What causes a credit card provided by Booking.com to fail?

Booking.com don't confirm a guest credit card is valid before sending to Uplisting.

A booking.com credit card can fail for a few reasons:

1. Not enough funds on the card
2. Card has been blocked for some reason (eg. reported stolen)
3. The card needs additional authorisation via the guests bank

How to resolve

The best way to resolve this is to ask your guest to update their credit card on the Uplisting booking confirmation page. All credit cards entered on an Uplisting page are set up for additional authentication if required.

Once guests update their credit card successfully on the Uplisting guest booking confirmation page, their booking payment will be instantly charged.

Automate the process with Outbound messages

You can automate this process with an Outbound message.

1. Create an outbound message to trigger x minutes after booking.
2. Add a booking payment status = failed and a booking site is booking.com, filter.
3. Within the content of the message, include something along the lines of:
   Hi {guest_first_name},
   Thanks for booking {listing_name} with a check-in date of {check_in_date}.
   Unfortunately, your payment failed. This sometimes happens as Booking.com don't authenticate your credit card at the time of booking.
   You can update your credit card securely here: {guest_booking_link}