Taking Card Payments
Card payments let guests pay for a stay by card, straight into a Stripe account that belongs to you. KynStay takes no fee, never holds the money, and records the payment for you when Stripe confirms it. This guide covers what it costs, how to switch it on, and what happens to the money on a refund, a cancellation, or a dispute.
What it is and where the money goes
The charge is made on your own Stripe account. KynStay is not in the money path: it never receives, holds, or routes the payment, and it takes no fee. The guest pays exactly the booking amount for that payment, with no service fee or markup. When Stripe confirms the charge, KynStay marks the booking paid and tells you; there is no claim for the guest to submit and nothing for you to confirm.
Guests pay through Stripe’s hosted checkout, card only, with 3-D Secure requested on every payment. Their card statement carries your Stripe account’s name, not KynStay’s. Your balance, payouts, disputes and refund history are in your own Stripe dashboard, and so is the fee Stripe charged on each payment: it isn’t shown on the KynStay payment page.
What it costs
KynStay: nothing
KynStay takes no fee from a card payment, exactly as it takes none from a bank transfer. Its only charge is your subscription, the same whichever way guests pay. See the pricing guide.
Stripe: its processing fee
Stripe charges you its processing fee on each card payment, at its standard rate for your country; KynStay doesn’t set it or add to it. Stripe keeps its fee when a payment is refunded.
Fraud screening (Radar): a Stripe choice
During setup, Stripe may ask you to choose a fraud screening (Radar) plan; some add a small per transaction charge. That is a choice you make with Stripe, which shows the prices as you choose.
Currency conversion: only if currencies differ
Guests are charged in the listing’s currency, which you can change in the listing’s pricing settings. If it differs from the one your Stripe account settles in, Stripe converts the payment and charges its conversion fee.
Setting it up
Open Payments and add a method
Go to Payments, open the Payment Methods tab, and click Add Method (or Add a Payment Method if you haven’t added any yet).
Choose Card payments
Pick Card payments, the first option. If you don’t see it and go straight to the manual payment form instead, the card payments option hasn’t been switched on for your account yet. Manual methods work on their own in the meantime.
Read the summary, then Continue to Stripe
No Stripe account is created until you click Continue to Stripe.
Finish on Stripe
KynStay creates a new Stripe account for you and hands you to Stripe to fill in your business’s country, your identity details, and the bank account payouts go to. There is no way to connect a Stripe account you already have.
Stripe asks for your business location first, and the choice is permanent. It defaults to the United States and can’t be changed once you continue past that screen; correcting it means disconnecting and setting up a new Stripe account. It’s the country of your business or tax residence, not necessarily where the property is. If Stripe offers to reuse an existing account under your email, that copies its business location too, so choose Create a new account if that one is in the wrong country.
Wait for Stripe to enable charges
Once Stripe enables charges, card payments switch on by themselves and the Payment Methods tab shows Card payments enabled. While Stripe is reviewing your details there is nothing to do; if it still needs something, the tab shows Setup incomplete with a Complete Setup button.
What guests see, and how a booking is routed
Each booking is paid either by card or by a manual method, never both. The choice is made when you confirm the booking: if you can take card payments then, it is a card booking. Bookings confirmed before you switched cards on keep their method. Stay exchanges and free stays are never card.
On a card booking, the guest’s payment page shows a Pay with card button (Pay deposit or Pay balance when the booking uses a deposit) that takes them to Stripe’s checkout. Your manual payment details aren’t shown, and payments can’t be recorded by hand on a card booking: KynStay can only refund money a card charge holds. With a deposit, the deposit and the balance are two separate card payments; the deposit is due within 48 hours of your acceptance (or by check-in day, if sooner), and if check-in is within 7 days the whole amount is due up front.
If a guest can’t pay by card, click Switch to manual payment on the booking’s payment page: it closes any open card checkout and shows them your manual details. Switch to card payment works the other way. Both work only while nothing has been paid; after that, the route is to cancel (which refunds the guest) and rebook.
