When guests check in online through the Guest Portal, you can choose whether to ask them for payment card details or not. Card details are useful for unpaid reservations, potential room charges, or Virtual Credit Card bookings. However, in some cases, you may prefer to deactivate this step, such as, prepaid stays, company billing or regions where cards are uncommon.  

You can manage this setting in two ways, by:

• Rate group: To configure payment card requirements during online check-in for all bookings in a rate group.
• Policy exceptions: To configure payment card requirements during online check-in for specific periods or individual rates in a rate group. Note: This feature is only available for properties on the Pro and Enterprise packages. 

Users with Create and manage rate groups permissions can enable or disable these settings at any time. 

 

In this article you can learn about: 

• How to deactivate payment card requirement by rate group
• How to deactivate payment card requirement by policy exception 

 

How to deactivate payment card requirement by rate group 

To configure online check-in without requiring payment card details for a new rate group: 

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu   > Settings > Services.  
2. Click your stay service, for example, Stay.  
3. Click Rate groups, then click .
4. Complete all relevant fields.
5. Under Default policies, make sure the “Require payment details during online check-in box” is not checked. Note: If you check this box, Mews requires guests to provide payment card details when they complete online check-in for a reservation in this rate group. 

6. Click Create.  

This deactivates the payment detail step during online check-in for guests booking within this rate group. You can modify this setting at any time in the rate group configuration.  

 

How to deactivate payment card requirement by policy exception 

Note: This feature is only available for properties on the Pro and Enterprise packages.   

You can create a policy exception to temporarily override the rate group’s payment card requirement. This is useful for:

• Peak seasons, where you may want to require card details.
• Promotions, where you may want to remove the requirement.  

To configure online check-in without requiring payment card details for a new policy exception: 

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu > Settings > Services.  
2. Click your stay service, for example, Stay.  
3. Click Rate groups, then click the Payment or Cancellation policy where you want to add a policy exception.  
4. In the Policies tab, click .
5. Complete all relevant fields.
6. Under Policy, make sure the “Require payment details during online check-in box” is not checked. Note: If you check this box, Mews requires guests provide payment card details when they book a space in this rate group. 

7. Click Create.  

This deactivates the payment detail step during online check-in only for guests booking the specific rates or date ranges covered by the policy exception. You can modify this setting at any time your policy exception configuration. 

 

You can learn more about the online check-in journey here.