Overview
WaveRez uses Stripe as its payment processor for all transactions — both internal orders created by your team in WaveRez Admin and online orders placed by guests through your booking portal. Your Stripe account is connected to WaveRez during onboarding using a unique connect link provided by the WaveRez team. Once connected, Stripe handles all payment processing behind the scenes. You do not need to interact with Stripe on a daily basis, but the Stripe dashboard is available to you for viewing transaction details and troubleshooting payment issues.
How the Connection Works
Your Stripe account is connected to WaveRez through a Stripe Connect integration. This connection is established during onboarding using a specific link provided in your welcome email. You must use this link — setting up Stripe independently without the connect link will not create the integration that WaveRez needs to process payments on your behalf.
Once the connection is established, WaveRez uses your Stripe account to process all payments, including:
Orders created by your staff inside WaveRez Admin
Orders placed by guests on your online booking portal
Additional charges applied to existing orders
Refunds processed through WaveRez
The onboarding team handles the connection on the WaveRez side for you. By the time you finish onboarding and go live, your Stripe account is already fully integrated.
What You Can See on the Stripe Dashboard
Your Stripe dashboard at dashboard.stripe.com provides a full view of all payment activity connected to your WaveRez account. You can log in to Stripe at any time to view:
All transactions processed through WaveRez, including their current status
Failed payments and the specific reason each payment was declined or failed
Online booking portal failures — if a guest attempts to place an order on your booking portal and the payment fails, that failed transaction will appear in Stripe even though no order was created in WaveRez. This is important because failed online payments do not appear anywhere in WaveRez since the order was never completed. Stripe is the only place to find this information.
If a guest calls you after a failed online booking attempt, check your Stripe dashboard to see whether the transaction appears and what the failure reason was. If the payment does not appear in Stripe at all, this most often indicates a customer-side error — such as not completing the checkout process or submitting incorrect information on the booking portal. If you can verify that the guest did submit their payment information and nothing appears in Stripe, contact WaveRez support to troubleshoot the issue.
Stripe Account Warnings and Restricted Mode
After your initial Stripe account setup, Stripe may require additional information from you — such as bank account verification, EIN confirmation, acceptance of updated terms, or business URL verification. These requirements will appear as warnings on your Stripe dashboard. The WaveRez team will also be notified and will let you know if action is needed.
It is important to address these Stripe requirements quickly. If certain verification steps remain incomplete, Stripe may place your account in restricted mode. While in restricted mode, you will not be able to process any payments — either internally through WaveRez Admin or on your online booking portal. If your Stripe dashboard shows any warnings or action items, resolve them as soon as possible or contact WaveRez support for help.
When to Use Stripe vs. WaveRez
The most important rule for managing payments is: always process refunds and additional charges inside WaveRez Admin, not directly in Stripe.
The Stripe dashboard is a reference and troubleshooting tool. Your day-to-day payment operations — creating charges, applying additional charges to an order, and processing refunds — should all be done within WaveRez Admin inside the order itself. Processing a refund directly in Stripe will not update the order details in WaveRez, which creates a mismatch between your Stripe records and your WaveRez records.
The only exception to this rule is in rare support-related situations where WaveRez support explicitly instructs you to process a refund in Stripe, or where WaveRez support processes a Stripe-side refund on your behalf. If this happens, the support team will walk you through what to expect and how to handle the order going forward.
For detailed instructions on processing refunds, see Process Refunds and Additional Charges in WaveRez.
Troubleshooting
A guest says their payment failed on the booking portal, but you don't see an order in WaveRez: This is expected — failed online payments do not create orders in WaveRez. Log in to your Stripe dashboard to look up the failed transaction and see the failure reason.
A failed payment does not appear in Stripe either: This usually means the guest did not fully submit the payment form. Confirm with the guest that they completed the checkout process. If they did and there is still no record, contact WaveRez support.
Stripe dashboard shows warnings or "restricted" status: Review the warnings and provide whatever information Stripe is requesting (bank verification, EIN, terms acceptance, etc.). Contact WaveRez support if you need help understanding what is required.
You are unable to process payments internally or on your booking portal: Check whether your Stripe account is in restricted mode. If so, resolve the outstanding Stripe requirements. If your Stripe account appears active and you are still unable to process payments, contact WaveRez support.