Security deposit

In this article, we have tried to describe in as much detail and clarity as possible how the security deposit collection service we use works. At the beginning of the article, there is a list of the most frequently asked questions on this topic. You can read the entire article or select any of the questions and move to the part of the article that contains the answer to this question.

In this article you will find answers to the following questions:

• What technologies are used to collect and return the security deposit?
• How is the process for collecting the security deposit implemented?
• How is it determined which reservation a guest’s security deposit applies to?
• What should the link sent to guests look like?
• How can I make sure that the link being sent is not fake and leads to safe sites?
• What should the secure page of beds24.com look like, to which the received link leads?
• What should the secure stripe.com page where payment is made look like?
• How does Stripe keep the data we transmit secure?
• In what cases will I not get my security deposit money back?
• How is the deposit refunded?
• Several days have passed since the departure, but I do not see any deposit refund transactions in my personal account. Why?

Due to the lack of the sites on which we post advertisements, their own tools for compensating for damage that guests may cause while staying with us. We were forced to look for solutions from third-party services that would allow us to collect and return the security deposit.
We set the following requirements that the security deposit collection service had to meet:

• high level of protection for payment data transmitted by the user;
• reliability and stable operation of the service;
• ease of making a security deposit;
• ease of managing the funds received;
• the ability to match the security deposit made by the guest with his booking.

Technologies

As a result, the choice fell on the tools provided by the service for automating business in the hospitality industry beds24.com in conjunction with the international payment system stripe (stripe.com).

I will write a few words about the selected services.
Beds24.com is a comprehensive solution for the hotel business that allows you to manage reservations, listings, calendars, payments, guest communications and many other workflows in one place. The company is a preferred and leading channel management partner with Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, Expedia. Connectivity partner with Marriot, Google for vacation rentals and Google Hotel Ads.
beds24 has implemented a secure and automated collection of payments and deposits and is a partner of such a large international payment system as Stripe.

Stripe is a multifunctional international payment platform. It provides a high degree of payment protection, offers a wide range of up-to-date payment methods, guarantees convenience for both sellers and buyers.
Stripe offers:

• functional tools that allow you to set up online payments in an online store and a reliable payment gateway;
• invoicing and dispute resolution functions.

Stripe allows you to receive payments from all over the world in 135 currencies, works with Google and Apple Pay mobile wallets, as well as bank cards of various systems: VISA, American Express, MasterCard, Discover, etc.
The PCI Service Provider Level 1 certificate ensures information security and prevents data leaks. Thanks to it, all payment data is encrypted using TLS (SSL).
Customer support is available 24/7. The user can choose the most suitable channel for communication (in most cases, customers choose chat or email).

Description of how the security deposit collection service is implemented.

Advertisements with our rooms are posted on sites such as booking.com, airbnb.com, agoda.com, expedia.com and others. On beds24.com, all the necessary information is also entered for each of our rooms, a calendar is set up and synchronization with ads from other sites is set up. When a room is booked on any of the sites, the dates for this booking are automatically closed in the beds24 calendar and the booking is assigned a unique identifier.
Based on the booking identifier, a link to a secure payment request page on the beds24 website is automatically generated for each booking, which has the following content:

• some booking details (property name, booking number and booking period);
• fee amount;
• the “Pay Now” button, when clicked, you will be redirected to a secure page of the Stripe payment system.
  The link to the page described above must have the following structure:
  https://beds24.com/bookpay.php?bookid=[your bookingID]&g=st&capture=0&pay=[amount of payment].

When you click on the “Pay Now” button, you are redirected to a secure page of the Stripe payment system.
The page has the following content:

• a form for entering bank card details;
• information about the amount;
• information containing the name of the advert for which the booking was created in beds24 and the number of this booking in the beds24 system.
• the name of the company whose Stripe account is connected to beds24 and is used to generate the payment link. In our case, the name “bonrooms.com” is always indicated, this is our company’s website, where we also place adverts with our rooms, and we also indicated this name for the account in the Stripe payment system.

The link to the page described above must have the following structure:
https://checkout.stripe.com/c/pay/[key id]

To be sure of the security of your transactions, before entering your bank card details, make sure that the following conditions are met:

• a link to collect the security deposit was sent to you in the chat of the site where you made the reservation.
• sites where we have the ability to send you a message with a link through the internal chat of the site (booking.com, expedia.com, bonrooms.com, hotels.com)
• in the case of bookings through agoda and some sites cooperating with expedia, we do not have the ability to send a message with a link through the chat of the site where the reservation was made, in this case we send the link only via WhatsApp and at the request of the guest to his email address. When you receive a link via WhatsApp, make sure that the message was sent from our official number specified in the contact information of the reservation (currently the current number is: +34 641 692 581).
• by following the link provided to you and clicking on the “Pay Now” button, make sure that the address of the page you are on begins with “https://checkout.stripe.com/c/pay/”.
• a lock or information that the connection is secure should be displayed on the right side of the address bar (it may look different in different browsers).

Please note that the bank card details you provide are used only to make a payment for the amount specified on the payment page. The Stripe payment system does not transfer your bank card details to third parties, including the company that receives payment for this payment. All your data is securely protected, stored and transmitted only in encrypted form. In the article at this link you can learn how stripe.com ensures the security of your payments: https://docs.stripe.com/security.

After the guest fills out the payment form, the security deposit will be blocked from your credit card.

Money from the security deposit may not be returned in the following cases:

• damage to the accommodation provided to guests and things in it;
• theft of things;
• if after the guests’ departure cleaning was required with the involvement of third-party services;
• failure to pay for additional services that were provided to guests during their stay (including late check-in);
• a fine for smoking in the apartment in the amount of 50 euros.
  Money from the security deposit is deducted for the amount of damage caused, the rest of the funds blocked on the card is returned to the guest.

If after checking the room we do not find any damage and you pay for all the services you provided, the security deposit will be fully returned to your card.

About the return of the deposit.

The initialization of the return of the deposit is made the day after the guest’s departure. Depending on the guest’s bank, the operation can take up to 7 days, but most often it is done much faster.
Usually, information about the return is not displayed in the payment history in the bank’s personal account, the balance on the guest’s card should simply increase by the amount of the returned amount (100 euros).
Also, in the personal accounts of some banks, the payment transaction is completely deleted from the payment history after the payment is cancelled, as if it never happened. But when the guest’s bank processes the cancellation, the balance on the card should increase by the amount of the returned amount.

I hope this article helped you find answers to all your questions about the security deposit and this will contribute to your comfortable stay with us without any worries or concerns.