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22.3. Holds
Note: To place holds, you must have setup a credit card payment gateway that support holds.
Arctic offers you the ability to place a Hold on a guest's credit card information in lieu of an immediate payment. Using the Hold feature, you can process a Hold on the credit card given for the full amount of the guest's reservation, a partial amount or for a verification amount, i.e. $1.00. This will allow you to take Credit Card information and store it securely while giving your guests time to send in alternate forms of payment or make their final decisions regarding their reservation. Holds can also be converted to payments as long as the Hold is not over 30 days old.
There are a few key things that you should understand about Holds and how they differ from Scheduled Payments. Being aware of the differences and nuances of Holds versus Scheduled Payments will help you utilize both of these options to their fullest.
When you process a Hold, Arctic runs an authorization on the card used, which verifies the validity of the card and whether the card has a sufficient balance to cover the amount of the Hold being processed. Once you process a Hold, the credit card companies will set aside the amount of the Hold for 30 days from the date the Hold is processed to ensure that the card has a sufficient available balance to cover the cost of the Hold in the event the Hold is converted to a Payment. Scheduled Payments are only checked for the validity of the card information and are not actually processed until the date specified. No available balance information is checked.
Because Holds are deducted from the guest's available balance, you may decide that you only want to process a Hold for a Partial Payment or what would be the Non-Refundable Deposit for the reservation or a Verification Only Amount of $1.00. Taking a Hold for $1.00, essentially only lets you know that the card given for the transaction is a valid card. It does not guarantee that should that card need to be run for the balance of the invoice that there is enough available balance to cover the charges. It is possible, even though a Hold for $1.00 was approved, that using the same card to process the balance of the invoice for any higher amount will come back "Declined".
The amount of the Hold generally cannot be altered. (The ability to alter Holds is Gateway dependent, however, in most cases they cannot be altered.) This means that if you process a Hold for $1.00 and the balance of the invoice is $1500, you cannot alter the payment amount of the Hold to $1500 prior to converting it to a payment. You will have to void the Hold and process a payment for $1500. Or you can convert the Hold for $1.00 to a payment and process a second payment of $1499 for the remaining balance on the invoice. Because Holds cannot be altered, we recommend that you save the card information for reuse when placing the original hold. This will ensure that you have the credit card information when you are ready to start applying payments to the invoice. Scheduled Payments can be altered up to a minute prior to the date the charge is set to process. Both the Payment Amount and the Payment Date of the Scheduled Payments can be altered.
Now that you know the key differences between a Hold and a Scheduled Payment, let's discuss how to process a Hold. On the View Invoice page, click the green + Add button in the Transaction section of the Invoice and choose Hold as shown here:
This will take you to the transaction screen shown here:
Again notice, Arctic will give you options for the Payment Amount based on the Payment Plan applied to the invoice and payments already received. And also notice as with Scheduled Payments the only Payment Method available is Credit Card. Make sure you click the Save for later Reuse checkbox to save the card information. Once you have completed the form, click Submit to apply the Hold to the invoice as shown here:
Notice, like Scheduled Payments, the Payment Amount of the Hold does not affect the balance due. This is because this isn't an actual payment. When the Hold is converted to a payment the amount of the Hold will then be dedcuted from the balance of the invoice.
To convert the Hold to a Payment, click the Gear icon and choose Covert to Payment as shown here:
You can also Void the Hold by clicking the Gear icon.
When a Hold expires, Arctic will automatically remove the Hold from the invoice.