---
title: When the guest’s card is charged
description: "When a guest completes a booking on your website, you may not see a Stripe charge right away. This is normal. **Why this happens.** The website checkout…"
url: "https://homerunner.io/docs/does-the-direct-booking-checkout-charge-the-guest-s-card-immediately-when-they-c/"
updated: "2026-10-26"
category: Booking engine and checkout
---

# When the guest’s card is charged

When a guest completes a booking on your website, you may not see a Stripe charge right away. This is normal.

**Why this happens.** The website checkout validates the guest's card with Stripe and saves it as a payment method on the reservation, but it does not move money. Your PMS runs the actual charge according to your payment automation settings, after the reservation is created.

**When the charge appears.** The charge appears when your PMS executes its payment schedule. Guesty batches its charge attempts roughly hourly, so even a charge set to run at booking can take up to an hour to appear.

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