Sometimes, a card may be declined by the payment service provider when it first enters RoomRaccoon and there is a reason for that.

Why are cards declined when they first enter RoomRaccoon?

When a debit or credit card enters RoomRaccoon linked to a reservation, the payment service provider (PSP) must tokenise it so that you may charge it in the future. If the PSP fails to tokenise it, the card is declined.

How can we know if a card is declined?

RoomRaccoon will send you an automatic email notification informing you of the reservation number and channel of origin with the card declined.

What to do if a card is declined?

If the reservation is a direct booking, you must reach out to your guest to inform them of this situation. Preferably, get the payment via a Payment Request link to protect you from revenue loss.

If the reservation comes from an OTA such as Booking.com, you can:

1. get the card details from your extranet and insert them manually into the booker profile;

2. or contact our support team to try and reimport the reservation. Mind that not every OTA supports reimportation.

What is card tokenisation?

Tokenisation is the process of encrypting a card in the system to allow it to be securely stored, and charged in the future. It masks the real 16-digit card number into a different number, so the real card information is protected and never shared when charged online.

You can still see the 4 last digits of the card should you need to confirm it:

Why can a card tokenisation fail?

There can be several reasons for a tokenisation process to fail, such as:

• Invalid card details submitted by the guest when booking via the booking engine

• Invalid card details sent to RoomRaccoon by the Online Travel Agencies (OTA)

• Technical glitches such as unstable connection or gateway downtimes in the payment network.

Good to know

• Learn more about credit card guarantee for non-prepaid reservations declined cards here.

• Learn more about failed payments here.