---
title: Declined cards leaving unpaid reservations
description: "A guest's card is declined after booking, but the reservation stays on your calendar as confirmed and unpaid. **Why this happens.** Some PMS booking APIs,…"
url: "https://homerunner.io/docs/a-guest-s-card-declined-after-booking-but-the-reservation-stayed-on-my-calendar/"
updated: "2026-10-26"
category: Booking engine and checkout
---

# Declined cards leaving unpaid reservations

A guest's card is declined after booking, but the reservation stays on your calendar as confirmed and unpaid.

**Why this happens.** Some PMS booking APIs, including Guesty's legacy booking engine API, confirm the reservation first and attempt the charge afterward. A declined card can leave a confirmed, unpaid reservation blocking your calendar. PMS-side payment automations such as 'collect 100% at pre-confirmation' do not close this gap for bookings that arrive through the booking engine API.

**How to prevent it.** Two layers address this:

1. Pre-authorization with a 3DS challenge at checkout. The card is authorized and the guest completes their bank's verification screen before any reservation is created, so a bad card fails on the checkout screen rather than on your calendar. To enable this, enter your Stripe secret key under **HomeRunner Settings**, then **Payment Providers**, alongside the publishable key.
2. Automatic cancellation of unpaid reservations. Bookings that remain unpaid past a set window (for example, 72 hours) are cancelled, and the dates reopen automatically. Contact support to have auto-cancellation enabled for your account and to choose the window.

A PMS-side workflow that watches for open balances after booking is a useful third layer for partial payments. Only the checkout-level pre-authorization stops the reservation from being created in the first place.

**Checking that pre-authorization works.** Run a test booking with a zero-balance test card. Before you enable pre-authorization, the reservation is confirmed with no charge scheduled. After you enable it, the checkout should fail and nothing should land on your calendar.

Still stuck? [Contact the HomeRunner team](https://homerunner.io/contact/) with your site address and what you tried, and we take it from there.