Overview
Little Hotelier Pay is our official payment processing solution. This article explains how to use the auto top up feature to maintain your account balance above zero, ensuring you can continue processing refunds.
How auto top up works
When activated
When your Little Hotelier Pay account balance reaches zero or below, Little Hotelier will:
Send you an email notification explaining:
Why your balance reached zero (typically due to a refund)
The amount to be debited
That your bank account will be debited within 48 hours
Automatically transfer the necessary funds from your linked bank account after 48 hours, provided sufficient funds are available
Not activated
If auto top up is not enabled and your balance reaches zero, you'll need to manually add funds through one of these methods:
Activate auto top up
Process more guest payments
Switch from a daily to weekly payout schedule (contact our support team)
Manually transfer funds (contact our support team)
Note: You cannot process refunds while your account balance is zero or below. We recommend activating auto top-up.
Activating auto top up
If your property is located in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, or Asia, auto top up is already set up on your Little Hotelier Pay account; you do not need to activate it. If your property is located in the EMEA region, however, you will need to complete a direct debit authorisation to activate auto top up.
There are two ways to do this:
The first time you log in and open Payments, you will be invited to sign up to direct debit (that is, auto top up) and asked to follow a series of steps
After setting up your Little Hotelier Pay account, you will receive an email containing a button that you can use to activate auto top up
To activate using the email method:
Click on the button in the email to open the Direct Debit Authorisation page
Confirm your details and enter any additional details that are required
Confirm that you agree to the Terms and Conditions
Once complete, auto top up will be activated (provided that the authorisation is successful)
Auto top up is not available to properties in Mexico due to local regulations.
Frequently asked questions
Why am I getting an "insufficient funds" error when trying to process a refund?
If you are trying to refund a payment but get a failed to process “unavailable funds” or "insufficient funds” message, this means that your Little Hotlier Pay account balance has insufficient funds to process any more refunds. You will be unable to process refunds as your account does not have available balance for refunding guests.
If you can’t refund a guest due to your account balance having insufficient funds, but you need to refund the guest urgently, you can:
Process additional payments to bring your account into a positive balance.
Send the funds directly to your guest if they are asking for an urgent refund.
Contact our support team for assistance with your account balance.
To ensure you always have an available balance so you can process refunds in future, you can:
Activate auto top up (direct debit)
Switch to a weekly or fortnightly payouts to maintain a higher balance for refunds
I have available balance in my Little Hotelier Pay account but I still can’t process a refund as it says “unavailable funds”
This error means your Little Hotelier Pay account balance is zero or negative. If auto top up is enabled and you are still seeing this error, the automatic debit from your bank account may have failed. Check:
Your bank account details are correct
There are sufficient funds in your bank account
Check if you received an email about a failed auto top up