Adding a security deposit

A security deposit is an amount you hold to help cover additional costs if your property is damaged during someone's stay. In addition, with a deposit in place guests are often more mindful of their actions that could cause damage.

To make the security deposit fee visible to guests on booking channels, you need to add it to the listing, but you will be in charge of collecting the funds - not the channel. If you want to be able to collect the funds from Guesty, add a security deposit hold to the reservation. We recommend adding it as soon as you have the guest's payment method.

Follow the instructions below based on your current needs.    

Making a security deposit fee visible on booking channels

The fee will be visible on the following booking channels:

• Agoda
• Airbnb: The amount should be between 100 and 5,000 USD or the equivalent of that amount in the listing's currency
• Booking.com, published listings only. You can learn more about adding a security deposit to a published Booking.com listing.
• Expedia
• TripAdvisor
• Vrbo: Known as a "refundable damage deposit"

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Financials mode.
3. Click Properties.
4. Select the relevant listing. For a multi-unit, edit the main settings and the change will update in the sub-units automatically.
5. In the listing's menu, click Pricing & policies.
6. From the drop-down, select Pricing.
7. Find the "Additional fees and charges" section, and click Edit to the right.
8. Under "Security deposit fee", enter the relevant amount.
9. Click Save.

Adding a security deposit hold

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Reservations.
3. Click the relevant reservation.
4. In the banner at the top of the page, click Balance due/Payout.
5. Find the "Payments" section, and to the right, click More and select Add security deposit.
6. In the pop-up, fill out the following fields: 
   • Amount to hold: The full amount of funds to hold
   • Hold date: When to start holding the funds
   • Release date: When to release the funds (no more than seven days after the hold date)
   • Payment method: Select the relevant credit card
7. Click Hold.