A Security Deposit is a refundable authorization hold placed on the guest's card.

The funds are temporarily held and can be captured, in full or in part, if damage is reported. If no funds are captured, the authorization is released according to your configured settings and the applicable card authorization rules.

A Damage Waiver is a one-time, non-refundable fee paid by the guest for protection against certain damages.

Unlike a Security Deposit, a Damage Waiver does not place a large authorization hold on the guest's card.

Yes. If both options are enabled, guests can choose between:

The available options are displayed during the Protection step of the online check-in process.

When a new booking is received, ChargeAutomation looks for a matching rule using the following priority:

If no applicable rule is found, the system may fall back to your legacy Auto Payments settings.

Yes. You can void the Security Deposit or Damage Waiver individually, depending on your booking requirements.

If one option is voided, the Guest Portal will automatically update to reflect the remaining requirement.

For example, if the Security Deposit is voided, the Damage Waiver may become the required option for the guest.

Yes. If your settings allow both options, a guest may be able to switch to a Damage Waiver even after a Security Deposit has been authorized.

Platform fees depend on your ChargeAutomation plan:

For bookings that existed before you enabled the Security/Damage Deposit feature, the Pre Check-in email may not be sent automatically.

To resend the Pre Check-in link manually:

The guest can use the link to complete their online check-in and any required Security Deposit or Damage Waiver steps.

An authorization essentially means that a hold is placed on the guest’s credit card for the amount of the security deposit. Stripe does not charge a fee for this transaction but ChargeAutomation charges a minimal amount.

The maximum holding period is 28 days for Visa and 30 days for Amex/MasterCard/Discover, if you're using Stripe. Otherwise its 7 days. It will be auto released 3 days after checkout, and can be set up to automatically restart for an additional 7 days if the guest’s stay exceeds the initial 7-day authorization window. Once the 7 days expire, the funds are released back onto the card. In the case where damage to the property is detected, you may choose to capture the full or a partial amount of the security deposit. This amount will not be released back to the guest after the 7 days. Review our article on How to Capture Security/Damage Deposits for more instructions on how to capture the full or a partial amount of the security deposit in Stripe.

We have a special agreement with Stripe and we are giving all Stripe users free access to extended authorization window.

The extended maximum holding period depends on the card type and the country the card is from:

Amex 30 days

Visa 28 days (Japan 7 days)

Mastercard 30 days

Discover 30 days

A charge is a transaction that collects and deducts funds from the guest’s credit card. Your Payment Gateway will charge a fee for this transaction. In order to return funds that have been charged, it is necessary to perform a refund.

Yes, you can choose which booking sources will use this feature by going to:
Settings > Account Setup > 2. Payment Rules > select your Booking Source > Security / Damage Deposit.

Learn more about Setting up Security/Damage Deposit Collection.

You may customize when the authorization process will begin, the options are from 1 hour before check-in to 365 days before check-in. An authorization will be processed successfully as long as the guest has provided a valid credit card with sufficient funds.

If you detect any damage to the property once the guest has left, you may opt to capture funds from the security deposit authorization. If you need to withhold only part of the security deposit, the specified amount will be taken from the pre-authorized hold, and the remaining unused portion of the deposit will be automatically released to the guest's credit card once the transaction is finalized.

See our article on How to Capture Security/Damage Deposits for more detailed instructions.

Authorizations are automatically returned 7 days after the initial transaction, it's also extend up to 28 days for Visa, 30 days for Discover/MasterCard/Amex or 3 days after check out. When you enable the "Keep extending the authorization until the end of checkout" option in your settings, the system ensures that the guest's card authorization remains valid throughout their entire stay, automatically extending it as needed and releasing it three days post-check-out. For example, if you choose to begin the authorization 1 day before check-in, you will notice that the authorization window will be calculated from that date. You have the option to restart the authorization if a guest’s stay exceeds the initial 7-day authorization window. If this option is selected, and if a guest’s stay exceeds the initial 7-day authorization, the authorization will automatically restart for an additional 7 days until the guest checks out.

We recommend you select this option to ensure you have access to the security deposit right up until the guest leaves so that you have time to assess if there were any damages and if you would need to capture a portion or all of the security deposit. Once the authorization expires, you no longer have access to these held funds.

