Payment Processing

Understanding how payment processing works in Haven helps you manage your finances and provide a smooth booking experience for guests.

Who Is Selling the Stay?

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.

Guest Payment Options

Guests can pay using a variety of methods, including:

Cards — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover, and more
Apple Pay & Google Pay — One-tap checkout on supported devices
Link — Stripe's one-click checkout for faster repeat bookings
Klarna & Affirm — Buy now, pay later and pay in installments
Cash App Pay — For US guests
Pay by Bank — Direct bank transfer (US checkout only). A guest paying into your own bank account is not this method. Record that booking as Already paid outside Haven, with the fee table set to the amount the guest paid, never a $0 total.

Guests can split the cost over time in two ways: Klarna and Affirm offer their own financing at checkout with nothing to turn on (see Guest Payment Methods), and a payment schedule you turn on lets guests pay a deposit at booking and the balance before check-in (see Payment Schedules).

International guests can also switch the currency they view prices in on your property site, checkout, and guidebook. Converted prices are marked as approximate (≈) and the charge always stays in your property's currency — your payouts are unaffected. See Guest Display Currency.

Payment Flow

Booking Process

Guest selects dates - Chooses check-in and check-out dates
Views total price - Sees base price, fees, discounts, and taxes
Chooses payment method - Card, Link, Klarna, Affirm, Apple Pay, Google Pay, or other options
Payment processed - Stripe securely processes the payment
Booking confirmed - Guest receives confirmation

Payment Timing

Payments are processed immediately when the guest completes checkout:

Charged immediately — When guest completes checkout
Transferred to your Stripe Connect balance — Your share moves to your connected Stripe account right away (may show as Pending for 1–2 business days before Available)
Bank deposit scheduled — Haven schedules a payout to your linked bank account for 24 hours after check-in. Haven initiates eligible payouts every 15 minutes; Stripe deposits to your bank 1–2 business days after that

See Scheduled Payouts for the dashboard view, cancellation behavior, security-deposit captures, and how gross vs. net amounts are displayed.

A listing with a payment schedule collects a deposit at checkout instead of the whole total, and Haven charges the balance to the guest's saved card automatically on a date you set before check-in. The schedule lives on the Calendar page's Price tab; see Payment Schedules.

Direct payments (Stripe Full)

Every host who connects Stripe now gets a Stripe Full account, and hosts who started on Stripe Express can upgrade to one. On Stripe Full, the guest pays straight into your own Stripe account and you are the merchant of record on it:

Stripe pays you out on your own payout schedule — no check-in + 24 hours hold.
Stripe's card processing fee comes out of your Stripe balance, at Stripe's rate for your country. Passing the fee to guests is available when your Stripe account is in the US. The guest's processing-fee line is sized at the US rate, so a Stripe Full account in another country absorbs the fee: the option is switched off when the account goes live and isn't shown on your Payouts tab. Haven's cross-border transfer fee does not apply: no money is transferred to you.
Refunds — cancellations and refunds you issue in Haven still work the same way, and come out of your Stripe balance. You can also refund from your Stripe dashboard; Haven records those on the reservation. Whichever way a guest is refunded, Haven returns the same parts of its own fee it would on a Haven cancellation (Screen & Protect for the nights not yet stayed, and any partner share in proportion), so you are never out of pocket for Haven's fee on money you gave back.
Haven's fees (Screen & Protect, guest verification, and any partner fee) are still taken from each payment. Nothing else changes about how guests book and pay.
Haven-funded guest credits (a guest's Haven referral credit, or loyalty points another account funds for you) are not offered on your bookings — those are paid with a transfer from Haven into the host's account, which direct payments do not use. Your own loyalty program's points still work as a normal discount.
If a refund cannot be funded because Stripe has already paid the money out of your balance, Haven tells you so and leaves the reservation as it was; Stripe retries from your next incoming payments, or you can top up your Stripe balance and try again.

Connecting for the first time: choose Connect to Stripe, then the country your business is based in. Stripe sets your account up for that country and it can't be changed later; if Stripe doesn't support businesses there yet, Haven says so before anything is created. Stripe then walks you through its setup, and your Payouts tab shows Stripe Full.

Already on Stripe Express: upgrading is optional, and your current account keeps working if you never do. Your Payouts tab shows Upgrade to Stripe Full, from your current Stripe Express account to the new one. Choose Upgrade, confirm, and Stripe opens your new account in the same country as your current one. Then the card shows how many steps are left, and Finish setup takes you back into Stripe to complete them. If you don't see the card (for example, your account receives guest payments for another owner's properties), contact Haven support to switch. Until the new account is verified, guests keep paying your current account, and every booking you already have keeps paying out from it on the usual schedule — nothing to move or chase. Once it's verified the card reads You're on Stripe Full.

Payment Components

Base Price

Your nightly rate
Multiplied by number of nights
Foundation of the total price

Fees

Cleaning fees
Pet fees, extra-guest fees, late-checkout fees
Other custom fees you configure on the property
Added to base price

Haven does not charge a guest service fee or host service fee on any plan — these are fees you configure for your own property.

Discounts

Weekly discounts
Monthly discounts
Custom discounts
Subtracted from price

Taxes

Configure unlimited tax lines per property in Payouts → Tax rules — typically state, county, city, and any tourism / lodging / occupancy district that applies.
Each booking snapshots the active taxes on the check-in date so past reservations are never altered by later rate changes.
Each tax becomes its own Stripe line item with its own tax code, so your Stripe reports — and your accountant — see a clean per-jurisdiction breakdown.
Guests see an itemized "Taxes" line on the booking summary that expands per jurisdiction.
Payouts → Tax obligations aggregates tax collected by jurisdiction, by property, and by period, and produces filing summary PDFs and CSV exports.
An optional AI Tax Assistant suggests likely rates for your address with citations to official sources — you confirm each one before it's applied.
You remain responsible for remitting lodging, occupancy, sales, and income taxes to the appropriate authorities. Haven does not file on your behalf except in the narrow set of marketplace facilitator jurisdictions where the platform is legally required to.

