Late Payments: Hold or Release the Dates

When a guest pays in parts, their dates are held from the moment they book. The guest pays a deposit at checkout, or sends you a bank transfer if you collect payments yourself. If a payment is late, a setting on each listing decides what happens next. Haven can keep the booking and flag it so you decide, or cancel it after a few days, refund under your cancellation policy and free the dates for someone else.

How Haven holds the dates

Card deposits are paid at checkout, so the dates are booked the moment the guest pays. Later payments are charged to the saved card on their days (see Payment Schedules).
Guests who pay you directly (bank transfer, Wise, Zelle…) book without paying anything up front. The dates are held as a confirmed booking straight away, and the guest is emailed your payment details. See Collect Payments Yourself.
A held booking blocks the dates on your Haven site, your synced calendars and connected channels, like any other booking.

When a payment counts as late

A card payment is late when its charge can't be collected: the card is declined, the guest's bank needs them to confirm, or there is no card on file. The guest is emailed a pay-now link at once.
A payment sent to you directly is late when you haven't recorded it by the end of its due day.
A bank-transfer deposit with a deadline in hours (below) is late the moment that deadline passes.

A late booking turns orange on your calendar and the multi-listing calendar, marked Payment late (Deposit late when it's the first of several payments). Hover it to see what is owed and, if Haven will cancel it, when. On your phone, the Calendar tab marks it Payment late too, and tapping the night shows what is owed.

Set it up

Open the listing's Calendar page, choose the Price tab in the right panel, and expand If a payment is late. It sits under Payment schedule.
Choose what happens:
- Flag it (the default): Haven keeps the booking. It is flagged on your calendar, the guest is asked to pay and you are alerted. You decide whether to follow up or cancel.
- Cancel and free the dates: Haven cancels the booking once a payment is still unpaid the number of days you set after it was due (Cancel after N days late, 1 to 30). The guest is warned the day before.
If guests can pay you directly, set Bank transfer deposit due within N hours (1 to 168). Leave it empty to give guests until the end of the booking day. The guest's How to pay you email and their reservation page give the exact time.

The setting saves as you type. To set it for many listings at once, use the Late payments column under Policies in Sites → Listing settings: click a cell, or use the column's ⋯ menu → Set for all. Set it in the All listings row and new listings start with it. See Set Booking Rules for All Listings.

A change applies to bookings made after it. Each booking keeps the terms the guest agreed to at checkout. When a listing cancels late bookings, a guest paying in parts reads at checkout that if a payment is still unpaid N days after it is due, you may cancel the reservation under your cancellation policy.

When Haven cancels

On a listing set to Cancel and free the dates:

A day before, the guest gets a Final notice email with the amount, the deadline and a link to pay. If less than a day is left when the payment becomes late, it goes out at once.
At the deadline, if the payment still hasn't arrived, Haven cancels the booking:
- The dates open again everywhere.
- The guest gets a cancellation email saying the payment wasn't received in time.
- You get an email and an alert.
The refund follows your cancellation policy, as if the guest had cancelled that day. It is taken from what the guest has paid so far, and payments still to come are never collected. A guest who paid you directly is refunded by you, not Haven.
A bank-transfer deposit with a deadline in hours has no extra days: the booking is cancelled when the deadline passes. The How to pay you email states that deadline.
A payment that arrives first stops everything. A card payment counts as soon as it is paid; a bank transfer counts once you record it with Mark received, or Haven records it from Wise (see Collect Payments Yourself).

Haven never cancels:

bookings you entered yourself (manual bookings);
reservations you moved to Haven from another system;
bookings made before you chose Cancel and free the dates;
stays from Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com or your PMS.

Late payments on those are flagged only.

Emails

On Communication → Message automations → Whenever this happens → A scheduled payment comes due:

Final notice before cancelling goes out only on listings set to cancel.
Deposit received thanks the guest once their deposit is paid or recorded.

You can reword each one, add a text or WhatsApp copy, or switch it off. The cancellation email for a late payment is the usual Booking cancelled email, with a line saying why.