What Are Payments?
Using Akia payments, you can now place a hold on a card, collect a set payment amount, or accumulate tips from guests in your Agreements and Mini Apps. Not ready to process payment yet? Choose to only place a small hold on the guest’s credit card (which is automatically released after 7 days) and process payments later.
You will need to create a Stripe account to complete transactions using Akia payments.
How Do I Set Up Payments in My Mini Apps?
- Install Stripe in Akia here: https://sys.akia.ai/integrations/apps/stripe. (You will need to make your account in Stripe to be able to process guest payments.)
- Only Akia Admins can install Stripe, and only Stripe users will be able to view and manage any payments in Stripe.
- Click on the Mini Apps header and select the Mini App you want to add the payments to
- Remember to click Edit in the top right to begin editing the Mini App
- Click on the three dots next to any screen click Payment Configuration
- Navigate to the Settings tab where you can enable payment on the Mini App, allowing you to also specify Charges or Authorization amounts
- Capture Payment: Prompt the guest to provide their credit card upon submission of the Mini App
- Capture Payment Timing: By default, Akia will not charge the guest for their ordered items from the specified Collection until you accept the guest’s order on your Orders page. You can change this to process payment immediately when the order is created or completed as well.
- Flag if Payment Succeeds: Have Akia track if the provided card is valid and if the required payment or authorization hold could process
- In your automations, you can use the conditions Payment Succeeded and Authorization Held to control when certain messages (e.g. door code) are sent to the guest if their payment could be verified
- Due to this flag being true/false, we strongly recommend not flagging if payment succeeds in multiple Mini Apps the guest might submit during their stay with your property - try limiting it to just the Registration Card or Rental Agreement
Make sure all outstanding orders are completed before changing your Payment Timing to ensure all payments are collected.
- Charges - List items the guest needs to pay for before submitting the Mini App, such as their balance due in addition to a mandatory resort fee
- Authorization - Place a hold on the guest’s credit card that is automatically released after 7 days from when the guest submits the form (you will be able to charge their card even after the hold is released within Stripe)
- The minimum hold value is $0.50 and Stripe will indefinitely keep the guest’s card information securely in their system
Click Ok at the bottom to save the payment configuration, Save Changes in the top right of the Mini App editor to get out of the editing mode, and Publish to begin processing payments for guests!
Collections
On the Mini Apps page, you can create a new Collection. Think of these as a combination of menus and upsells that can be displayed in your Mini Apps.
- Click + New Collection to create a collection manually and add items as needed. If you already have a list of items you want to include, you can select Upload CSV.
- We only need 5 columns for the CSV upload:
- Name: the name of the item the guest will see
- Description: the description of the item
- Image: image link for the item (needs to be an image link, not an image uploaded into the CSV)
- On Tap URL: the link the guest is redirected to if they click on the item in the Mini App
- Not required if the collection has Create Order selected
- Price: the price of the item
- Selecting Create Order will allow guests to purchase Collection items
- Once the collection has been created, you can add the Collection component to your Mini App (if you check marked Create Order, it would be the Menu component, otherwise it would be the Gallery component) and select which Collection you want to be shown.
- There are different types of Tap Behavior depending on what you’re looking for
- Load Detail Page (default): tapping the item will take the guest to another screen where the description is fully shown. If you also have Create Order
- Navigate to URL: the guest is automatically routed to the specified URL
- Add To Cart: tapping the item adds it to the cart, but it will not direct the guest to another screen like the Load Detail Page
- Optionally change the layout to Carousel if you want the guest to scroll through the different options
- Make the Collection required if the current page is intended for ordering that item (e.g. your early check-in screen should have the early check-in Collection required so the guest can make the request)
- Make sure you enable payments in Payment Configuration if you’re allowing guests to purchase items
- Save Changes and Publish to make the changes viewable to guests!
Charge Taxes/Collect Tips and Delivery Fee (Checkout Config)
With our checkout configuration, you can customize multiple tax line items and set up a tipping and/or delivery fee for the Mini App page. These checkout configurations are applied on a per-Mini App page basis so if different collections have different tax rates, they must be on separate Mini App pages.
- Go Settings > Checkout Configs
- Click + Add New Config
- Configure Taxes & Fees, Tip Configuration, and Delivery Fee by toggling them on/off
- Taxes & Fees are percentage based and the Delivery Fee is a flat price.
- After you have created your Checkout Config, go into the Mini App you want to add it to and click Edit in the top right corner
- You cannot configure the Checkout Config without being in the Editing mode.
- Click on the Checkout Config button in the bottom left hand corner and choose to configure a payment (Checkout Config) per page or one payment (Checkout Config) for the entire Mini App
- After you have configured your checkout configuration by clicking Ok, click Save Changes in the top right corner and Publish to begin applying the configuration to checkout
How Do I Set Up Payments in My Agreements?
- Install Stripe in Akia here: https://sys.akia.ai/integrations/apps/stripe. (You will need to make your own account in Stripe to be able to process guest payments on your account.)
- Only Akia Admins are able to install Stripe, and only Stripe users will be able to view and manage any payments in Stripe.
- Click on your profile picture in the top right corner, go to Settings > Agreements, and select the agreement to which you want to add the payment form.
- In your Agreement editor, scroll down to the Payment section and select either Process Payment or Authorize Only to add it to your Agreement.
- The credit card information the guest provides will be stored in your Stripe account so that you can charge them later on if needed.
- Specify your payment value amount and/or the tip amount(s) you want viewable to the guest on the Agreement.
- Note: holds are for seven days and can be managed and viewable in Stripe.
- Transaction fees apply to payment processing and tips (not holds). For more information, please contact us in the Support Chat or help@akia.com.
- Save the agreement and add it to your scheduled messages to begin sending it to guests.
If you do not see the Payment option in your Agreement editor, please reach out to us in the Support Chat or at help@akia.com
Upsells
If you want to collect payment for upsells in your Agreements, it’s the exact same process!
- Install Stripe in Akia here: https://sys.akia.ai/integrations/apps/stripe. (You will need to make your own account in Stripe to be able to process guest payments on your account.)
- Only Akia Admins are able to install Stripe, and only Stripe users will be able to view and manage any payments in Stripe.
- Select the upsell items you want to offer to guests
- Done! If a guest selects an upsell, they will be prompted to input their credit card information and the payment will process immediately.
In the Agreement editor, you cannot process payment (including upsells) and place a hold in the same agreement.
How Can I Collect Guest’s Card Information Without Charging Them?
It is not PCI compliant to ask the guest to take a photo of their credit card or ask for the raw credit card information. Instead, we strongly suggest placing a hold on the guest’s card for a small amount (e.g. $0.50) so they provide their credit card information which will then be securely stored in Stripe.
Mini Apps
Click on the three dot icon next to your screen name and select Payment Configuration
In the Payment Configuration side panel, check Process Payment and then you can specify your authorization amount under Add Authorization:
After the authorization has been configured, you will see the Next button show up at the bottom of the page if you had no other form components.
Agreements
Select Process Payment and Authorize Only to require the guest to provide their credit card information before being able to complete the agreement.
Use Cases
- 💰 Tips for Housekeeping: Upon checkout, send an Agreement to guests encouraging them to tip their housekeepers.
- 🔐 Incidentals Deposit: Add Process Payment → Authorize Only in your registration card to place a hold on your guest’s card in case of incidentals.