Loading...
Understanding how payment processing works in Haven helps you manage your finances and provide a smooth booking experience for guests.
You — the host — are the provider and seller of the stay. The rental agreement at booking is between you and your guest. Haven is the platform you use to list, market, and accept bookings, and Haven facilitates the guest's payment securely through Stripe on your behalf. Booking funds settle to your connected Stripe account net of Stripe's payment processing fees.
Guests can pay using a variety of methods, including:
Haven supports buy now, pay later and pay in installments so guests can split the cost over time. See Guest Payment Methods for full details.
Payments are processed immediately when the guest completes checkout:
See Scheduled Payouts for the dashboard view, cancellation behavior, security-deposit captures, and how gross vs. net amounts are displayed.
Haven does not charge a guest service fee or host service fee on any plan — these are fees you configure for your own property.
See Taxes for full details.
If you enable damage protection and choose Guest pays in Settings → Damage Protection, guests see a separate checkout line:
Guest screenings are free. When you choose Host pays instead, the $8.00/night fee is deducted from your payout for the booking rather than charged to the guest. See Damage protection for host-paid vs. guest-paid billing and Damage protection FAQ for common questions.
Refunds processed according to your cancellation policy:
Important: All guest-initiated refunds are subject to a non-refundable payment processing fee (2.9% + $0.30) which is deducted from the refund amount. This fee is charged by Stripe and cannot be recovered. Host-initiated cancellations provide a full refund to the guest (the host absorbs the processing fee).
A chargeback happens when a guest asks their bank to reverse a card charge instead of requesting a refund through Haven. You remain the merchant of record for the stay — Haven processes the payment, but you are responsible if the bank sides with the guest.
For disputes on the main booking payment, Haven automatically submits booking evidence (rental agreement, house rules, stay dates, and pricing) and emails you when a dispute opens and when it closes. There is no separate dispute panel in the host dashboard — watch your email and use the reservation link in the notification.
Disputes on a captured security deposit are separate charges; you respond manually in your Stripe Dashboard with the photos and reason from your deposit claim.
See Chargebacks & Disputes for the full workflow, including how losses are handled and what Screen & Protect does not cover.
Access payment information from:
Each payment shows:
If a payment fails:
There are two ways money goes back to a guest:
Either way the refund goes to the guest's original payment method (typically 5–10 business days) and your payout for the booking is reduced by the same amount — or clawed back from your Stripe balance if it was already paid out.
Note on processing fees: Stripe never returns its processing fee (2.9% + $0.30) on a refund. If you pass the processing fee to the guest, the fee line they paid is excluded from every refund — the guest never gets it back and you're never charged for it. If you absorb the fee, the full payment is refundable and a full refund still costs you the fee already taken on the original charge — the same as when you cancel a booking yourself.
Haven uses Stripe for secure payment processing. The processing fee is about 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge.
This is an account-wide choice under Host Dashboard → Payouts → Who pays the card processing fee? It autosaves and applies to new bookings only.
| Choice | Guest checkout | Your payout |
|---|---|---|
| You absorb it (default) | Rates, fees, and taxes only — no processing line | Stripe deducts ~2.9% + $0.30 from the payout |
| Guests pay it | Separate Payment processing fee line at checkout | You keep the stay total; the guest funded the Stripe fee |
Haven does not add its own booking commission on top of this. Optional product fees (Screen & Protect, identity verification) only appear when you enable those features.
See Your property, your rules.
Haven does not charge a guest service fee, host service fee, or percentage-based commission on any plan (Starter, Growth, or Pro). The only required per-transaction cost is Stripe's payment processing fee (~2.9% + $0.30), which you can absorb or pass to the guest as described above.
Your Haven subscription cost is separate from guest checkout — see Subscription Billing for plan pricing, property add-ons, and how billing appears in the dashboard.
An enquiry that never went through your booking bar can still be collected through the same checkout: send a payment link from the calendar or a Messages thread. That creates an approved, unpaid reservation and emails /book/{code}. Recording a stay the guest already paid you for is a manual booking and does not open Stripe.
New to Haven?
Haven is the direct booking platform these guides are written for — a branded site, secure payments, and guest relationships you own. Build yours free.
Free to build · No credit card · Private until you publish
© 2026 Book With Haven, LLC.