Understanding Payments

A single, transparent **5% platform fee** is applied to the total value of every booking made through PetStay Connect.

When a customer pays online with a credit or debit card:

1. The customer pays the full booking amount (e.g., £100).
2. Stripe securely processes the payment.
3. The 5% platform fee (£5) is automatically deducted.
4. The remaining balance (£95) is instantly transferred to **your connected Stripe account.**

You can manage your payout schedule (e.g., daily, weekly) directly from your Stripe Express dashboard.

For your convenience, you can process card payments directly from your dashboard. This is perfect for bookings taken over the phone or for customers who wish to pay by card in person.

• When you generate a payment link or use the manual payment portal for a booking, it uses the same secure Stripe checkout system.
• The payment is processed and deposited directly into your connected Stripe account.
• The standard 5% platform fee is automatically deducted at the time of the transaction, just like a regular online payment.
• This ensures all your revenue and fees are consolidated and tracked correctly in your Stripe dashboard, regardless of how the payment was initiated.

To ensure fairness and prevent platform misuse, the **5% platform fee also applies to bookings paid with cash** or other offline methods.

The fee covers the value our platform provides in securing and managing the booking, not just processing a card.

Refunds are simple and mostly automated:

1. You initiate the refund directly from your own Stripe dashboard for the specific transaction.
2. The full amount is returned to the customer.
3. The funds are debited from **your Stripe balance**.
4. Our original 5% platform fee is **also automatically returned**. You only pay a fee on successful, non-refunded bookings.

All transactions are automatically tracked in your Stripe dashboard, providing you with detailed records for accounting and tax purposes.