Deferred payment allows select agencies to book a property, secure the rate and defer payment to a later date by leveraging a credit balance. In this article, you will discover five ways to stay in control of your agency balance. (3-minute read) 

Using deferred payment allows select agencies to book pre-paid property rates that require immediate payment but only pay up to seven days before the property cancellation date.  Each eligible agency is provided with a credit amount for these types of reservations. When the payment is due, the payment is taken from the credit card used during the reservation (agency or traveler card) releasing that value back to your credit balance. Learn more. As you start booking with deferred payment, it’s important to keep in mind our best practices to ensure your balance goes further.

1. Monitor your balance

Don’t get caught by surprise by running out of credit. Monitor your agency’s balance from the Expedia TAAP homepage. This is the most effective way to manage your spending and identify if you need to clear payments or adjust payment dates.

2. Leverage reports

Having visibility of the payments due can make a whole lot of difference in helping you manage your deferred payment balance. From the Expedia TAAP homepage, click on Download List to download the report for unpaid bookings.

This report allows you to view all bookings made using deferred payment and when payment is due. This will help you forecast any spending limitations coming or you can clear some of the credit. Here's a quick tip: why not add a recurring weekly appointment to your agenda to check this report?

3. Agree on payment dates with travelers

As a default, your payment date is due seven days before the property cancellation date. This means that the value of that booking is locked until the payment is cleared. As an alternative, at the time of booking discuss an acceptable payment date with the traveler so that you can clear your balance sooner.

If the traveler cannot pay by the date agreed, don’t worry you can move the payment date again, up to seven days before the cancellation deadline.

4. Clear payments sooner

If you are reaching your credit limit, don’t worry, you can clear payments whenever you want. Although Expedia TAAP will automatically add a due date for payment, you have total flexibility to change this as many times as needed.  Bringing the payment date forward lets you release credit back to your deferred payment balance.

If you are using a traveler’s credit card and not your agency card, remember what you agreed at the time of booking – adjusting the payment date without your traveler’s consent could raise a complaint.

5. Stay in control with our notifications

With busy day-to-day tasks and clients to serve, it’s easy to miss out on a payment date. As such we strongly recommend that you keep a close eye on the notifications on our homepage or emails we send you. These can contain important information about deferred booking payment failures which could impact a reservation. Don’t forget to check your spam/unwanted folders.