Security Deposit Management

Many property owners require a security deposit from their guests before they're due to arrive at the property. If your property does require a security deposit you will need to add it against the property within your admin. 

Adding Security Deposit To Your Property

To add a security deposit to your property you will need to navigate to Properties - select your Property and navigate to the Edit section. Select the Billing tab as displayed below:

Once you have selected this tab you will see a Security Deposit section. Enable the check box next to 'Bookings at this property require a booking deposit' you will then be able to see the below fields: 

You will need to fill in the amount required and specify when the security deposit needs to be paid by in days. If you take payments online through your website you will need to enable 'Allow customer to pay security deposit online' - if you don't take payments online you will need to supply your guests with the relevant details in order to pay this offline within the instructions section. 

Managing Security Deposits

Managing your security deposits within StayTech is a very easy to do. Within security deposits we have created 5 working lists that allows you to view which ones are due, not due, paid/holding, refund due and refunded. To view security deposits navigate to Bookings - once selected you will see Security Deposits as displayed below:

Once selected you will see your working lists that allows you to manage all of your security deposits. Within here you have the ability to mark the security deposit as paid or refunded. 

Marking Security Deposit Payment 

Within your working lists you will see a Due tab, selecting this will display all security deposits that are currently outstanding. To add a security deposit payment to the booking you will need to click on the booking within the security deposit 'due' list, this will take you straight to the security deposit section within the booking itself. You will be able to record the payment within here if the guest has paid offline e.g. via BACS transfer.  

Once you have filled out the relevant information you will need to click the 'Add Security Deposit' button. When navigating back to Security Deposits you will notice that the booking you have just added a security deposit payment to has been added to the Paid/Holiday working list. 

Marking Security Deposit Payment As Refunded

Within your working lists you will see a 'Refund Due' tab, selecting this will allow you to view what security deposits are due to be refunded. You will need to ensure that the security deposit has been paid and is due to be refunded before you can start this process. Select the relevant booking within the 'Refund Due' list, this will take you straight to the security deposit section of the booking. You will notice that the status of the security deposit is 'Due refund'.

If for any reason you are withholding the security deposit, or partially refunding it back to the customer, you will need to provide the guest with a reason within the text box - this will then be within the email that gets sent to the guest once you have clicked the 'Send Refund Notification' button. 

If you are cancelling a booking and refunding the security deposit we would advise refunded the security deposit first so it is tracked on the system.