Yes, security deposit authorizations are specific to individual bookings, necessitating separate approval for each new reservation. If a guest has an existing approved authorization for a prior booking, a new security deposit authorization must still be completed for any subsequent reservations. This rule ensures financial security for each transaction and safeguards both the host and guest. Even for repeat guests or related stays by the same guest, each booking must have its own security deposit authorization. This process ensures that each reservation is individually secured and properly documented in your system.

If you would like to return the authorized funds prior to the authorization period expiring, you can do so directly through Stripe. See instructions for How to manually cancel a credit card authorization.

We generally discourage releasing funds manually as it adds manual work to a process that is otherwise entirely automated. Usually a guest is ok to wait once they know when they can expect the funds to return to their card.

ChargeAutomation will continue to send automatic notifications to the guest, reminding them of the requirement to provide valid credit card details via the Pre Check-in Wizard within 24 hours of making their booking. An automatic email will be sent to you once the 24 hour deadline has passed and payment or payment details have not been provided. At this point you may notify your booking source who will advise you of the time frame required in order to cancel the booking at no charge.

ChargeAutomation does not actually have the power to release a credit hold. What we do is, we notify your credit card processor that we no longer require the hold.

The processor then notifies their interchange bank, which then notifies the bank that issued the guest's credit card, which releases the hold.

These action are supposed to take place more or less instantly - but that doesn't always happen. In particular, it is common for the guest's bank not to release the hold for several days after they've been notified that they can. It is extremely common, almost the norm, for this to happen if the guest is using a debit card. This is why many hotels and rental car companies recommend that you not use a debit card - they use holds too, and suffer from the same problem.

We have absolutely no control over this, it is entirely a function of the guest's bank. Sometimes the guest can call their bank and get their customer service folks to dig into the records, find the message to release the hold, and make it happen more quickly. Other times they just have to wait until it clears itself out, however long that may take. It's important to communicate to the guest that the resolution to such delays largely lies with their financial institution. While you can support the process by providing details like the STAN number for the transaction, the timeframe for refunds remains outside your control. For better tracking, access the transaction within your system (e.g., Stripe), locate the System Trace Audit Number (STAN), and provide it to the guest for their bank to efficiently trace the refund within their systems.

If the guest's bank is unable to locate the funds even with the STAN:

Security deposit is automatically released 3 days after check-out day to give hosts enough time to check for damages.

When re-authorization is enabled ("Keep extending the authorization until the end of checkout") in Auto Payments for Security deposit, system will keep on re-authorizing the deposit until 3 days after check-out day depending on the holding period of the card which could be 7 or 30 days.

"Authorize Now (without 3D)" refers to a payment authorization process where transactions are approved without requiring the additional security step of 3D Secure authentication.

3D Secure (3DS) is an extra layer of security that involves the cardholder verifying their identity through a password or a one-time code.

When an authorization is performed without 3D Secure, it means that the transaction is approved based solely on the information provided by the cardholder, without the need for the additional authentication step. This may result in a faster and more streamlined payment process, but it may also carry a slightly higher risk as it bypasses the extra security measure.

The error message "The provided PaymentMethod has failed authentication. You can provide a new one or complete authentication again" in Stripe indicates that the payment method provided by the customer during a transaction has failed the authentication process.

This means that Stripe was unable to verify the authenticity of the payment method or the identity of the cardholder.

There are several possible reasons for this error message:

To resolve this issue, you have a couple of options:

ChargeAutomation sends requests for authorizations in the currency that your account is set to, which is normally the same as the currency your Payment Gateway uses.

When the authorization is processed by the guest's credit card issuer, it is processed in the currency that the guest's card use. This can lead to differences, sometimes large ones, in the amount that was sent, and the amount the guest sees.

Examples

Typically, if you open the transaction in your Payment Gateway you will be able to see where the card was issued, and what currency it uses. Simply look up the current conversion rate from the currency your account uses, to the currency of the guests card, to see if the amounts are correct.

The €0.0 appears during the authentication process is simply a check to verify the validity of the card.

This is a separate step from actually collecting or authorizing the deposit amount. Some banks may display a zero amount during the authentication process.

Once completed, our system will automatically collect the deposit according to the rules you have set for Security Deposit in Auto Payments.