What is a pre-authorization?

Authorization hold (also card authorization, pre-authorization, or pre-auth) is a service offered by credit and debit card providers whereby the provider puts a hold of the amount approved by the cardholder, reducing the balance of available funds until the merchant completes the transaction (capture) or cancels it, or the hold expires.

When does a pre-auth expire?

A pre-auth expires after 7 days of the pre-auth creation. This timeframe is set by Stripe and it cannot be changed from Hostify. Once the pre-auth expires, the amount held will be released and the guest will have that amount available in their credit/debit card again.

What happens when you partially capture a pre-authorized amount?

Capturing can only happen once. If you capture part of the pre-authorized amount, Stripe will immediately refund/release the remaining amount to the guest card. For instance, if you have pre-authorized 400$ and capture 100$, Stripe will immediately refund 300$ to the guest card.

What is the difference between Capture and Charge?
Capturing an amount only applies to pre-authorization. It is basically instructing Stripe to charge the requested amount from the pre-authorized amount. I can be a full or a partial capture.
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Charging a card means taking an amount from a debit or credit card. Charging is independent of any pre-authorized amount. You could charge a card that already has a hold but it will not mean that the held amount will be captured. You would just take the amount charged from the card.
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When a credit card is authorized, it places those funds on hold for a period of time determined by the bank. Capture will charge the person's card and remove the previous authorization from the credit card. Charge simply charges the credit card and doesn't remove the authorization amounts placed on the card.