WeSpeak Payments

WeSpeak Payments lets you charge the guest for the booking directly through the chat: the guest gets a quote, receives a payment link, pays with the method they prefer, and their booking is confirmed — all within the conversation, without sending them to another page.

In this article

• How it works
• How a payment link is generated
• Your booking page (checkout)
• Payment policies
• The deposit
• Payment methods
• Currencies and conversion
• The Bookings section
• Booking and payment statuses
• Sync with your PMS
• TravelCash Cashback
• Frequently asked questions

How it works

1. The guest queries over WhatsApp and the assistant confirms availability and price.
2. The guest receives a booking and payment link.
3. They pay with the method they choose.
4. With the payment confirmed, the booking is created by itself in your system (Channel Manager or PMS) or is registered in the WeSpeak Bookings section.

How a payment link is generated

• Automatic: when the guest moves forward with the booking, the assistant builds and sends the link with your configured payment methods.
• Manual (from the chat): your team uses the $ button in the message box ("Generate a quote for the customer"), which opens the 3-step quoter — dates and occupancy → room and rate (turn on the "Generate payment link" toggle) → message preview, which you can tweak with Edit message before Send message, Load into email, or Copy payment link.

Useful details of the manual quoter:

1. It supports up to 5 rooms per quote, with up to 10 adults and 10 minors per room (ages 1 to 17).
2. The "Include rates with promotional codes" option lets you quote rates that the guest would normally only see with a code.
3. You can choose the hotel (if you have several) and the currency of the quote.
4. Dates can't be earlier than today, and check-out must be after check-in — the quoter validates this before checking availability.

ℹ️ If the "Generate payment link" toggle appears disabled in your quoter, the feature isn't enabled on your account yet: contact support to activate it.

ℹ️ The link revalidates availability and price when the guest clicks Book: if something changed, it tells them to request a new one. With automatic gateways (Mercado Pago, Stripe), the link expires after 12 minutes; with manual methods (transfer, pay at hotel), it doesn't expire.

Your booking page (checkout)

It's configured in Knowledge → Price and availability → Booking page and payment method setup. If you have several properties, each one is configured separately. You'll see a live preview of what the guest sees, and 4 tabs:

The rule is always: first connect the payment method, then enable it in the checkout.

Payment policies

You define how you charge for each booking:

• 100% advance payment — full charge at booking.
• Partial payment — a percentage now and the rest at the hotel (e.g., 70/30).
• Card as guarantee — only stores the card details, without an immediate charge.
• Custom — the combination you build.

If you use WeSpeak Rates, each rate can have its own policy: for example, the "Non-Refundable" one charges 100% and the "Flexible" one only asks for the card as a guarantee. For each policy you can customize the title and description the guest sees, which payment methods are shown, and its own deposit — and changes are saved automatically, with no save button.

ℹ️ If a payment policy doesn't have its own checkout configuration, the default configuration from the Checkout tab is used.

The deposit

In the Checkout tab, the question "What amount do you want to charge guests as a deposit?" defines how much is charged at booking:

You can also enable "Include specific taxes and fees in the deposit": the percentage is calculated over the price with taxes. Example: with a 30% deposit and a rate of $100 + 10% tax ($110 total), the guest pays $33 instead of $30.

Payment methods

The general rule: before enabling a method in the Checkout tab, its connection must exist first. For transfer, external payment link, and pay at the hotel, you must also load the instructions the guest will see before you can activate them.

Currencies and conversion

1. The charge is always made in your gateway's currency. If the guest queries in another currency, they see an estimated conversion, but they pay in your currency.
2. When there was a conversion, the booking detail shows it explicitly: "Currency Conversion Applied," with the currency it was quoted in and the exchange rate used.
3. Payments you register by hand (Add Payment) are recorded in the guest's payment currency, not the booking engine's.

The Bookings section

Bookings (in the main menu) is where you follow each transaction. If you manage several properties, the Complex filter lets you view one or all of them.

Search and filter: you can search by booking ID and filter by Guest Name, Payment Status, Booking Status, Payment Method, PMS Sync Status (Not synced / Synced / Pending), Created by (which user or the AI Assistant), creation, check-in, and check-out dates, and total price range.

Export: the Download button generates an Excel with the filtered bookings — it includes ID, creation date and time, who created it, status, channel, guest (name, email, phone, country), dates, nights, rooms and rates, occupancy, currency, total price, deposit, amount paid and to be paid, payment method, and conversation ID.

Actions on each booking:

From the detail you can also manage the charge:

1. Add Payment — registers a partial payment (for example, the balance the guest paid at reception). You see the total, what's already paid, and what's missing; if the payment completes the total, you can mark the booking as completed in the same step.
2. Mark as paid — sets the amount paid equal to the total, the "to be paid" at $0, and the booking as completed.
3. Cancel Booking — cancels the booking (with confirmation; the action can't be undone).
4. Edit Booking — modifies customer, dates, rooms, or services; the changes sync with the channel.

