How to set up surcharging fees

AccountingFront Office OperationsMews OperationsRate Management

You can charge surcharging fees to a customer when they use payment methods, such as a credit card. You can set up card surcharge fees in Mews Operations and Mews Kiosk to pass on the payment processing cost to guests, to recover part of these costs. You can configure percentage fees for individual card types, for example, Amex, Maestro, Mastercard. You can configure the setup in Mews Operations before taking payments and adjust percentage fees anytime. 

Note:  

  • For legal reasons, surcharging is only available in New Zealand.  
  • Mews Kiosk applies the lowest configured surcharge fee regardless of the card type used for payment. You can learn more about applying surcharging fees through the Mews Kiosk here.  
  • Surcharging is not applicable to Google Pay, Apple Pay payments and other digital wallets as the system cannot reuse them.

 

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Important for Australian properties: card surcharging ban from 1 October 2026

 

From 1 October 2026, card surcharging is no longer permitted in Australia. The Reserve Bank of Australia has lifted the restriction that previously stopped card networks from banning surcharges, and eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa are each introducing their own no-surcharge rules from that date. American Express is not covered by the RBA regulation, but has separately confirmed it will remove surcharging on the same date.

 

After 1 October 2026, card surcharging will not be available for Australian properties in Mews. Please review your surcharging setup ahead of the deadline and make sure your displayed prices reflect the full transaction amount, without a card surcharge added at checkout.

 

Pricing and finance: align with your finance and revenue teams on how the former surcharge cost will be absorbed. It must not be reintroduced as a card-only fee under another name.

 

Weekend fees, public holiday fees, and genuine booking or service fees are not affected, provided they apply equally regardless of payment method and are included in the advertised price rather than added on when a customer pays by card.

 

For full details, see the RBA's information on the removal of payment surcharges and the ACCC's guidance on card surcharges.

 

How to remove card surcharges in Mews

 

In Mews Operations, set your configured surcharge percentages to 0%:

  1. Go to Settings > Property > Finance.

  2. Select Accounting configuration.

  3. Under Surcharging service, set each card-type surcharge percentage to 0%.

  4. Click Save.


In this article you can learn about how to set up surcharging fees following these steps: 

 

Step 1: Create a surcharging accounting category  

To create the category: 

  1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu Menu arrow right  > Settings > Property > Finance. 
  2. Click Accounting categories. 
  3. Click the + button. 
  4. Under Name, enter "Surcharging". 
  5. Add the relevant accounting codes. You can learn more about creating an accounting category here. 
  6. Click Create, then click Save. 

 

Step 2: Create a surcharging service   

To create the service: 

  1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu Menu arrow right  > Settings > Services. 
  2. Click the + button. 
  3. Select Additional service. Note: Do not select Bookable service.The surcharge fee is additional to any bookable service purchased at the time of reservation. 
  4. Fill in the following fields: 
    • Name: Enter a name that you can easily recognize for your service, for example, "Surcharging service".
    • Currency: Select your default currency. 
    • Amount: Enter “0”. 
    • Tax rate: Select the tax rate on surcharges. 
  5. Select your Options: 
    • Make sure Bill as package is deselected. 
    • Select Offer to employee and Has overridable price. 
  6. Click Create. 

Step 3: Adjust your accounting configuration 

To adjust the configuration:

  1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu Menu arrow right  > Settings > Property > Finance.
  2. Click Accounting configuration. 
  3. Under Surcharging service, select the service that you just created, for example, “Surcharging service”. 
  4. Enter the percentage fee you want to charge for each card type. Note: Mews Kiosk does not differentiate card types and applies the lowest surcharge fee for all payments.  
  5. Click Save. 

You can now set up surcharging fees.  

You can learn more about payment in the Taking a payment help article. 

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