Setting up and working with security deposits

How to set up and work with security deposits for your rental products

Security deposits are a risk management tool for you. Rentle provides automatic security deposits together with Rentle Payments, Stripe as a third-party payment processor and manual security deposits.

Note: Pre-authorized security deposits only work together with Rentle Payments and Stripe and when a customer pays by credit or debit card.

Introduction to security deposits

Security deposits work as a risk management tool for you for example in the case of damaged items or late returns. With Rentle, you’ll be able to enable deposits on a product level and there are two ways security deposits can be used with Rentle:

As automatic security deposits
1. Funds are automatically reserved from the customer’s payment card before the booking begins.
2. They only work together with Rentle Payments and Stripe and when the customer pays by credit or debit card.

Note: Pre-authorized security deposits via Stripe are limited to 7 days

As manual security deposits
1. Rentle will not reserve any funds. Deposit needs to be manually reserved outside Rentle.
2. Manual deposits allow you to communicate at the point of booking that a deposit will be reserved upon pick-up.
3. Rentle’s order view will allow you to keep track of any reserved deposits and remind you to return them.

Both options will allow you to communicate to your customers at the point of booking that a deposit is required and how it will be reserved.

Deposits and their status are always visible for staff member when opening an individual order.

How automatic security deposits work

Rentle's security deposits are technically a pre-authorization that Rentle makes on your client's payment card. Rentle doesn't charge the funds from the bank account, we only block the funds temporarily until you release them after items are succesfully returned.

Here's how they work:

You choose which products to enable a security deposit for. Read: how to enable security deposits.
As your customer chooses a product with a security deposit, only card payments are possible (Online banking, Apple and Google Pay are excluded)
Your customer confirms & pays the order online
Funds will be automatically reserved from the customers card 24h before the order begins. The customer receives an automatic email notifying about the reserved deposit.
You'll also have an option to manually reserve the deposit by opening the order and clicking on the "Reserve" button under the deposit.
Deposit reservation will fail if the customer does not have sufficient funds. Read: How deposit reservation failures are handled
You’ll see the deposit status from the order view in your Rentle Admin App.
After you mark the order as returned, the deposit will be automatically released.
In case you need to charge the deposit, you’ll need to do it before marking the order as returned. Read: How to charge a deposit.

How manual security deposits work

With manual security deposits Rentle does not reserve any funds from the customer. They allow you to communicate to your customers that a deposit will be reserved on site and it is up to you how to reserve the deposit.

Manual security deposits are used in two cases:

Rentle Payments or Stripe are not activated
If you do not have Rentle Payments or Stripe activated but you have enabled security deposits Manual security deposits do not need to be separately activated.
You have manual payment methods enabled
If you allow the customer to use manual payment methods in addition to online payments, the deposit will be handled as a manual deposit whenever the manual payment method is used at checkout.

Here's how they work:

You choose which products to enable a security deposit for. Read: how to enable security deposits.
As your customer chooses a product with a security deposit in your online store, they'll be informed about the security deposit.
Your customer pays & confirms the order with any of the payment methods you have enabled.
You’ll see the deposit status from the order view in your Rentle Admin App:
With manual deposits, it is up to you how you actually reserve the deposit from your customer.
By clicking the edit icon in step 4 above, you'll be able to edit the deposit amount or type if needed:
Manual deposits will trigger a reminder for your staff to return the deposit when the order is marked as returned.
Return or charge a deposit outside of Rentle with the tool/system that you are reserving deposits with.

Defining Security Deposits

Security deposits are defined on a product level, meaning you choose yourself which products require a security deposit and the deposit amount to be reserved.
Here's how to enable them:

In your Rentle Admin App, navigate to Catalog > Products > [choose the product you want to set up a deposit for] > Settings.
Scroll down to the Deposit section.
Define the deposit amount.
Remember to save your settings.

How to charge a deposit

In case you need to charge something using the reserved deposit, you'll be able to charge the whole amount or a partial amount.

Go to your Bookings page
Open the booking you need to charge a deposit from
On the right of the page, click on Payment overview
Under Payment history you'll see the deposit reservation, click Charge
A dialog will open and you'll be able to define the amount to charge and give a reason for charging the deposit.
The customer will receive an automated email notifying about this charge. The reason stated above will be communicated in this email.
If this was an automatic security deposit You'll be able to view the receipt for the payment under Payment history.

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How are deposit reservation failures handled?

Rentle will try to reserve automatic security deposits 24 hours before the booking starts. This reservation will fail if the customer does not have sufficient funds available.

Here's what happens if a deposit reservation fails:

The customer will receive an automated email communicating about the failed reservation.
The email reminds the customer to ensure sufficient funds are available and let's them know that a new deposit reservation will be tried 2 hours before the booking starts.
You'll be able to view the deposit status from the order view.
Failed deposits will show an Unreserved status
If the new try 2 hours before the booking starts also fails, you'll need to handle the deposit some other way.