How to add manual bookings and request payment

Sometimes you need to add a booking yourself — whether it's a direct reservation from a guest who contacted you outside of Airbnb or Booking.com, or simply to block specific dates on your calendar. With Nowistay, you can easily create manual bookings that sync across all your connected channels — and even send your guest a secure payment link so they can pay online.

Before you start

Manual bookings are only available for properties connected with Nowistay PMS. If your property is connected through another channel manager (Beds24, Smoobu, Lodgify) or direct OTA without Nowistay PMS, this feature won't be available.

Not sure if your property uses Nowistay PMS? Check the Properties section and go to the "Synchronization" item of the property menu.

If you want to request payment from your guest when creating a manual booking, you'll also need a Stripe account connected to Nowistay. See the Connect your Stripe account section below for setup instructions.

How to create a manual booking

1. Go to the Bookings section from the left-hand menu.
2. Click the "Create Booking" button at the top of the page.
3. A panel will open on the right side. Start by selecting the property for which you want to create the booking.
4. Choose the arrival (check-in) and departure (check-out) dates. Dates that are already booked will appear as unavailable in red in the calendar (only for check-in).
5. Fill in the guest information: first name, last name, email, phone number, number of adults and children. All of these are optional, but we recommend at least adding a name. Note: if you want to request payment, the guest's email address is required.
6. Review the pricing. The total amount is calculated automatically based on the nightly rates configured in your Nowistay PMS, plus any cleaning fee and local taxes. You can edit any of these values manually if needed.
7. Optionally, set the check-in and check-out times, the guest's language, and address.
8. Choose the booking status: confirmed (default), pending, cancelled, or unavailable.
9. If you'd like to collect payment, check the "Request payment from guest" option. This will send your guest a secure payment link by email once the booking is created. See the detailed section below for more information.
10. Click "Create" to create your booking.

What happens when you create a manual booking?

When you create a confirmed manual booking, two important things happen automatically:

• Availability is updated on all channels: the dates you selected will be blocked on Airbnb, Booking.com, and any other channel connected through Nowistay PMS. This prevents double bookings.
• A cleaning task is created automatically (if you have cleaning automation enabled for that property). The cleaning task will be scheduled for the departure date and assigned to your team following your usual automation rules.

If you checked "Request payment from guest", the guest will also receive an email with a secure payment link. The booking is created immediately as confirmed (dates are blocked right away), and the payment status is tracked separately — see below for full details.

How pricing works

When you select dates, Nowistay automatically fetches the nightly rates from your Nowistay PMS configuration and calculates a suggested total. The total is computed as:

Total = (nightly rate x number of nights) + cleaning fee + local taxes

You are free to edit any of these values. If you change the total amount manually, the nightly rate will be recalculated accordingly. If you change the cleaning fee or taxes, the total will update automatically (unless you've already edited it manually).

If rates are not configured in your PMS for the selected dates, you can simply enter the amounts manually.

Request payment from your guest

When a guest contacts you directly — by phone, email, WhatsApp, or social media — and wants to book, you can create the booking yourself and send them a secure payment link so they can pay online. This is perfect for collecting payment on direct reservations without needing a booking widget on your website.

Connect your Stripe account

To request payment from guests, you first need to connect your Stripe account to Nowistay. Stripe handles all the payment processing securely — you don't need to handle any card details yourself.

1. Log in to your Nowistay dashboard and go to "Integrations" from the sidebar menu.
2. Find the Stripe card and click "Connect Stripe Account".
3. In the drawer that opens, click "Connect Stripe Account". You'll be redirected to Stripe to authorize the connection.
4. Once connected, you'll see a confirmation message confirming your Stripe account is connected and ready.

Don't have a Stripe account yet? You can create a free Stripe account in minutes.

How to send a payment request

Once Stripe is connected, requesting payment is straightforward:

1. Create a new manual booking as described above.
2. Make sure the guest's email address is filled in — the payment link will be sent to this address.
3. Set the booking amount (it must be greater than zero).
4. Check the "Request payment from guest" option.
5. Click "Create".

That's it! The guest will immediately receive an email with a secure Stripe checkout link where they can complete the payment using credit card, debit card, or any other payment method you've enabled on your Stripe account (such as Klarna, Bancontact, iDEAL, etc.).

Payment link validity

The payment link sent to your guest is valid for 24 hours. This gives your guest plenty of time to complete the payment at their convenience.

During this time:

• The booking remains confirmed and the dates stay blocked on all channels.
• The booking shows a "Pending payment" status in your dashboard so you can track it.
• You can copy the payment link from the booking details and send it to the guest yourself (via WhatsApp, SMS, or any other channel) if needed.

What happens when the guest pays

Once the guest completes the payment on the Stripe checkout page:

• The payment status updates to "Paid" in your dashboard.
• Both you and the guest receive a confirmation email.
• The money goes directly to your connected Stripe account (minus any Stripe processing fees — Nowistay does not take any commission on direct payments).

If the payment link expires

If the guest doesn't complete the payment within 24 hours, the link expires automatically. Don't worry — the booking is not cancelled. The dates remain blocked on your calendar.

You'll receive an email notification letting you know that the payment link has expired. From there, you can:

• Resend a new payment request: open the booking details and click "Resend Payment". A fresh payment link (valid for another 24 hours) will be sent to the guest by email.
• Cancel the booking: if the guest no longer wishes to book, you can cancel the booking to release the dates.

You can resend payment requests as many times as needed — each time, a new 24-hour link is generated and emailed to the guest.

Payment modes: full or split

The payment mode used for payment requests follows the same settings as your Direct Booking widget. You can configure this in the Integrations page under Direct Booking settings:

• Full payment: the guest pays 100% of the total amount at once.
• Split payment: the guest pays a first installment (e.g., 30%) immediately, and the remaining balance is automatically charged to their card before arrival (based on the number of days you've configured). No manual action needed — the second charge happens automatically.

If you're using split payment and the second charge date has already passed at the time of the payment request, the system will automatically fall back to full payment mode.

The "Silent" option

You may notice a "Silent" checkbox when creating or editing a booking. Here's what it does:

• Unchecked (default): when the booking is created and a cleaning task is generated, your team members will receive notifications (email and/or WhatsApp) about the new task — just like they would for any booking coming from Airbnb or Booking.com.
• Checked: the cleaning task is still created, but no notification is sent to your team. This is useful when you want to create a booking quietly — for example, when you plan to assign the cleaning task yourself later, or when you're adding past bookings and don't want to spam your team with old notifications.

Editing a manual booking

You can modify a manual booking at any time:

1. Go to the Bookings section.
2. Click on the booking you want to edit.
3. Click the "Edit" button.
4. Update the fields you need — dates, guest info, pricing, status, etc.
5. Click "Save".

When you update the dates of a confirmed booking, the availability on all connected channels is automatically adjusted: the old dates are released and the new dates are blocked.

If you change the status (for example, from confirmed to cancelled), the blocked dates will be released and become available again on all channels.

Important: only manual bookings can be edited

Please note that only bookings you created manually on Nowistay can be modified or deleted. Bookings that were pulled from Airbnb, Booking.com, or any other external channel cannot be edited from Nowistay. To modify those bookings, you need to make the changes directly on the original platform (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.), and the updates will sync back to Nowistay automatically.

Need help?

If you have any questions about manual bookings or payment requests, feel free to contact us. We're happy to help!