Adding a security deposit

A security deposit is an amount you hold to cover costs for cases when your property is damaged during a guest's stay. With a deposit in place, guests are often more mindful of causing damage.

You can make the security deposit fee visible to guests on booking channels by adding it to the listing in Guesty. However, you are responsible for collecting the funds - not the channel. If you want to charge the deposit through Guesty, add a security deposit hold to the reservation. We recommend adding it as soon as you have the guest's payment method.

If you are connected to any of these channels, the security deposit will be visible on them.

• Agoda
• Airbnb
  The security deposit must be between $100 USD and $5,000 USD (or the equivalent of this amount in the listing's currency). For Airbnb reservations, the security deposit is considered an offline fee. The guest will be notified about the deposit requirements/amount when they book their reservation. If you want to display a security deposit in the guest invoice, manually add the security deposit as an additional fee to the reservation. Learn more about security deposits with Airbnb's Help Center article.
• Published Booking.com listings
  Learn more about adding security deposits for Booking.com reservations.
• Expedia
• TripAdvisor
• Vrbo
  The security deposit will display as a "refundable damage deposit". It can take up to 1 hour for the security deposit fee to appear on Vrbo.
• Homes & Villas by Marriott Bonvoy (HVMB)

It is not possible to select or deselect certain channels. If you only want to add a security deposit for specific channels, create an additional fee, select "Deposit" as the fee type, and toggle on the "Add fee to reservations from specific sources" feature to select the relevant channels.

Apply a security 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 left-side menu, click Pricing & policies and select Pricing.
6. To the right of the "Additional fees and charges" section, click Edit.
7. Under "Security deposit fee", enter the relevant amount. Once this amount is set, it cannot be edited further. If you decide to charge it, the full amount will be charged.
8. Click Save.

Make sure you can charge the security deposit

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Operations mode.
3. Click Reservations.
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. Since the deposit can only be held for 7 days, we recommend starting up to 6 days before check-out, leaving you at least 1 day after check-out to charge if needed.
   • Release date: When to release the funds (up to 7 days after you start holding).
   • Payment method: Select the relevant credit card.
7. Click Hold.