Guest Portal: make City Tax mandatory to pay during online check-in?

Hi ​@juliusbackes, my name is Paul and I am one of the Mews Community ambassadors.

Thank you for your question regarding making City Tax mandatory to pay during online check-in.

1. Payment methods in the Guest Portal

In the Guest Portal online check‑in, the payment step is handled via Mews’ built‑in payment page. Guests can:

• Store/confirm a payment card (this step is always requested from the owner unless they already paid in OCI).
• Use whatever online methods your Mews Payments setup supports at that touchpoint (card, and in some markets selected alternative methods like Apple/Google Pay or local APMs).

What you cannot do today:

• Offer offline methods (cash at reception, bank transfer, vouchers, etc.) as explicit options inside the Guest Portal.
• Plug in a completely different PSP just for the Guest Portal.

So effectively, for the guest the OCI payment step is “pay online now with card / supported APM” vs. “pay later according to the payment policy”.

2. “Pay city tax now, rest later” – recommended concept

The Pay now vs Pay later behaviour during online check‑in is driven purely by your payment policies:

“The guest is given the option to Pay Now or Pay Later the amount due for their booking… defined by the payment policies… and equal to the sum of these payments.”

So, if you want guests to only pay city tax during OCI, you configure a policy where the only amount due at that time is the city tax.

Best‑practice approach in most cases:

1. Configure city tax correctly

   • Either via hard‑coded city tax in the Legal environment for the Stay service, or
   • As a Stay product + Product rule(s) that add it automatically per person/per night according to your local rules.
   • Make sure routing / billing automation put city tax on the guest’s bill, and room nights where they belong (guest vs. OTA/company).

2. Use a dedicated payment policy rule for city tax

   • In the Extent of the payment policy, include Additional expenses, which is where city tax and similar charges sit when using the “fixed city tax” feature.
   • Set Trigger to around Start / arrival (or just before), so that between OCI and arrival there is a payment due equal to the city tax only.
   • Keep room nights under:
     • A different rule (e.g. End / end date), or
     • A separate OTA/company policy if the room is paid by VCC/agency.

3. Result in the Guest Portal

   • When the guest does OCI and reaches the payment step:
     • Pay now = they pay the sum of payments scheduled between now and check‑in → effectively just the city tax, if that’s all that is due in that window.
     • Pay later = the existing schedule remains; city tax will be collected automatically or on property per your policy.

3. How calculation & changes are handled

Once city tax is configured correctly (either fixed amount or % of room rate) Mews handles the recalculation:

• If you use % of room rate, changing the percentage in the product updates future calculations; whenever a reservation is modified (dates, check‑in/out, etc.) the city tax is recalculated automatically with the new %.
• If you use a fixed‑amount product, you maintain Product rules that attach the correct product to each night; on reservation change or when you click OK in the reservation, the rules are re‑triggered so old tax items are cancelled and new ones added.

This logic also covers:

• Per person / per night: you encode this through the city tax setup (LE or product rules). When guest count or nights change, the rules re‑run and adjust the tax items accordingly.
• Exemptions (e.g. children, age thresholds, caps per stay): these are modelled in the city tax configuration itself, not in the payment policy. The policy just decides when to collect whatever city tax the system has calculated.
• Changes after online check‑in (date shifts, extra guests):
  • City tax items on the bill are adjusted by product rules / tax engine at the next modification.
  • A later automatic payment or manual charge will then pick up the new amount.
  • If the guest already paid part of it in OCI, you may see either an extra charge (more tax due) or need to rebate if tax decreased; operationally this is the same as any other change in charges after prepayment.

I hope that this helped to answer your questions.

Wishing you a great day!

Best regards,

Paul