When a card is declined
The guest can retry or use another card in Stripe’s checkout; KynStay records nothing until a charge succeeds. A checkout left open expires after two hours; the guest just clicks Pay again. If a payment that looked successful hasn’t appeared after a few minutes, open the booking’s payment page: KynStay rechecks with Stripe whenever you or the guest views it, and again overnight.
Refunds and cancellations
KynStay moves money on your Stripe account only to send it back to a guest, never to itself. Every card refund is a refund created on your own account, from your Stripe balance to the guest’s card, and KynStay emails the guest that it’s on its way. These are the only cases:
A booking is cancelled
Automatic: your cancellation policy decides the amount if the guest cancels; if you cancel, they get back everything they paid.
You click Refund
Refund full amount or Refund a different amount on the payment page, for card money not already being refunded or disputed.
A card payment lands on a closed booking
Checkout completes after the booking was cancelled or settled; the charge is refunded in full.
A card takes more than was still owed
Two checkouts open at once, say; only the excess is refunded.
KynStay support acts for you
At your request, support cancels with a full refund or issues a refund.
When a guest cancels
Your cancellation policy applies to the accommodation part of the booking. The guest forfeits the share your policy keeps, out of what they have paid, and the rest comes back. Whenever any refund is due, the cleaning fee comes back in full (unless they cancel after check-in); past the last refund window, or under Nonrefundable, nothing comes back, cleaning fee included. On an unpaid booking, nothing moves.
The card processing fee on a full refund
Stripe doesn’t return its processing fee when a payment is refunded. So when a guest cancels a card booking inside your full refund window, their refund comes back less the fee Stripe charged you on that payment, never more than 3% of what they paid. The guest is told this before they choose to pay by card. Where your policy keeps a share, that share counts toward the fee, so normally nothing extra is deducted. The fee is never deducted when you cancel: the guest is refunded in full and Stripe’s fee stays with Stripe.
Issue refunds in KynStay, not from the Stripe dashboard
A refund from KynStay notifies the guest, keeps the booking’s record straight, and is checked against your policy. If you refund from your Stripe dashboard instead, you won’t pay twice: KynStay records refunds made there and counts them toward anything it would otherwise refund. If a guest is owed £500 and you have already sent £400 from Stripe, KynStay sends only the remaining £100.
A card refund can’t be edited; if the guest is owed more, issue another. If Stripe can’t complete a refund, KynStay keeps it pending, tells you, and offers a retry on the payment page.
On a manual booking none of this is automatic: you send the refund yourself, within 7 days, and mark it issued. See the payments guide for the manual flow.
Disputes (chargebacks)
If a guest disputes a card charge with their bank, the dispute is between you and the card networks, and you answer it in your own Stripe dashboard. Stripe notifies you and walks you through responding. KynStay is not a party to a dispute and doesn’t see or manage it. The booking’s payment record in KynStay stays as it was, and while a dispute is open the charge can’t be refunded through KynStay, because Stripe refuses a refund on a disputed charge.
Make sure your Stripe account’s name, which is what guests see on their statement, is one they will recognize.
Turning it off
On the Payment Methods tab, click Disable Card Payments and confirm. (While Stripe is still checking your details, the button is Cancel Setup.) What happens:
The same happens by itself if Stripe restricts your account; the tab then says Action needed on your Stripe account. To turn card payments back on, go through Add Method again; KynStay sets up a fresh Stripe account.
Cards or a manual method?
Cards suit guests you’d rather not chase for a claim, and a deposit you want recorded the moment it’s paid. A manual method suits a close relative who already sends you money by Venmo or bank transfer, or a large stay where Stripe’s fee isn’t worth the convenience.
A card payment lands in your Stripe balance, not your bank. Stripe pays it out on its own schedule, shown in your Stripe dashboard; KynStay has no part in that. In KynStay, paid means Stripe has taken the charge, not that it has reached your bank.
Get paid by card, on your own account
Guests pay your own Stripe account directly, KynStay takes nothing, and the booking records itself.