Stripe Integration for Travel Booking Platforms

Travel bookings rarely collect full payment upfront — a deposit at booking, a balance due closer to the travel date, and sometimes a final adjustment for add-ons in between. Modeling this as a single PaymentIntent doesn't work; it needs either a scheduled Invoice with staged due dates or a deposit PaymentIntent paired with a second charge against the saved payment method.

Deposit, Balance, and Currency Handling

• Saving the payment method from the deposit charge (via `setup_future_usage`) so the balance charge doesn't require the customer to re-enter card details
• Handling a declined balance charge close to travel date — grace period, retry, or automatic cancellation policy
• Multi-currency presentment for international travelers, with the exchange rate locked at the correct moment (booking vs. charge)
• Refund policy tiers (full refund, partial, non-refundable deposit) need to map to actual Stripe refund logic, not just a booking-system flag

The failure mode we see most often is a balance charge that silently fails weeks after booking because the saved payment method expired or was declined, with no retry or notification logic in place — the business only finds out when the traveler shows up. We build the balance-collection flow with the same rigor as a subscription dunning sequence, because functionally, that's what it is.