Guaranteeing a Reservation

Like Confirmations, a guarantee is basically a flag in the reservation that affects the color coding in the tab views and may have an affect on showing  "available" reservations (according to Rack options).  In general it's assumed to mean that the customer has provided a deposit or credit card information to guarantee the reservation.  You can mark a reservation as guaranteed by using the function on the right-click menu on the tab views, or from the Reservation Details dialog by clicking on the Guaranteed check box, or with the Guarantee button directly from the New Reservation dialog.

In addition to the "guaranteed" status indication, you can record the guarantee information with the reservation.  When you guarantee a reservation, a dialog will appear for you to enter this information (unless it's disabled through Program Options / Reservations).  You can enter any notes you like, and/or enter their credit card information.

Entering a Credit Card for Guarantee

Unless this has been disabled through Program Options / Reservations, you can enter credit card information to hold it as a guarantee for the reservation.  Note that the security code cannot be entered since it's against PCI compliance to store that on a computer.

If the customer has previously guaranteed a reservation, or has credit card information from a previous payment, that information will be shown here automatically.  (As per PCI compliance rules, the full card number will not be visible unless the logged-in operator has Administrator level access.)  If this card is not correct anymore, you can re-enter it.

Note that the credit card number and expiration date will be verified when you click Save or one of the other options (below) to leave this dialog (it only checks the "checksum" of the card number, not whether it's an authorized card).  If you have a credit card magnetic-stripe reader attached (and assuming you have the credit card in hand), you can simply put the cursor in the credit card number field and swipe the credit card, instead of typing it manually.

When the customer makes a payment later, the credit card information can automatically be retrieved from the guarantee information (depending on the credit card security settings).

X-Charge users: If you don't want Campground Master to store cards at all, then you can use X-Charge's secure "vault" for storing the card for guarantees.  This is fully secure and does not store the card on your computer.  You will still be able to see the last 4 digits of the card and expiration date, but will not be able to see the full card information.  The card can then be used for a payment transactions if needed, depending on your Credit Card Security Settings.  In order to use this function, you also must select the "Never save credit card numbers" option in Credit Card Security Setup, and be using the XpressLink interface for credit card processing.  You will then have a button on the Guarantee dialog to Enter card information to secure vault.  Click that button and X-Charge will prompt for the card information.  You can also add or remove the secure vault information from the Edit Guarantee dialog (on Customer Details or Reservation Details, click the "..." button next to the Guarantee information).

Completing the Guarantee process

Once you have entered any guarantee information you need, you have several options:

Use the Enter a Deposit Transaction Now option to open the Transactions dialog so you can enter a deposit (which also goes to the "Deposit" function automatically)

Use Print a Quote/Confirmation Now to open the Quote/Confirmation (Transactions) dialog to show the expected charges and print a confirmation letter.

Use Continue to Reservation Details to get to Reservation Details for other functions (unless you're coming from the Reservation Details dialog already).

Or, you can simply Save the information and return to the previous screen.

Shortcut tip: If you are entering a deposit, you can skip the Guarantee step and go straight to Transactions (e.g. from the right-click menu).  Assuming the automatically-guarantee option is enabled (see Maintenance / Program Options),  the reservation will be set to guaranteed status when a Deposit transaction is added.

If you want to undo a guarantee (to revert the reservation back to just pending or confirmed), open the Reservation Details dialog and check the Pending box (or uncheck the Guaranteed box).  Note that any guarantee information entered will not be deleted automatically (so it won't have to be re-entered) -- you will have to erase it manually from Reservation Details if you want it cleared.