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 the booking is cancelled - see below)
Cleaning deposit	A hold on the resident’s card against damage / cleanup	Yes - the hold is released unless you capture it

Rental fees are revenue. A deposit is a hold on the resident’s card, never a charge, unless the board captures it for damage.

Rental fees

Set the Rental Fee ($) on the amenity (Amenities → Manage → edit the amenity) - a flat fee per booking, e.g., $100 for clubhouse, $50 for pavilion.

When the fee is billed depends on the amenity’s Booking Mode:

Booking Mode	When the fee is billed	How the resident pays
Self-Managed	As soon as they book	A charge on their property’s ledger, paid like any other balance
Requires Approval	When you approve the booking	A charge on their property’s ledger, paid like any other balance
Requires Payment	24 hours before the booking starts	Charged automatically to the card they saved when they booked

Either way, a rental fee entry lands on the property’s ledger, and the resident sees it alongside their dues in the app. Card payments flow the same way as dues - through Stripe to your HOA’s bank account.

Cleaning deposits

Deposits only work with Requires Payment, because they’re a hold on the card the resident saves when they book. Set the Deposit ($) on the amenity - typically $100 - $500 depending on amenity value. With Self-Managed or Requires Approval, no deposit is collected.

How holds work

When a resident books an amenity with a deposit:

1. They save a card at checkout. The booking sheet shows the deposit as “Held 24h before booking; released if no damage”
2. 24 hours before the booking, the deposit amount is authorized on their card via Stripe, at the same time the rental fee is charged
3. The hold appears on their statement as “Pending” - funds aren’t actually moved
4. After the booking, you decide: release the hold or capture it

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

After the booking

Open the booking (Amenities → Upcoming or Past). Under Cleaning Deposit you have two buttons:

• Amenity Reviewed: Release Deposit - the hold is released. The pending charge drops off the resident’s card. They paid nothing for it. The resident is notified.
• Forfeit Deposit - the hold is captured. The full deposit moves from the resident’s card to the HOA and becomes a real charge. There’s no partial amount in the app - it’s the whole deposit.

The hold drops off on its own. Stripe cancels an uncaptured hold about 7 days after it’s placed - roughly 6 days after the booking. You can capture a deposit any time until then; after that, there’s nothing left to capture. So inspect promptly. The Hold Deposit switch in the booking marks the deposit as held on purpose (with a reason) and takes it off the refund-review reminders. Stripe still releases the hold about 7 days after it was placed.

A worked example

Lot 14 books the clubhouse for a wedding reception on March 15.

Booking (March 1):

• Resident saves a card. Nothing is charged yet.

24 hours before (March 14):

• Rental fee: $100 - charged to the saved card, lands in HOA’s Stripe balance
• Cleaning deposit: $200 - authorized as a hold on the same 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 Amenity Reviewed: Release Deposit
• $200 hold drops off the resident’s card

Final state:

• Resident paid: $100 (rental fee)
• Resident’s deposit: never charged

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

• Admin clicks Forfeit Deposit before the hold lapses
• The full $200 is captured from the resident’s card
• If the cleanup cost less than the deposit and you only want to keep the actual cost, release the deposit instead and charge the actual cost as a fine (see Forfeit vs. fine)

Cancellations

What happens when a booking is cancelled depends on how the fee was billed:

• Self-Managed or Requires Approval: when the resident cancels in the app, HomeHerald automatically adds a credit that offsets the rental fee charge. A request that was still pending was never billed, so there’s nothing to credit.
• Requires Payment, before the 24-hour charge: the resident can cancel in the app. Nothing was charged, and the saved card is removed.
• Requires Payment, after the charge: the resident can’t cancel in the app - they’re told to contact the HOA. Whether they get the rental fee back is your community’s call; if yes, refund the rental payment from Transactions (see Issuing refunds), and release any deposit hold.

If an admin removes a booking with Delete Reservation, no money moves automatically - handle the fee and any deposit hold yourself.

When the resident’s card is declined

At the 24-hour mark, if the saved card is declined:

• The booking goes into Charge Failed status
• The rental fee is still posted to the resident’s property, so the ledger shows what’s owed
• HomeHerald doesn’t retry or cancel the booking - an admin follows up with the resident

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 before they save their card. Most “I didn’t know” complaints are about the pending nature of the hold, not the existence of one - explain that it’s a hold, not a charge, and that it drops off once you release it (or on its own about a week after it was placed).

”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.

”We missed the window to forfeit”

If the hold dropped off before anyone captured it, there’s nothing left on the card. Issue a fine for the cleanup cost instead - fines stay attached to the property’s ledger.

”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 and doesn’t get it back. Some communities prefer this because it’s simpler than the hold-and-inspect flow, and it works with every Booking Mode.

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