Set up card and direct debit payments with Stripe

This guide takes an operator from no payment integration to a workspace that collects card payments and SEPA direct debits through Stripe. SEPA stands for Single Euro Payments Area. At the end you will have a Stripe account connected, both payment methods working on a booking, and both refund routes known.

The Financials page has two views. This article uses the new view, where invoices and receipts have separate tabs. In the classic view, both appear on one Invoices & receipts tab. To change view, select Switch to classic view or Switch now in the banner.

Step 1 is a one-off setup task. Steps 2 to 7 are the everyday work of collecting money on a booking. Steps 8 and 9 are two alternative refund routes, not a sequence.

Steps 8 and 9 are alternatives rather than consecutive steps. Choose one route for a given payment, and try the PMS route first.

Nothing else in this guide works until a Stripe account is connected to the workspace. The accounts already connected are listed under Stripe accounts in Integrations. One account is marked as the Primary account, and a building uses the workspace primary account until you choose a different one.

The steps are in How to connect a Stripe account.

Connect the account you intend to use for real payments. An account added in test mode carries a Test badge in the Stripe accounts list.

Use this route when the cardholder is present and gives you their card details. The payment is charged through the Stripe account you choose, and recorded against the booking under Payments & refunds. This step depends on step 1 alone, so card collection can work before any SEPA setup is done.

The steps are in How to charge a credit or debit card through Stripe.

Where the workspace has more than one connected Stripe account, choose the right one in the Stripe account field. The payment settles to that account.

Use this route when you cannot take the card details yourself, for example for a remote guest. The request goes by email to the CRM contact on an issued invoice. It always covers the full invoice total, and the amount cannot be edited.

The steps are in How to send a Stripe card payment request link to a guest.

Issue the invoice for the amount you want paid, because a payment request cannot collect a part payment.

SEPA direct debit collects recurring payments from a euro bank account. The guest completes the mandate themselves, using a link the PMS sends to the email address recorded for the lead guest. A booking holds its mandate on the Payment methods tab, inside Financials.

The steps are in How to request a SEPA direct debit from a guest on an invoice.

That topic covers requesting and checking the mandate from the booking Payment methods tab. The Actions menu on an issued invoice offers Request one-off payment. That is the card route in step 3, not a SEPA mandate request.

This step adds a mandate to a booking that already exists, so monthly payments can be collected automatically. It needs a Calendar monthly billing interval, a workspace in euros, invoicing active, and SEPA configured in Stripe. Where nothing is set up yet, the tab shows No recurring payment methods.

The steps are in How to add a SEPA direct debit to a booking.

A nightly booking cannot take a mandate, so check the billing interval before you promise a guest direct debit.

Once a mandate has been requested, confirm the guest completed it before the first payment falls due. The Direct debit mandate card names the status, and a mandate the guest has not completed shows Pending.

The steps are in How to view a SEPA mandate.

The Checklist tab of the booking reports the Direct debit mandate status as well. An outstanding mandate means the next monthly charge will not be collected.

A mandate links a booking to one guest bank account, so a change of account means a new mandate rather than an edit. Confirm the change with the guest first, and set the replacement up before the next payment falls due.

The steps are in How to cancel or set up a new direct debit mandate.

Cancelling a mandate in the PMS does not remove the SEPA direct debit payment method from the guest record in Stripe. Removing the SEPA instruction from the PMS is not supported today.

Refund in the PMS wherever you can. A refund made in the PMS is recorded against the booking, so your financial records and the guest record stay in step. Payments taken and refunds already made are held under Payments & refunds, with the matching receipt under Receipts.

The steps are in How to refund a Stripe card payment manually from the Payments page.

That topic covers finding the payment, the refund record, and the receipt for a booking. It does not carry the refund action itself, so use step 9 where the PMS route will not complete the refund.

This is the fallback route, not the next step after step 8. Use it only when the refund cannot be made in the PMS. The refund is then made outside Lavanda, using Stripe's own refund process and Stripe's own documentation.

The steps are in How to refund a guest in the Stripe dashboard.

Check which connected Stripe account took the payment before you start, under Stripe accounts in Integrations. Record the refund against the booking afterwards, so the PMS record matches Stripe.