Best Practices for Credit Card Holds

Enable credit card holds on a per-Experience basis to reduce no-shows. 

Creating an experience using credit card holds

To create a credit card hold Experience, follow the steps to create an Experience.

Changing an existing experience to credit card holds

To change an existing basic or deposit Experience to a credit card hold for Availability Planning:

1. From the Control Panel tab, click Experiences.
2. Select an existing Basic or Deposit Experience.
3. Click Pricing and policy.
4. Click Change.
5. Select Credit card hold.
6. Click Done.
7. Click Save.

Setting credit card holds for different party sizes

Once an experience has been assigned a credit card hold, the  credit card hold amount can be defined per person or per party, based on the party size.

For Example:

• Parties of 1-5 covers do not need a credit card hold to make a reservation.
• Parties of 6-9 covers require a $10 credit card hold per person to make a reservation.
• Parties of 10+ covers require a flat $100 credit card hold to make a reservation. This amount doesn’t change based on how many people are in the party, because it’s set to “per party.”

To specify credit card hold amounts:

1.  From the Control Panel tab, click Experiences. 
2. Select an existing experience, then click Pricing and policy.

3. Change the pricing method to Credit card hold, then select Set various pricing amounts.
4. Add or remove multiple levels of credit card holds by clicking the Party size dropdown.
   • If the Price amount for a given tier is set to $0, it will be considered a basic reservation that doesn’t require a credit card hold.
   • The Guest type determines whether the price amount is applied per person or per party. If it’s set to per person, the price amount is multiplied by the party size to determine the required credit card hold. If it’s set to per party, the price amount is fixed regardless of the party size.

Applying credit card holds

To apply credit card holds to an existing Availability Planning schedule, follow the steps to add your new credit card hold Experience to Services.

To apply credit card holds to your Blueprint, follow the steps to configure Blueprints.

Update your policies 

Policies inform guests of guidelines for cancellations and changes. For example, specify whether all sales are final, or if your business requires guests to cancel within a certain timeframe. To learn more, visit Configuring Guest Modification Policies.

Charging a guest for a late cancellation or no-show

To charge a guest for a late cancellation or no-show:

1. From the Reservations tab, click Timeline or Service.
2. Using the date picker at the top, click the date.
3. Click the guest’s reservation in the Guests list.
4. Click the red cancel icon or change status to No Show.
   • Cancellations by guests outside of your set policy window allows you to charge guests a late Cancellation Fee. Once a reservation is cancelled, the cancelled booking cannot be reversed.
   • Changing the status to No Show allows you to charge a No Show Fee. If desired, the booking can be changed from a No-Show status to an Expected status.
5. Click Charge guest.
6. Confirm charge, click Charge guest.

FAQ

How long will I have to charge a guest a late cancellation or no-show fee?

You’ll have 7 days after the time of the reservation to charge a late cancellation or no-show fee.

Are disputed no-show/cancellation fees covered by Tock? 

Chargeback coverage will not be offered for disputed credit card hold charges. For more information about chargeback coverage, visit Chargeback Coverage.

Can the no-show/late cancellation fees be refunded? 

Yes. No-show and late cancellation fees can be refunded from the Tock dashboard.