Do you think adding a Security deposit discourages booking?

21

Right, and it’s still damaged.

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22

It never discouraged me unless it was some outrageous deposit of 1000$ for 30$ room.
I personally dont have any damage deposit on my rooms, and i really did no thave significant damages that were worth to claim. May be a towel or sheets, but very rarely.

23

I have always had a very big security deposit, and a very big cleaning fee, (labour prices in Denmark are killed high so im not making money off of it), as I have a very expensive apartment, with luxury things. I find that it only discourages the people who should not be in my place any way :wink: My apartment is booked around 85% of the time.

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24

I love that idea! Thanks for the tip.

25

Damage is damage, but I rent my whole house, and folks have done obvious damage that they denied or lied about. Good, bad or indifferent, folks will take better care of your stuff if you’re there to keep an eye on it.

26

I had three guests break small things…
Glasses,
Cracked a window pane (but the windows are old and flimsy)
Stain a rug - no big deal, it was only a 30gbp rug and they stayed a month
I have never taken it out the deposit or charged them, as I saw this as fair wear and tear. However
I would not like a guest to book with the deposit as I think you need it to encourage people to be careful - it is about what you can adford to loose.

27

I think it is responsible to yourself to have a security deposit. I set it to my insurance excess fee so that I don’t have to be out of pocket in bad situation.

I have claimed on it once when a dodgy guest didn’t want to take responsibility and lied. It was hard to make the claim as you need lots of evidence to prove it, but if I didn’t have the deposit I would be out of pocket several hundreds dollars and I would feel bad because I had to pay for other people’s wrongdoing.

For the rest of guests there were damage from several dollars to maybe $70 dollars (long term guests). I just count them as cost of doing business.

There were another two guests who broke something more valuable (TV for example), and these two contacted me immediately after the accident and offered to reimburse me for cost, so I don’t need to make any claim.

I believe security deposit can increase the quality of guests and they will be more careful using your home. And it is almost impossible for hosts to abuse it because it is really hard to claim it unless guests admit or you have solid proof.

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