A chargeback is when a guest disputes a card payment with their bank and the money is pulled back from you, often weeks later, with a fee on top. Common triggers are no-show charges, deposits, disputed bills and genuine fraud on card-not-present bookings. The card schemes give the bank wide discretion, so the burden is on the venue to prove the charge was fair. Your defence is paperwork: clear booking terms the guest actively agreed to, a confirmation email, a reminder before the date, the itemised bill and, for disputes in the room, a note of what happened.
Taking card details through a secure booking system with strong customer authentication helps shift liability away from you. Respond to every dispute within the deadline your provider sets, because silence counts as losing. Patterns of chargebacks can push up your processing costs or even get your merchant account reviewed, so track them.
What we ask on the show
- How often do venues actually win chargeback disputes?
- Are no-show fees worth the chargeback risk?
- What evidence does a bank really want to see?
- Has card fraud on bookings got worse?