Rental fees and deposits

When residents reserve high-value amenities — clubhouses, pavilions, boat slips — most communities charge a rental fee, a refundable cleaning deposit, or both. This article covers how the money flow works.

The two charge types

Type	What it is	Refundable?
Rental fee	Pays for the use of the amenity	No (unless cancelled before deadline)
Cleaning deposit	Held against damage / cleanup	Yes — refunded after inspection

Rental fees are revenue. Deposits are held in trust and refunded if the amenity comes back in good shape.

Rental fees

Configure under [Amenity] → Rental Fee:

• Amount — flat fee per booking, e.g., $100 for clubhouse, $50 for pavilion
• Charged when — at booking confirmation, or at the start of the rental
• Refund handling on cancel — currently a manual decision; admins issue a refund if appropriate

When a resident books an amenity with a fee:

1. They see the fee at checkout
2. They confirm the booking
3. The fee is charged immediately (or at the configured time)
4. A Booking Fee entry is added to their property’s ledger

The money flows the same way as dues — through Stripe to your HOA’s bank account. The resident sees it as a charge alongside their dues in their portal.

Cleaning deposits

Deposits are held — not charged — until the booking is complete and the amenity is inspected.

Configure the deposit amount per amenity — typically $100–$500 depending on amenity value. The deposit is authorized as a hold on the resident’s card; the funds aren’t actually moved until you decide to capture them.

How holds work

When a resident books an amenity with a deposit:

1. The deposit amount is authorized on their card via Stripe
2. The hold appears on their statement as “Pending”
3. Funds aren’t actually moved — they’re reserved
4. After the booking, you decide: release the hold (refund) or capture it (forfeit)

This is the same mechanic hotels use for incidentals. Residents see “$200 pending” but nothing actually charged unless something goes wrong.

After the booking

When the booking ends, you have a short window to inspect and decide:

• Release — the hold is released. The pending charge drops off the resident’s card. They paid nothing.
• Forfeit (full or partial) — the hold is captured. Money moves from the resident’s card to the HOA. The transaction becomes a real charge.

To act on a deposit:

1. Go to the booking
2. Choose to Release or Forfeit the deposit
3. If forfeiting, enter the amount (full or partial) and a reason

If you don’t act within a few days of the booking ending, the system auto-releases the hold. This is intentional — you should never silently hold deposits indefinitely.

A worked example

Lot 14 books the clubhouse for a wedding reception.

Booking confirmation (March 1):

• Rental fee: $100 — charged immediately, lands in HOA’s Stripe balance
• Cleaning deposit: $200 — authorized as a hold on resident’s card

Day of event (March 15):

• Resident uses the clubhouse
• Cleans up after, returns key, all good

Inspection (March 17):

• Admin walks through the clubhouse — clean, no damage
• Admin clicks Release Deposit
• $200 hold drops off the resident’s card

Final state:

• Resident paid: $100 (rental fee)
• Resident’s deposit: returned in full

If instead the clubhouse was left a mess and a cleaning service was called:

• Admin enters a partial forfeit: $150 (cost of cleaning service)
• $150 captured from resident’s deposit, $50 released
• Resident’s card shows: $100 rental fee + $150 cleaning fee

Deferred-charge bookings

Some bookings should be charged at the start of the rental, not at confirmation. Examples:

• Multi-day events where the date is far out and you don’t want to bill yet
• Long-term reservations (a month of guest parking)
• Bookings that frequently get cancelled

For these, configure the Charged when field to At rental start:

• Booking is confirmed without payment
• Amount is charged on the booking start date automatically
• If the booking is cancelled before start, no charge

Per-amenity configuration. Most communities use At confirmation as the default; deferred is for specific cases.

Cancellations

When a resident cancels a paid booking, the rental fee handling depends on what your community has agreed to. Currently there isn’t a tiered automated policy — refunds for cancellations are manual decisions made by an admin.

If a resident cancels and you’ve agreed they should get a refund (medical emergency, family situation, etc.), issue a manual refund — see Issuing refunds.

For deposit holds on cancelled bookings: release the hold so the authorization drops off the resident’s card.

When the resident can’t pay the deposit

If a resident’s card is declined when the deposit hold is attempted:

• The booking goes into Payment Failed status
• The resident gets an email with a link to retry payment
• If they don’t retry within the configured grace period, the booking is auto-cancelled
• The slot is released for someone else to book

The grace period is 24 hours by default.

Forfeit vs. fine

Forfeiting a deposit is not the same as fining a resident:

• Forfeit — money already authorized, captured for actual cleanup / damage cost. Limited to the deposit amount.
• Fine — separate charge for rule violations. Goes through the violation flow (Issuing a fine).

If damage exceeds the deposit, you can:

1. Forfeit the full deposit
2. Issue a separate fine for the additional cost
3. Both attach to the property’s ledger

Common situations

”Resident says they didn’t realize there was a deposit”

The deposit is shown at checkout. They confirmed by clicking through. But a courtesy: re-send them the confirmation email explaining the deposit hold and how it works. Most “I didn’t know” complaints are about the pending nature of the hold, not the existence of one.

”We want to charge different fees on weekends”

Currently each amenity has one rental fee. Weekend / time-of-day variation isn’t supported in the fee config.

”A resident’s card was declined when we tried to forfeit”

Card might be expired or closed. Two options:

1. Contact the resident, ask them to update the card on file, retry the forfeit
2. If unrecoverable, write off the deposit and issue a fine for the cleanup cost — fines are persistent on the ledger and stay attached to the property even if the card changes

”Can we charge a non-refundable cleaning fee instead of a deposit?”

Yes — set it as a regular Rental fee (not a deposit). The resident pays it at booking and doesn’t get it back. Some communities prefer this because it’s simpler than the hold-and-inspect flow.

Where to go next

• Setting up amenities — config the basics
• Approval workflows — for fee-bearing amenities that need sign-off
• Issuing refunds — when manual refunds are needed
• How the ledger works — booking fees in the bigger picture