Tokenisation.
The card details from OTA bookings are tokenised before they hit our network.
You can think of a token as being like a cloakroom ticket that you can exchange back for your coat when you need it. The token represents the card, but unlike the 16 digits, expiry and CV2 of a real card, it can't be used by a fraudster or rogue staff member. Like the cloakroom ticket, we can electronically pass the token to Caterpay and swap it for the actual card details, enabling it to be processed by the banking system.
Charging the token.
You can charge the token directly from within the Finance tab of the booking. Here, you'll see a row for the tokenisation, and at the end there are two card icons, one green the other blue.
The green icon enables you to Verify the card (only check it against the banking system, without debiting any funds).
The blue icon is used when you want to charge that card.
Clicking the icon pops up a window:
If you are charging this token, you 'd select "Balance" or "Deposit" for the Purpose and update the Amount you want to charge before clicking the blue Save button.
You'll then receive an authorised or declined response.
A new row will appear in the finance tab reflecting the transaction you just made.
If the transaction was declined, this row would be red. If any Booking.com guest's cards are declined when being Verified or charged ahead of arrival, you have the opportunity as part of the payment workflow to Report an invalid card to Booking.com, without having to log into the Booking.com extranet to do this.
As charging this card was successful, again we have a blue card icon which enables you now to rebill this card in the future, and the red icon would allow you to quickly refund the guest's payment up to 6 months later if required.
Note - virtual cards.
If you are working with booking.com and Expedia and are using their Virtual cards, please remember that these cards can usually only be charged on the day of arrival or departure, and not weeks in advance. The date which a virtual card can be charged is usually shown in the booking notes.