Malmö Arena Hotel closed that gap by letting AeroGuest secure pre-payment automatically the moment a booking lands — now converting 300–500 bookings a month into paid, confirmed reservations without a single follow-up call. Their own words: “a real game changer.”

Automated payment securement in advance

Can guests book at your hotel with a rate that requires pre-payment to secure the booking? If collecting that payment still depends on someone at the hotel following up, catching it in time, and processing it manually, you're leaving both the booking and the payment hanging longer than they need to. Guests can already pay through AeroGuest during online check-in, up to a few days before arrival — but that's cutting it close. Securing prepayment automatically, right after the booking is made, locks in the payment for the hotel immediately and confirms the reservation for the guest, instead of leaving either up in the air — and saves around 3 minutes of manual work per reservation.

How it works

As soon as a booking lands in the AeroGuest system, an automated email is triggered — fully branded to match the hotel's own look and feel — with a secure payment link included. The guest clicks through, pays using their preferred method, and that's it: no phone calls, no manual card entry, no follow-up needed from staff.

Once the payment goes through, AeroGuest automatically posts it to the PMS, so the hotel's records are updated without anyone lifting a finger.

Where it's used

This same setup covers two common scenarios hotels run into every day. The first is OTA bookings that carry rates requiring the hotel to charge the guest directly before or on arrival — rather than staff tracking these down individually, the payment request goes out automatically the moment the booking is created. The second is prepayment for bookings made by phone, where a guest reserves directly with the hotel and needs to settle payment in advance; instead of taking card details over the phone, the hotel simply lets the automated email and link handle it securely.

A front runner: Malmö Arena Hotel

Malmö Arena Hotel was among the first to roll out automated payment collection, and the feedback has been clear: the hotel's team described it as "a real game changer" for how they handle prepayments and OTA charges.

Not every payment link gets paid automatically — some guests still need a nudge or a manual follow-up — but even at current levels, the automation converts around 300-500 bookings into automatically pre-paid reservations each month, saving the hotel roughly 15-25 hours of manual work in the process. AeroGuest is continuously working on increasing the share of links paid through automation, with the goal of taking this repetitive task off front desk staff's plates as much as possible.

Getting a hotel's setup right is a collaborative effort. It typically involves the hotel, the client manager, and a dedicated communication designer, who experiments with layout, text, and tone of voice to make sure the payment message is easy to understand and that guests feel secure using the link.

Why it matters

By removing manual charging and PMS updates from the front desk's workload, hotels cut down on time spent per booking, reduce the risk of errors or missed charges, and give guests a smoother, self-service way to pay — all while keeping the hotel's own branding front and center throughout the experience.

This automated payment flow sits alongside AeroGuest's Pay by Link feature as part of the platform's broader approach to making payment collection something hotels can set up once and then forget about.