In plain words
Cloudbeds Marketplace arrivals get 7 days free at their first signup, card required, nothing charged until the trial ends. Everyone else may need a code. The payment screen tells you, and codes come from us. A code can give free days, a percentage off or a dollar amount off. One code per property, and a code's own trial replaces the Marketplace trial rather than adding to it. A restart gets no free days at all, from the Marketplace or a code.
Who gets the free trial
One way in comes with a trial: clicking Connect App in the Cloudbeds Marketplace. The trial is 7 days. The number is a setting on our side and can change, and the payment screen always shows the current one before you add a card. It reads "Try MAYA free for 7 days. Nothing is charged until the trial ends, and you can cancel any time." Its button reads Set up payment.
A card is always taken, trial or not. That is what lets the subscription start on its own when the trial ends. Until then the price panel reads "Nothing today" and names the date and amount of your first charge, and the Billing page shows "Your trial ends in 5 days" (counting whole days) and a Trial ends row. Cancel from the Billing page before that date and nothing is charged.
Accounts created directly at maya-rms.com, for ThinkReservations, Mews or Cloudbeds by code, get no trial unless a code grants one. Every property starts in simulation either way, so you can watch MAYA run your rules for as long as you like before anything reaches your system.
Every trial comes with a property's first signup only: the Marketplace trial and a code's own free days alike. Restarting a cancelled subscription is billed when checkout completes, whatever code you type, as Cancelling, restarting and leaving explains. A code's discount still applies to a restart.
Who needs a code
Whether you need a code depends on your property system. The payment screen asks which system you use, and the code field is required or optional to match.
- Cloudbeds through the Marketplace: never needs a code at first sign-up. A code you type anyway is checked and honoured. Restarting after a cancellation may ask for one. Cancelling, restarting and leaving explains.
- Cloudbeds from inside MAYA, ThinkReservations, Mews: a code may be needed. The field tells you: Your code with the helper "MAYA is invite-only for now" means required. Your code (optional) with "Got a discount or trial code? Enter it here" means you can leave it blank.
- Something else: always needs a code, and there is nothing to connect afterwards. Which systems MAYA works with lists the three that work.
Codes come from us. If you need one, email us with your property's name and system.
What a code can grant
A code is one of three kinds, and any kind can also carry some free days at the start. The moment a code is accepted, a green line under the field says exactly what it grants, in one of these shapes.
| Kind | What the screen says |
|---|---|
| Free days | "14 days free, then your normal rate. We'll ask for a card now but won't charge it until the trial ends." |
| A percentage off for a set number of months | "20% off for your first 3 months." |
| A percentage off for as long as you stay | "20% off, for as long as you stay." |
| Dollars off each month, for a set number of months | "$25.00 off each of your first 3 months." |
| Dollars off each month, for as long as you stay | "$25.00 off every month, for as long as you stay." |
| A discount with free days in front | "14 days free, then 20% off for your first 3 months." |
Stripe never takes more than an invoice. When a dollar amount is more than your price for the room count you typed, the green line says the invoice comes to $0 instead, for example "$50.00 off each of your first 3 months, so each of those invoices is $0."
When you restart a subscription, the green line leaves the free days out, because a restart gets none. A discount with free days in front reads as the discount alone, for example "20% off for your first 3 months." A code that only gives free days reads "This code's 14 free days don't apply to a restart, so it doesn't change your price."
Free days never use up a discount. It starts with your first paid invoice, on Monthly and Yearly alike, the Marketplace trial included. On Monthly with four weeks or more free, how many months you get depends on the date: usually the code's own, sometimes one more, never fewer. The green line and the price panel count the extra month only when you get it however you finish checkout. For a code like that, Stripe's payment page stays open for 11 to 23 hours rather than a full day, so you always start inside the days the discount was worked out for. Stripe dates the discount's end from the day you signed up, free days included, so the end date on the Billing page can come before your code's months are up counted from your first charge. Every discounted charge still falls before it (The billing page has an example).
The price panel re-prices as you type: the list price is struck through, the discounted first invoice stands beside it, and a line says how long it lasts and what follows. Setting up payment shows the panel.
Typing the code
A code is 3 to 40 characters: letters, digits and dashes. Capitals do not matter. The field upper-cases as you type. MAYA checks the code a moment after you stop typing ("Checking…" appears), and checks it again if you switch between Monthly and Yearly, because a limited discount is worth a different number on a yearly invoice. A dollar code is checked again when you change the room count, because it can be more than your invoice. If you continue to payment more than 50 minutes after the last check, MAYA checks the code again first, because how long a discount lasts can depend on the date. If what the code grants has changed, the new words show, a red box says "Your code's terms changed since it was checked. Check them, then continue.", and nothing else happens until you press the button again. If that check can't be reached, the red box says "Couldn't check your code again. Try again in a moment.", the code keeps its green line, and pressing the button again tries again.
