Flex Level (Guest Pays)

Xola supports four different fee structures:

  1. Flex Level, Guest Pays
  2. Flex Level, Company Pays
  3. Flex Standard, Guest Pays
  4. Flex Standard, Company Pays

This article addresses frequently asked questions about Flex Level, Guest Pays -- where a 3% fee is assessed evenly across all transactions and is paid by your Guest.

Note: Your Xola account must meet certain the qualifications, to be on this fee structure. 

If you have any other questions please reach out to our Support Team at support@xola.com.


How much is the Service Fee?

The typical Service Fee is 3%.

The fee is assessed on top of your configured price. For example, if your experience has a price of $100, the final amount that the Guest is charged will be $103 ($100 + 3%). This way, what you receive in your account is what you had configured.

Here is an example of what a purchase may look like:

Flex Level (Guest) - Purchase Summary.png

What is the Service Fee assessed on?

The Service Fee is assessed on the sub-total, before taxes & fees.

This means the Service Fee will decrease if you apply coupons or discounts to the reservation. Conversely, the Service Fee will increase if you have custom line items, add-ons, etc.

Who pays the Service Fee?

The Service Fee is paid by your Guest.

Is the Service Fee assessed on all methods of payment (including cash)?

Yes. The Service Fee is assessed on all methods of payment including cash, credit card, check, and any other custom payment methods you may have configured.

Does Xola keep all the Service Fees?

Xola only keeps Service Fees assessed on credit card transactions. In your transaction reports, you'll see these titled Service Fees.

Any fees assessed on offline methods of payment (cash, check, etc.) will not be taken by Xola and are yours to keep. In your transaction reports, you'll see these titled Guest Fees.

Flex Level (Guest) - Reporting.png

How are the Service Fees collected for deposits and split payments?

Service Fees are collected proportionally to the partial amount paid.

For example,

  • You have a reservation for $100 with a Service Fee of $3 (total price = $103)
  • Your Guest makes a deposit or split payment of $20.
  • Xola now determines the proportion of the payment to the full amount (i.e. how much is $20 out of $103). In this case, it comes out to 19.42% (20/103).
  • Xola then takes 19.42% of the $3 Service Fee, which comes out to $0.58.

This is how the transaction would appear in your reports.

Flex Level (Guest) - Deposit Reporting.png

Can I customize how Service Fees are shown on checkout?

If the Guest is paying the Service Fee, it will show in your checkout. You have two options to show this fee.

     1. Show the Taxes and Fees as separate line items when hovered over:

Screenshot 2024-09-26 at 12.15.30 PM.png

     2. Show Taxes and Fees as one simple line item, that combines them together: 

mceclip1.png

You can configure whether the Service Fees are displayed separately or lumped with your other taxes and fees. See Checkout Preferences.

Will my guest get a refund of the Service Fee if an event is canceled? 

If you cancel the reservation and issue a full refund to the customer, the service fee will also be refunded. The customer will see the refund as two separate payments on their statement: one for the refund for the reservation and one for the service fee since it is refunded separately from Stripe.

Will my guest get a refund of the Service Fee if an event is canceled and refunded to Store Credit?

If you cancel the reservation and issue a Store Credit to the customer, the service fee will not be refunded. You will see a message like this in the refund workflow:

Screenshot 2025-03-11 at 4.46.34 PM.png

Now, when they use the Store Credit on another reservation, the amount of the Store Credit they paid before will be taken off the current reservation. So for example, if they Paid $100 for an experience and $3 Service fee, then you issued a Store Credit, they will get a Code with the value of $100. When they apply this Code to a new reservation that is $100, the Service Fee of $3 will be zeroed out as the credit will cover the total booking value, and the customer will not pay anything for the new reservation. To learn more about Store Credit, click here. 

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