What is a Damage Deposit?
At Stay24, we collect a fully refundable security deposit before each stay without exception. This page is designed to help you understand why we collect this deposit and how the refund process works
Why do we collect the deposit?
At Stay24, we take great pride in providing our guests with exceptional and well-maintained properties. Our team invests significant time, effort, and resources to ensure that every stay is a memorable experience. While the vast majority of our guests treat our properties with the utmost respect, we collect a Security Deposit to protect against any potential damages or breaches of our policies. The Security Deposit serves as a safeguard to ensure that the property is protected and that our house rules are adhered to. Here are some examples of circumstances where some or all of the deposit may be permanently retained by Stay24:
Damage caused to the property or its contents
Replacement costs for missing items
Security call-outs and removal costs
Late check-outs or failure to check out on time
Call-out fees for additional services
Extra or specialist cleaning requirements
Unauthorized late check-outs
Serious breaches of our rules
Compensation for disturbances to neighbours
How does the deposit work?
Stay24 utilizes Stripe, one of the world's most secure payment systems, to authorize and hold the Security Deposits. Here's how it works:
Guests enter their card details when requested. Please note that we cannot accept cash deposits.
Stripe securely holds these details and will attempt to "Authorise" the payment 24 hours before check-in. While it may appear on the guest's bank account that the funds have left their account, at no point does this happen. Stripe essentially places a temporary block on these funds, ensuring that there is enough money allocated to the Security Deposit, should we need to charge the guest.
After the guest has checked out, our team will conduct an inspection of the property within 24 hours. Once we have been given the all-clear, we will cancel the authorisation, and the guest's funds will appear as available in their account again.
When do we return the deposit?
Once the cleaning team has confirmed that all is well with the property and no rules were broken, the authorisation to capture the funds will automatically be cancelled. This will usually result in the funds showing as available in your account within a couple of days. However, depending on your bank, this process can take up to 10 days. Please note that you might not see the funds "re-enter" your account. For most guests, it will cancel the original "transaction" and will simply appear as though the transaction did not happen at all. After 10 days, if you haven't seen the funds "re-enter" your account as a line on your statement, please check whether the original transaction has disappeared. If it has not, please reach out to our team, and we will investigate.