Working with travel agents, tour operators, and corporate bookings is a brilliant way to grow your business, but managing the delayed payments and paperwork can sometimes add a lot of admin to your day. If you receive bookings from these specific channels, you will likely use CAPS, which stands for Channel Automated Payment System. This handy tool takes the heavy lifting off your plate by automatically handling your payments and invoices after the bookings have been made. This guide will explain exactly how this automated payment processing works behind the scenes, helping you keep track of your cash flow.
What exactly is CAPS?
Think of CAPS as your helpful financial assistant. While a normal direct booking requires a guest to pay at the time of booking, corporate channels and travel agents usually settle their bills after the booking is already confirmed. CAPS acts as the bridge between you and these channels, managing the money and the paperwork so you don't have to chase anyone for payment.
How the weekly payment cycle works
For channels that use CAPS for both their payments and their invoicing, the process runs like clockwork every single week:
- Checking the books: Once a week, the booking channel looks at all the bookings that were made at your property through NightsBridge.
- The batch payment: The channel then pays the total amount for all of those bookings (minus their commission) directly into NightsBridge's bank account in one large batch.
- Your weekly payout: We know you rely on your cash flow, so we automatically pay these funds out to you on a weekly basis! We do the maths for you by calculating the total value of the booking, subtracting the channel's commission percentage (which includes VAT), and transferring it to your property.
We handle the invoicing for you
You do not need to stress about creating invoices for these channels. For every CAPS payment that comes through, NightsBridge will automatically generate an invoice on your behalf and forward it straight to the booking channel. It is completely hands-free!
Where to find your records
If you ever want to check on these automated payments, finding them is incredibly easy. They will safely appear under your main Payments tab.
If you want a quick walk-through on this, you can check out our handy article on "How to view your Channel Payments".