merchant of record

The merchant of record holds the relationship with the acquiring bank and the card networks. They receive the funds, they are named on the cardholder's statement, and they carry the obligations: responding to disputes, meeting deadlines, absorbing fees, and maintaining an acceptable dispute ratio.

It is not the same as who benefits from the payment. A platform can be the merchant of record while passing most of the money to a host, and that separation is exactly why the dispute lands where it does.

On a stay booked and paid through a platform, the platform is normally the merchant. A guest who disputes their stay is disputing a charge made by the platform, and the host is usually a step removed from the process even when the underlying argument is about damage.

On a direct booking, or a partner-platform arrangement where you charge the card at the property or through your own processor, you are the merchant. Everything about the dispute is yours to handle, as set out in the non-Airbnb chargeback and direct-booking damage with no AirCover.

A bundle answering the specific reason code the issuer cited, submitted by their deadline. For a damage charge that usually means the terms the guest accepted, their written authorisation of the specific amount, dated before-and-after evidence, and a third-party invoice for the cost.

The formal submission is called representment, and the wider defence is covered in the chargeback defence guide. What a chargeback is, and how it differs from a refund, is worth reading first.

Find out which setup applies to you before an incident rather than during one. Check whether your reservations arrive with a virtual card, whether you can collect a deposit through the platform, and what your own terms say about damage charges. Those three answers determine your entire recovery route.

If you are the merchant, behave like one: explicit written terms, authorisation for any extra charge before you take it, dated documentation on every stay, and diarised dispute deadlines. The collection mechanisms are compared in damage waiver versus security deposit versus deposit-free.