PrivateStay does not process payments for stays. All payments are made directly from guest to host by bank transfer. When you approve a booking, your payment details are sent to the guest in their confirmation email.
Adding your bank details
Go to Dashboard → Settings → Payment details and fill in your banking information.
You can add European bank details (your IBAN and the bank's international code), UK bank details (account name, account number, and sort code), US bank details (account holder name, routing number, and account number), or any combination. Add whichever is most convenient for your guests — if they're mostly based in Europe, the IBAN is usually easiest. If they're in the UK, the sort code and account number work better. If they're in the United States, they'll need the routing number and account number.
Which account each guest sees
Add as many accounts as you like. A guest is never shown all of them — only the one that can receive the currency they owe. If the amount is in euros they see your IBAN, if it is in pounds they see your UK details, and if it is in US dollars they see your US details.
This is deliberate. PrivateStay never sees the transfer, so if a guest paying in euros were shown your dollar account as well, they could send the money to the wrong place and nobody would notice until it arrived short.
If you have no account that can receive the currency a guest owes, they are shown everything you have entered instead, so they can still arrange payment with you.
Accepting euro or US dollar payments
Guests viewing your page can switch the displayed prices between your property's own currency, euros, and US dollars. By default the converted figures are estimates based on the official daily exchange rate, and guests still pay you in your own currency.
If you also want to accept payment in euros or US dollars:
- Add the matching bank details — an IBAN for euros, or a US routing number and account number for US dollars
- Tick Accept euro payments or Accept US dollar payments under those fields
Once a currency is enabled, the amount guests see in it is no longer an estimate — it becomes a fixed amount they can book and pay in that currency. The amount is calculated with the official daily exchange rate and locked when the guest sends their booking request. If you approve a request more than 7 days after it was sent, the amount is refreshed at the current rate. When approving, you can also type your own final total — if you do, that becomes the agreed amount.
Payment rules
The Payment rules field is a free-text area where you can specify your payment terms. This text is included in the booking confirmation email, and it is repeated in any payment reminder sent later, so a guest chasing the details always has your terms in front of them. Use it to communicate:
- Deposit amount and deadline (e.g. "30% deposit due within 5 days of booking confirmation")
- Balance payment deadline (e.g. "Remaining balance due 30 days before check-in")
- Cancellation terms (e.g. "Deposits are non-refundable within 60 days of check-in")
- Preferred payment reference (e.g. "Please use your name and check-in date as the payment reference")
Tip
Be specific and clear in your payment rules. Guests receive this text in their confirmation email and use it to arrange payment. Ambiguity leads to questions and delays.
Write your rules in one language
Your payment rules are translated for guests automatically, so write them once, in whichever language you are comfortable with. Do not write the same terms twice in two languages in the same box — that gets translated as one block, and your guest ends up reading the same instruction twice.
Your own wording is always shown underneath the translation, exactly as you typed it. A translated deposit schedule is a convenience; your words are the agreement, so guests can always see them.
How many languages your rules are translated into follows your plan, in the same way as your listing. On the Free plan they are translated into the one extra language you have added to your listing, and every other guest reads your own wording. On Plus and above they are translated into all six. See listing languages and translation.
When guests receive payment details
Payment details reach a guest only once you approve their booking request. They are never shown on the listing page itself. This means:
- Unapproved guests cannot see your banking information
- Details are sent at the moment of approval, inside the booking confirmation email
From then on the guest can also open the booking in their own account and see the same details there, so they do not have to hunt through their inbox weeks later. And if you mark a booking as unpaid, the reminder we send them repeats the details once more.
Security
Your payment details are stored securely and shown only to guests whose booking you have approved — in their confirmation email, on their own booking page, and in any payment reminder. They are never shown publicly or shared with anyone else.