In Mews Operations, the card retention policy controls how long a guest’s stored tokenized payment card details stay in the system after checkout. This setting helps you meet guests’ data privacy requirements by automatically removing sensitive card data after a specific number of days. Financial managers can manage this setting to follow legal obligations, reduce risk, and protect guest information. You usually set up or update the policy during onboarding or when adjusting to new local regulations.

 

The card data retention policy also applies to the Token Passport feature in Mews Operations, which enables all properties within the chain to share tokenized payment details in the customer profile.

 

In this article you can learn about:

• How to configure your card retention policy in Mews Operations
• How to clear tokenized card details from Mews Operations
  • How to clear tokenized card details manually
  • How does the Mews system clear tokenized card details

 

How to configure your card retention policy in Mews Operations

To define how long Mews stores guest card tokens after checkout, follow these steps:

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu  > Settings > Property.
2. Click Payments then General settings.
3. Locate the Card data retention policy period field.
4. Enter the period in days after which you want Mews to automatically clear the customer's payment card information.
5. Click Save.

 

Note: Mews applies a default retention period of 90 days starting July 1st, 2026.

 

How to clear tokenized card details from Mews Operations

How to clear tokenized card details manually

You can also clear a stored card before the retention period ends:

• Go to the Payment card report, or
• Go to Payments in the guest customer profile.

 

Note: Mews applies the same retention rules to Token Passport, which lets you share card saved tokenized card details across properties in the same chain.

 

How does the Mews system clear tokenized card details

The Mews system runs a daily check to clear stored tokenized card details. It:

1. goes through all tokenzed card details stored in the guest profile through Mews Payments.
2. checks whether the guest has future reservations.
   1. If yes, the system retains the card details.
   2. If no, it continues the process.
3. Compares the retention window with the guest’s most recent checkout date.

• • If the card details exceed the retention period, the system deletes the card details from the system.

Note: Open bills will prevent Mews from clearing stored tokenized card details, even if the open bills are empty. To ensure Mews correctly clears the details, check for open bills and close and archive them if possible. Mews processes the deletion of the details within 24 hours.

Clears the tokenized card details from the external PCI-compliant vault.

 

Note: After Mews clears tokenized card details, you cannot charge it again unless the guest re-submits it through a payment or a payment request.

 

When the retention period ends:

• The system deletes all tokenized card details and saved tokenized card details
• Only the last four digits of the card remain visible in reports.
• You still see past payment records for audits and reconciliation.