💡 With the Create Booking button you can register a manual booking without going through a payment link — useful for bookings taken by phone or at the front desk. You choose property, dates, rooms, and rate, enter the guest's data and the method (cash, transfer, or card).

Booking and payment statuses

Each booking has two independent statuses. The Booking Status measures whether the booking went through; the Payment Status measures whether the money has been collected. That's why a booking can be Confirmed with the payment still Pending (for example, a transfer your team hasn't validated yet).

Sync with your PMS

When a booking is completed in WeSpeak but not registered in your PMS (due to a connection outage, for example), the Bookings section warns you with a banner: "You have N unsynced bookings" — it's best to resolve it as soon as possible to avoid overbooking. You have two paths:

1. Sync — retries the automatic send to your system.
2. Load it by hand — you create the booking in your PMS and then, in WeSpeak, enter its ID or URL to mark it as synced. That ID stays visible in the detail ("Booking ID in Channel / PMS") and you can edit it later.

TravelCash Cashback

If your account has the TravelCash promotion active, each guest who pays for their booking through WeSpeak Payments receives 2% cashback in travel credits. The essentials:

1. They're travel credits, not money: the guest uses them on the TravelCash platform for future bookings; they're not transferred to a bank account.
2. It costs you nothing: you receive 100% of your rate.
3. They're delivered on the checkout day, not the payment day: the guest receives a TravelCash email when their stay ends, in the language of their booking (Spanish, English, or Portuguese).
4. The account is created automatically with the booking email — the guest doesn't register beforehand: they go to travelcash.me with that same email and find their credits.
5. It applies to all payment methods that go through WeSpeak Payments (card, Mercado Pago, PayPal, validated transfer, even cash registered in the system). OTA bookings (Booking, Expedia…) don't generate cashback.
6. The 2% rate is fixed — for now it can't be changed per property.

During the booking, the guest sees it clearly: a banner on the payment link ("This booking earns 2% cashback with TravelCash") and a box on the confirmation screen explaining when they'll receive it.

ℹ️ With the promo active, the assistant answers by itself the guest's questions about the cashback (when it arrives, whether it's money or credits, etc.) and routes operational queries to soporte@travelcash.me. If the guest can't find the email with their credits, they should check Spam / Promotions and then write to that address.

Frequently asked questions

How do I issue a refund?
Directly from your gateway's dashboard (Stripe, Mercado Pago, etc.) — not from WeSpeak, due to each platform's regulations.

The guest paid by transfer, why does the payment show as pending?
Transfers require your team to manually confirm that the money arrived. When you verify it, register it from the booking detail with Add Payment or Mark as paid.

What happens if the payment fails?
The booking is left as "Failed," the system retries up to 3 times and notifies the guest. You also get the notice by email and see it in the Bookings section.

Can I register a booking I took by phone or at the front desk?
Yes — use the Create Booking button in the Bookings section: it's created directly, without going through a payment link.

Can the guest pay part now and the rest later?
Yes, with a partial payment policy (or a deposit). The booking detail always shows Total, Deposit, Paid, and To Be Paid, and you register each additional charge with Add Payment.

The guest is getting the confirmation email twice.
Your PMS probably already sends its own confirmation email. In that case, disable "Send confirmation email from WeSpeak" in the Notifications tab to avoid the duplicate.

What is the TravelCash cashback the guest sees?
If your account has it active, the guest who pays through WeSpeak Payments receives 2% in travel credits (not money) on their checkout day, by email. It costs you nothing: you receive 100% of your rate. More details in the TravelCash Cashback section of this guide.

A guest says they didn't get their cashback.
First check the date: it's issued on the checkout day, not the payment day. If it has already passed, have them check Spam / Promotions; if it still doesn't appear, have them write to soporte@travelcash.me with the email they used on the booking.

How do I activate WeSpeak Payments?
From the "Activate WeSpeak Payments" button in the Payments section of the Dashboard, or by requesting it from your advisor: the feature is enabled and a brief meeting is scheduled to connect your gateway and configure the checkout.

I activated Payments but the assistant keeps sending guests to the booking engine.
Two things to check in Knowledge → Price and Availability: that the booking mode is WeSpeak Payments (payment link), and that there is at least one active payment connection in the booking page setup — without a connected gateway, the assistant routes to the engine.

Can I activate the payment link for just one hotel in my group?
The booking process with a payment link is activated for all the hotels in the registered group — not per property. What is individual: each property configures its booking page and its payment methods.

The guest can't pay with their card (e.g., American Express) or the link won't open.
The available methods depend on your gateway (which cards your Stripe/Mercado Pago account accepts). Also remember that the link expires after 12 minutes with automatic gateways — it may have expired: generate a new one. If the problem persists, report it with the contact's number.

When connecting Stripe, options appear that I'm not sure whether to enable.
The connection is done in Connections → New Connection, pasting your account credentials. If you're unsure about an option in the Stripe dashboard, do it together with your advisor in the setup meeting — it's part of the onboarding.