Refundable damage deposit - how it is displayed in quotes

I think it is starting to become more important. Since the OTA shenanigans, I started to advert more on social media. But what happens is that people DO NOT READ which means that when I direct them to the website and they see a quote, they balk because they DO NOT UNDERSTAND that deposit amount is refundable even though my "surcharge" description says "REFUNDABLE damage deposit" , refundable being capitalized. So they get scared of the quote amount.
I know Chris was saying something will be possibly done about displaying and /or collecting deposit separately, also so that travel insurance does not include deposit amount either. Staying tuned for the updates.

Yep, breaking out the refundable deposit is high on the dev list.

We just released a TI feature where the guest can edit the amount, so they can fix it for that. That's so they can also add flights etc. that they want to be covered as well.

I am resurrecting this. again, get so many comments saying "I do not want to pay 2K" .. well it is actually $1700 plus $300 deposit. People just do not read or understand that deposit is refundable. I do not know what else to do - I already capitalized the "REFUNDABLE" in the description...

Totally understand - guests don't seem to get it. Either that or they don't have much wiggle room on their credit card. Ha!

I have switched to a security deposit "hold" to see how that works. I've re-written several of the OR emails that go out to emphasize I will be putting a hold on their CC. Will see what kind of response I get. Now I have to figure out how to handle things if there is damage. :) One more thing I know OR has planned for but I have no idea where it is in the system. Learning curve....

Let me know how it works. I am reluctant to do it.

What makes you reluctant to do the hold? In the long run ends up the same as a refundable, or in other words the guest can do a chargeback on a refundable deposit just the same as they could on a hold.

The only way to avoid that is to take the refundable deposit via a cash/check/venmo type method where there is no chargeback possibility after it clears.

a few things. If I eliminate the refundable deposit and it is not longer shown in the quote.
Scenario: renter wants to pay by check/venmo. So they pay and think they are done. Now I have to contact them, explain to them that they need to put deposit either on CC or send me another check. That is very manual. Not everyone wants to use CC after they already paid by check/venmo.

Also, will it look deceiving to the renter, no? When they see quote without deposit and then find out that they need to put one down via either additional check or CC auth. What it will do is create more manual steps for those who pay by check or venmo-like services.
Unless you can set it up in some way that is clear and does not involve manual steps and I do not know about it?

When we take a security deposit hold on the credit card they used to book, normally it never even shows up on their account or statement, so you rarely run into that problem.

When they are paying with a check, you are right that there can be some confusion. Usually the listing sites display your security deposit amount so nobody is truly blindsided (although they may not have noticed it.) You can also put it in your rules or descriptions or some other text field, such as in bold or all caps to make sure they have no excuse.

If you are going to accept checks at all, there's no getting around manual steps, since OR has no way of knowing when/whether you actually got the check and/or it cleared.

I wish I didn't have to, but I find venmo and the like convenient. especially since it cannot be charged back!! I started incentivising payments by check/venmo/zelle because I already had 2 cc charge backs this year - one despite rental agreement that he signed and everything, the other via BDC when she booked and paid after cancellation window. Since she could not cancel, she just charged back, what a scum :-(

We now support Refundable Damage Deposits as part of our built-in security deposit feature. Read the announcement here:

https://www.ownerrez.com/blog/refundable-security-deposits-quotes-can-hold-dates-batch-update-for-qb-sync

This should solve this request because you no longer need to include a special surcharge inside the booking charges. The RDD is now done as a separate thing, if you choose to turn it on.

Yes!