Security Deposit

[Jane78]

Hello... I think I got a cancellation on a stay, becuase I included the secuity deposit and the cost of the stay.

And the "lodgers" didn't seem to want to pay both.

Is this correct?

If not, can someone tell please advise me on the correct way to handle lodging and secuity.

All help is much appreciated.

Thank You Very Much! 🙂

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

The security deposit is not paid up front by the guest - it;s just a charge held against their credit card in case there is a claim. So there would be no reason for them to cancel based on a security deposit.

All they pay when booking is the rental fee, cleaning fee and AirBnB fee.

Hope that helps

[Orchid-安-0]

If a guest, "lodger", going to book your listing, then they have to accept both the fee of the stay and the security, and of course the security will automatically refund to them if nothing damages happens during their stay and they behave according to your house rules.

On airbnb, even if you don't set up a security deposti, if the guest demage something in the listing they stay, you can still claim the cost to replay the item they demaged, even if they have already left the house, you'll need to claim via Airbnb, within 24 hours, with evident. 

Personally, I have never set up any deposit, and I have hosted almost 400 group of guests now, nothing seriously bad ever happened.

It is my personally opinion that, Airbnb is based on a certain degree of trust, so I'd ask myself as a guest, that if I want to book a listing with a security deposit or not, and my answer is certainly not, not that I'm afraid of demage anything in the house I want to book, but the feeling about the trust is very important to me. 

Happy host! Orchid, from Xiamen, a small island on the south of China. 

[Andrea9]

@Jane78 @Orchid-安-0

As @Gerry-And-Rashid0 said, the security deposit is never charged as such, only held against their credit card or account. In case of a damage claim the amount will be deducted from their card or account. But there is never any amount to be 'refunded'.

Some hosts are lucky and never need the deposit, but if you peruse this forum you will find many hosts who trusted and were burned for it by damages. Guests who are not willing to agree with a security deposit while using somebody else's property, will probably not be the most considerate of guests.

Just think of it - no car rental is willing to rent a car without a security deposit.

[Orchid-安-0]

Right, the term I used as "refund" was not correct. Sorry for that. 

It's very interesting to hear different opinions, thanks for mention me @Andrea9 . In my personal opinion, the city, or the whole national I live- China, is a country generally lack of trust, and because of this, I want to share my heat of trust to people, so that they would learn a little bit about trust, even if I have to pay for my price. I had once have a glass table at the living room broken whlile guests' stay, and they told me that table was broken itself during their sleep, and my fist reaction was not happy, one would find it hard to believe a table would broken itself. And I have to be honest with you, that when I fist heard of it, I almost wanted to say I don't belive it would broke itself to the guest. But I let it sit, and then I said, well, as long as no one's get hurt, that's fortunate.  That guest didn't say goodbye to me when she left the house(it's listed as whole apartment). And that was very unusual, as that is a super beautiful listing, and every single guest would say nice word to me when they leave. As time pass by, the guest started to talk to me via wechat message- a local social media similar to facebook- as I always added my guest on it just so as easier to communicate. And sometimes I wonder what was the truth. But it didn't matter anymore, because even if it was the guest that broke the table, that'd be always something in her, and she knows, and I think that is enough, and I'm willing to pay for my price for it. 

At the very least, you can still claim to charge the guests if any damage, doesn't matter you have the security deposit or not. 

Anyways, it's all about everyone's personal choice weather or not having the security deposite.