Important to know:
SiteMinder Payments is our official payment processing solution, and it includes our official payment gateway, SiteMinder Pay.
How do I apply for SiteMinder Payments?
To apply for SiteMinder Payments, our official payment processing solution, follow these steps:
In Channel Manager, click on Property Settings > Payments tab.
Click Activate SiteMinder Payments.
On the application form, enter your property details (Business details) and Bank account details.
Complete account verification with Stripe — verify your identity by providing a proof of identity document.
Review your information, then click on Submit.
We will let you know if your application was successful within 1–2 business days, and if it is, your SiteMinder Payments account will be activated within the following 72 hours.
Note:
You must be an Admin user to activate Payments.
We may review your property before activating your SiteMinder Pay account. This is due to SiteMinder Pay being a financial product, similar to a bank account. We will contact you with the approval outcome within one business day.
How much does SiteMinder Payments cost?
There are no setup fees, monthly fees, or cancellation fees with SiteMinder Payments, and fees charged for refunds are returned. We only charge a fee per transaction.
Fees vary according to your country, the credit card payment network (MasterCard, Visa, etc), and the type of card (domestic, international, or premium) used for the transaction. To see which fees are applicable to your property, refer to your SiteMinder Payments activation form.
Please note that international and premium cards may incur a greater transaction fee. Premium cards are as follows (please note that not all cards may be available in your country):
American Express
China UnionPay
Discover & Diners Club
Japan Credit Bureau (JCB)
Virtual Credit Cards
Commercial cards
How do I update my bank account details?
To update the bank account used with SiteMinder Payments or SiteMinder Pay, please contact our Support team. Our team will need some security information from you before they can make any changes.
This includes:
An e-mail from the supervisor of the SiteMinder Payments account
Registered business name
Account number of the current bank account
Account details of the new bank account
Reason for this request
Date that the bank account should be updated
Who has access to edit my SiteMinder Payments account?
Users with certain permissions have access to view or make changes to your SiteMinder Payments account.
General users with Guest payment details permission
Users with a User level of General and with the Guest payment details permission enabled have access to:
Process payments;
Reveal credit card details.
Admin users
Admin users have full access to Payments and SiteMinder Pay for the property. They are the only users who are able to:
Activate Payments.
To prevent General users from viewing information about payments, make sure to untick the Guest payment details permission for those users.
When can I charge a virtual credit card (VCC)?
VCCs contain an activation date that determines when the card will be charged. It is usually from the day of check-in to 6 months from booking, and there is no way to change this activation date.
For SiteMinder Pay — the VCC can be charged on the activation date.
For third-party payment gateways — the VCC is usually charged on the activation date, however channels can have their own policies.
Are transaction details sent to my connectivity?
You can sync your SiteMinder Pay reservation transactions from our platform to your Property Management System (PMS) — a feature only available to participating property management systems that are enabled to handle payments. Syncing your channel reservation transactions, such as your payments and refunds, will help save time and reduce the need to manually record and manage payments separately in your PMS.
Transactions processed via the Payment terminal are not synced: only transactions associated with a channel reservation are supported. To support the payment sync API, the property management system must support the payments feature and must be a participating provider. To find out more, please contact your PMS directly.
How do I take a payment for something other than a reservation?
You can take manual payments using the Payment terminal. The Payment terminal can be used for reservations or any other payment that needs to be taken. To use the Payment terminal, go to My Apps > Payments > Payment terminal.
The Payment Terminal feature can only be used with our official payment gateway, SiteMinder Pay.
What do I do if I’ve processed the wrong amount?
If you’ve processed a payment for the wrong amount, you can use either a refund or manual payment to fix this problem.
If the payment was too high — you can make a refund.
If the payment was too low — you can take a manual payment.
How do I process refunds?
Refunds for SiteMinder Payments transactions are made in My Apps > Payments > Transactions tab.
To refund a payment:
Go to My Apps > Payments > Transactions tab
Search for the payment using the Reservation ID, amount, or cardholder name, then click on the transaction.
Click on the ‘Refund’ button. You will be able to edit the amount to refund if required.
There are no fees for processing refunds via SiteMinder Payments; all fees that were associated with the reservation payment will be refunded.
How long do I have to process a payment or refund for a reservation?
Many booking channels allow refunds up to 90 days after the payment.
For the SiteMinder Pay payment gateway — you must process a reservation payment or refund before 7 days after check-out. Guest credit card details are deleted from the platform 7 days after check-out, and cannot be recovered. This is to ensure guests’ data security by complying with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS).
For third-party payment gateways — third-party payment gateways have their own security policies. For your guests’ security, make sure yours is in compliance with PCI DSS.
Can a refund be cancelled?
No, a refund cannot be cancelled once it has been processed. If the card that you have refunded the payment has expired or been cancelled, then the refund should be credited to the guest's new payment card (depending on their bank or card issuer). In the rare case that the guest does not have a new payment card, the bank will usually send the refund to the guest's bank account.
How can I access my monthly SiteMinder Payment invoices?
Invoices for the prior month are available from the third business day of each month, and can be accessed by following these steps:
Navigate to your Payments Dashboard (My Apps > Payments).
Click on the profile icon in the top right corner of the Payments Dashboard.
Click on Invoices.
Click Generate on the relevant invoice — this will send it to the email address registered with your SiteMinder Payments account.
How long does a payment take to arrive in my bank account?
For the SiteMinder Pay payment gateway — a payout will be sent on the same day that a payment is received, and should take approximately 2–7 business days to arrive in your bank account, depending on your bank and location.
For third-party payment gateways — third-party payment gateways have their own processing times. Processing times of bank transfers also vary, depending on your region.
How can I view a summary of transactions?
To view a summary of transactions, go to My Apps > Payments > Transactions tab.
How do I deactivate SiteMinder Payments?
To deactivate SiteMinder Payments, you will need to contact our Support team.