Paying & Tracking
Money needs to move. History needs to persist.
The jobs
Paying
Traveller: Pay securely across any agent Venue: Receive payment without friction
Payments should work the same whether I'm booking through ChatGPT, a hotel's own app, or a travel agent's system.
Tracking
Traveller: See all my bookings in one place Venue: Manage bookings from any source
I book through different agents. I need one view of everything. Venues receive bookings from everywhere. They need one system to manage them.
What's broken today
You book a hotel through ChatGPT, a restaurant through another app, a tour through a third. Three separate payment flows, three confirmation emails, three places to check if something changes.
For travellers:
- Re-enter payment details for every booking
- No unified booking history
- Miss updates buried in separate email threads
For venues:
- Bookings from multiple sources with different flows
- Payment complexity varies by channel
- Reconciliation nightmares across systems
What changes with agents
A world of AI agents needs a single identity layer for payments. Book through any agent, pay through one system, see everything in one place.
One wallet, every booking: Store your payment methods once. Authorise transactions with a tap. Doesn't matter which agent found the venue—payment flows through the same system.
Payment terms as structured data: Deposit amount, balance due date, cancellation policy, modification fees. Not buried in terms and conditions—structured so agents can explain them clearly and enforce them correctly.
Unified history: Every booking you've made through any Selfe-connected agent, in one place. Upcoming trips, past stays, receipts, confirmations. Your travel history portable and complete.
How the specs answer this
| Spec | What it does |
|---|---|
Folio.paymentSchedule | When money moves: deposit at booking, balance before arrival |
Folio.cancellationPolicy | Tiered refund rules based on timing |
Folio.modificationPolicy | Rules for changing bookings after commitment |
Stay.states | Track booking status through lifecycle |
Stay.webhooks | Notify systems of state changes |
Why hospitality payments are different
| Aspect | Retail | Hospitality |
|---|---|---|
| Payment timing | At purchase | Split across dates |
| Fulfilment | Days after payment | Weeks/months after booking |
| Cancellation | Rarely allowed | Core feature with refund decay |
| No-show | N/A | Triggers penalty charge |
Hospitality needs payment semantics that understand:
- Deposits vs balance
- Cancellation windows
- Modification fees
- No-show penalties
The Folio spec expresses these as structured data that agents can understand and communicate clearly.
The Wallet
The Wallet is the guest-facing app that handles payment authorisation:
- Store payment methods once, use everywhere
- Authorise transactions with a tap
- Track booking history across all agents
- Works with any Selfe-connected agent
One wallet for the entire ecosystem.