You can check a code up to 20 times in 10 minutes. After that: "Too many code attempts. Wait a few minutes and try again."
When a code is refused
Each message means one thing.
- "We don't recognize that code", followed by a suggestion to check it for typos. The code does not exist as typed. Compare it letter by letter with what you were sent.
- "That code has been turned off." We have withdrawn it. Email us.
- "That code has expired." Its end date has passed.
- "That code has already been used the maximum number of times." It had a limit and the limit is reached.
- "This property already used that code." One code, one property, once. This includes restarting a cancelled subscription, because the old code is spent. This one does not show under the field: it appears in a red box above the pay button after you press it.
- "Your session expired", followed by a prompt to sign in again. Your sign-in ran out while the screen was open. Sign in and come back. Nothing you typed on the screen is kept, so type the details again.
- "Couldn't check that code", with a suggestion to try again. MAYA could not reach the code check. Wait a moment and type the last character again.
A required field left empty shows no message. The pay button stays greyed out until a code is accepted.
A typed code is always checked, even when the field is optional. A mistyped code stops checkout rather than being ignored, so you never find out on your card statement that a discount did not apply.
A code with the trial
They never stack. On a Marketplace property, a code that carries free days replaces the 7-day trial with its own number of days. A code that carries a discount and no free days keeps the 7-day trial and discounts the invoices that follow it. On a restart there is no trial to combine with: the code's discount applies and its free days do not. A code cannot be added after checkout. If you have one, type it before you pay, or email us.
Discounts on a yearly plan
On Yearly you pay once a year, so MAYA reshapes some discounts to fit that one invoice. What happens depends on the kind of discount.
- A percentage for fewer than 12 months is spread over the year. "20% off your first 3 months" is taken as 5% off your first year (20% of 3 months is 5% of 12), and the green line ends "which is the same saving."
- A percentage for 12 months or more comes off whole yearly invoices: one for every 12 months of the code, with part of a year counting as a whole one. 12 months is your first year, 13 to 24 months your first 2 years, 25 to 36 your first 3. "20% off your first 18 months" is taken as 20% off your first 2 years, and the green line and the price panel say so.
- A percentage for as long as you stay is not changed.
- Dollars off for a set number of months becomes the whole total, taken once off your first yearly invoice, however many months the code covers. "$25.00 off your first 3 months" is taken as $75.00 off your first invoice. $25.00 off for 24 months is taken as $600.00 off the first invoice only, and the green line says so. It ends "which is the same saving" only when a monthly plan would get every dollar too, that is when no month for your room count costs less than the dollar amount. A total bigger than that invoice brings it to $0, and the green line ends "so that invoice is $0."
- Dollars off for as long as you stay becomes 12 months' worth off every yearly invoice: $25.00 a month is $300.00 off each year. The green line still reads "$25.00 off every month, for as long as you stay."
Switching between monthly and yearly after checkout works differently: moving to yearly ends a discount limited in time instead of reshaping it, and a discount for as long as you stay carries over. Switching between monthly and yearly has the detail.
Example: The Harbour Inn with a 3-month code
The Harbour Inn has 20 rooms, so $110 a month. A code for 20% off the first 3 months makes the first three invoices $88 and the fourth $110. On Yearly the same code makes the first year $1,254 instead of $1,320, which is the same $66 saving, and the second year $1,320.
One code per property, recorded at checkout
The redemption is recorded when your checkout completes. The Billing page does not show which code you used today. Its Discount row says what your code takes off and until when, such as "20% off until March 8, 2027", while a charge with the discount is still to come. Its price hint says "with your code applied" only while a discount from your code is on Stripe's next invoice, so a code that only granted free days, or a discount that has run out, does not show in either. The billing page explains the numbers. Two properties in a group each need their own redemption. A code with a use limit counts each property once.
If the trial ends and you do not pay
When the trial ends, the subscription converts on its own and the card is charged. If the card fails, MAYA keeps working while your bank retries, and stops if the retries run out. Cards, payments and invoices covers that path.
A property that never pays keeps its rules and settings. If it came from the Cloudbeds Marketplace, its imported booking history may be deleted after 180 days without anyone using MAYA for it. Reconnecting reads the history again. Cancelling, restarting and leaving has what is kept and what is not.