing to the guest
To manually send balance from Room Billing to the guest, follow these steps:
Navigate to Room Billing (Rezlynx, Guest Journey, Billing, then Room Billing), and Select the room/reservation from the drop-down menu.
Select Send Balance at the bottom of the room billing screen. The email has now been sent to the guest - to view an example of the email sent to guests, scroll to the end of this article.
Manually send balance from Check Out to the guest
To manually send balance from Check Out to the guest, follow these steps:
Navigate to Check Out (Rezlynx, Guest Journey, Front Office, Check Out), and locate the room or reservation from the list.
Select Send Balance. The email has now been sent to the guest. To view an example of the email sent to guests, scroll to the end of this article.
Automatically send balance to the guest
To automatically send balance to the guest, follow these steps:
📌Note: You may wish to set up a template that will send to guests using Template Automation.
Navigate to Template Editor (Rezlynx, System, System, Template Editor).
Create a template
and within the Body of the email use the tag “GuestStay- Online Balance”.
Guests' view and payment on departure
Once the email has been sent to the guest, they will receive an email, as shown below:
📌Note: It will be branded with the hotel logo and colours, however, the content is not configurable.
The guest clicks the Billing button within the email to see their bill.
⚠️Important: The guest will only have the "Pay Now" option if GuestPay is enabled for your property. The option to pay now is only available after 6am on the day of departure.