See Taxes for full details.

If you enable damage protection and choose Guest pays in Settings → Trust & Safety → Damage protection, guests see a separate checkout line:

"Screen & Protect (Fully refundable on cancellation)" at $8.00/night (default rate)
Not taxed — it is not included in the tax calculation (Stripe labels the line nontaxable)
Fully refunded if the booking is cancelled before check-in; not refundable on or after check-in

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

Cancellation Refunds

Refunds processed according to your cancellation policy:

Flexible - Full refund if canceled 7+ days before
Moderate - Full refund if canceled 7+ days before
Strict - Full refund if canceled 30+ days before
Custom - Per your custom policy

Important: No payment processing fee is deducted from cancellation refunds. Guest-initiated cancellations refund the tier percentage of what the guest paid; host-initiated cancellations refund the guest in full.

Refund Processing

Refunds processed automatically
Processed to original payment method
Typically takes 5-10 business days
No payment processing fee is deducted from refunds
You'll see refund status in booking details

Chargebacks & Disputes

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.

Payment Reporting

Viewing Payments

Access payment information from:

Host Dashboard
Individual booking details
Payment history section

Payment Details

Each payment shows:

Amount charged
Payment date
Payout date
Payment status
Transaction ID

Managing Payments

Payment Issues

If a payment fails:

Guest is notified
Booking may be pending
Guest can retry payment
You'll see payment status

Handling Refunds

There are two ways money goes back to a guest:

Cancellation — the guest or you cancel, and Haven refunds according to the cancellation policy (or in full when you cancel or override). See Managing Bookings.
Issue refund — on any reservation paid through Haven, open the booking and click Issue refund to give back a percentage of the payment, a fixed amount, or specific nights — without cancelling, before, during, or after the stay, and even on top of a cancellation refund. Add an optional message, check the preview, and confirm. See Refund a Guest After They've Paid.

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: No payment processing fee is deducted from refunds. Everything the guest paid — including a "Payment processing fee" line if you pass that fee to guests — is refundable, the same as when a booking is cancelled.

Best Practices

Set clear policies - Make cancellation policies clear
Communicate pricing - Ensure guests understand total cost
Monitor payments - Keep track of payment status
Process refunds promptly - Handle refunds quickly when needed
Keep records - Maintain payment records for accounting

Payment Processing Fees

Haven uses Stripe for secure payment processing. The processing fee is about 2.9% + $0.30 per successful card charge — Stripe's standard rate for a US-issued card. See International cards and non-US payouts for the cases where Stripe charges more.

Who pays the card processing fee?

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

When guests pay it, the processing fee is part of the guest's pre-tax total, so any tax rule set to Total pre-tax taxes it too (rules set to Nightly or Nightly + fees do not). Only the part of the fee charged on taxed amounts is taxed: the share that comes from Screen & Protect, identity verification, or a fee or add-on you don't tax is left out. The fee is sized so you still net the full stay total plus every tax you remit.

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.

Fee Examples

$500 booking: 2.9% = $14.50 + $0.30 = $14.80 processing fee
$1,000 booking: 2.9% = $29.00 + $0.30 = $29.30 processing fee
$2,000 booking: 2.9% = $58.00 + $0.30 = $58.30 processing fee

How Fees Are Applied

Guest pays the stay total. If you chose Guests pay it, checkout also includes a Payment processing fee line.
Payment is processed through Stripe
Stripe keeps the ~2.9% + $0.30 processing fee (funded by the guest line, or deducted from your payout if you absorb it)
Remaining amount is transferred to your Stripe connected account
You can see the processing fee details in your Stripe dashboard

International cards and non-US payouts

Every rate quoted in Haven — the dashboard, the pricing page, and this help center — is Stripe's standard US rate. Stripe charges more in a few situations, and Haven passes those charges through at Stripe's rate, never marked up:

Situation	Extra Stripe cost
The guest pays with a card issued outside the US	+1.5% of the charge
The guest's card is in a different currency than the booking and Stripe converts	+1% of the charge
Your Stripe account is outside the US	0.25% cross-border transfer fee on the amount sent to your account
Your Stripe account settles in a currency other than USD (for example GBP or EUR)	1% currency conversion, on your payout and on any Haven fee collected there

The cross-border fee is on the single connected account. Haven does not support Stripe Global Payouts and does not pay upsells to a different bank than the stay.

How this shows up:

Haven can't know the guest's card until they pay, so checkout is priced at the standard rate. Once Stripe reports the fee it actually charged, Haven settles the difference against that booking's proceeds — the extra amount comes out of your payout for that booking (or is recovered from your Stripe balance if the transfer already happened).
This applies even if guests pay the processing fee. The "Payment processing fee" line covers the standard 2.9% + $0.30; any international or conversion surcharge on that charge still comes out of your payout, because it cannot be shown to the guest before they choose a card.
Non-US Stripe accounts see the cross-border and conversion costs on every booking, not just international ones. The Payouts page shows a short note when your Stripe balance settles outside USD.
The exact fee per charge is in your Stripe Express dashboard (open it from Payouts → Stripe Dashboard).

Haven's own cut is never affected by these fees — Haven does not add a commission, and it does not absorb Stripe's surcharges on your behalf. The full terms are in Section 12.1 of the Terms of Service.

What about a Haven service fee?

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, such as a bank transfer, is a manual booking marked Already paid outside Haven with the fee table set to the amount the guest paid, never a $0 total. It does not open Stripe.