Payments for the Way Hospitality Operates
Hotels run pre-auth at check-in and capture at check-out. Short-stay rentals charge cleaning fees and damage deposits. Vacation rentals run recurring memberships. Spa, restaurant, and parking are separate revenue centers. Surfboard ships the payment primitives hospitality operators need — pre-auth, delayed capture, tokenization, multi-outlet settlement, identification at check-in — all on one API.
Built Around the Hospitality Charging Pattern
Hospitality is one of the few industries where the standard authorize-and-capture-immediately model breaks down. Hotels need to hold a card for the duration of a stay. Short-stay rentals adjust totals as guests add services. Vacation memberships need recurring charges with auto-update on card replacement. Surfboard ships these as first-class flows, not as workarounds.
Pre-authorization at check-in. Adjustment during the stay. Capture at check-out. Tokenization for recurring charges. Identification for tap-to-recognize returning guests. Multi-outlet configuration for properties with multiple revenue centers. Multi-property branding for hotel groups. All composed on a single API surface.
One platform across every hospitality format
Boutique hotels, chain hospitality, vacation rentals, short-stay apartments, B&Bs, hostels, serviced apartments, vacation clubs, spa-and-resort destinations — same payment patterns, same API. Configuration adapts to the format; the underlying primitives don't change.
Hospitality patterns Surfboard handles natively
Six payment patterns hospitality operators run on Surfboard daily. None require custom integration.
1. Pre-Authorization & Delayed Capture
Hold a card on file at check-in. Settle the actual amount at check-out — including any incidentals, room service, mini-bar, or extra-night extensions. Surfboard's pre-auth and delayed-capture flow is built for the hospitality charging pattern out of the box.
- Pre-authorize at check-in
- Adjust the amount during the stay
- Capture the final total at check-out
- Partial captures and voids supported
2. Recurring & Subscription Billing
Long-stay rentals, monthly residents, vacation-club memberships, hotel loyalty subscriptions — all need recurring billing on stored cards. Surfboard's network tokenization handles MIT (merchant-initiated transactions) with automatic card updates when networks reissue.
No more involuntary churn from expired cards. Subscriptions just keep working.
3. Multi-Property Branding
Hotel groups with multiple brands under one corporate roof — Surfboard's branding cascade keeps each brand's identity preserved on terminals, hosted check-in pages, receipts, and email confirmations. Override per property or per terminal as needed.
4. Tap-to-Identify at Check-In
Returning guest taps their card at the check-in kiosk. Surfboard's Identification recognizes the same card token from their previous booking — no QR codes, no app required, no app to install. Profile loaded, room key issued, settled in seconds.
5. Tipping for Hospitality Markets
North American and transatlantic guests expect tipping prompts at restaurants, room service, valet, and spa. Configure tipping at the merchant or store level via the Tips API — three preset percentages, optional custom entry, percentage-or-amount display.
6. Multi-Outlet Settlement Within One Property
A hotel with a restaurant, a spa, a gift shop, and a parking garage — different outlets, different revenue centers, often different tax treatments. Multi-store configuration handles them as separate stores under the property merchant, with consolidated reporting at the property level.
The hospitality capability stack
From boutique hotel to multi-property hospitality group
Single property, single brand? Configure once, run forever. Hotel group with seven brands across forty properties? Branding cascades from group → brand → property → outlet. Each property keeps its own settlement. Each outlet keeps its own reporting. Each brand keeps its own visual identity. Same platform, same API, same operational model.
Build hospitality payment flows
Pre-auth at check-in, capture at check-out. Recurring billing on stored tokens. Tap-to-identify returning guests. Configure multi-outlet structures and multi-property branding. All through one API.
// Pre-authorize at check-in
POST /orders
{
"amount": { "total": 250000, "currency": "SEK" },
"controlFunctions": {
"delayCapture": true,
"preAuthorize": true,
"captureWindow": "30d"
},
"customer": {
"person": { "name": { "firstName": "Anna", "lastName": "Berg" }, "email": "anna@guest.example" }
}
}
// Capture the final total at check-out
POST /orders/:orderId/capture
{
"amount": 312500
}