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Haven security deposits are refundable authorization holds on the guest's card. No money moves at booking time — Stripe places the hold a set time before check-in (3 days unless you change it) and releases it automatically a set time after checkout (2 days unless you change it) unless you file a damage claim from the reservation page.
This is independent of your pet policy. Many pet-friendly hosts enable both, but you can use either feature on its own.
A security deposit is also distinct from a booking deposit: the deposit in a payment schedule is part of the price, paid at checkout, not a refundable hold.
Haven uses Stripe's manual-capture PaymentIntent to authorize an amount on the guest's card without actually charging it. The hold appears as a pending charge in the guest's banking app but doesn't move money until the host decides to capture some or all of it.
If no claim is filed, the hold is released after checkout on the timing you set (see When the hold happens). If a claim is filed, only the captured amount is charged — the remainder is released by Stripe automatically.
Stripe does not charge processing fees on released holds. You only pay Stripe fees on amounts you actually capture.
From any property's Edit Listing → Pricing tab, scroll to the Security deposit section. It is a table with one row for each booking channel, and every row has its own switch and its own amount:
| Channel | Who it covers | How the deposit is collected |
|---|---|---|
| Haven site | Guests who book and pay on your Haven website | Held on the card they pay with at checkout |
| Direct | Direct bookings in your PMS, or ones you enter by hand | Guest adds a card in the guidebook before check-in |
| Airbnb | Reservations synced from Airbnb | Guest adds a card in the guidebook before check-in |
| Vrbo | Reservations synced from Vrbo | Guest adds a card in the guidebook before check-in |
| Booking.com | Reservations synced from Booking.com | Guest adds a card in the guidebook before check-in |
| Other | Synced stays from any channel not listed above | Guest adds a card in the guidebook before check-in |
Switch on the channels that owe a deposit and set what each one holds. $500 on Airbnb, $300 on Vrbo and nothing on your own site is a perfectly ordinary arrangement. A channel switched on for the first time starts from the amount you already use elsewhere, so a single figure across every channel costs one click per row. Channels Haven has actually seen reservations from, across your account, lead the list and are marked Bookings seen.
Under the channel table, When the hold happens has two fields. Place the hold is how long before check-in Haven authorizes the card (3 days by default). Release the hold is how long after checkout it is released unless you file a claim first (2 days by default). Type either in days or hours, from 1 hour up to 30 days. The timing is the same on every channel, and long stays are re-authorized automatically while the guest is in the home.
The same two fields appear everywhere the deposit is set: the Security deposit task under Edit Listing → Arrival → Check-in & tasks, each listing's editor and the multi-listing apply under Settings → Trust & Safety → Security deposits → Property settings, and the account-wide Security deposit row there (see below). The Guest journey under Communication → Message automations shows the same timing on the Refundable hold placed on the card and Hold released cards and can change it too, along with the long-stay choice (skip the hold or re-authorize daily).
A change reaches new bookings: a confirmed Haven-site booking keeps the timing it booked with, and a guest who pays in the guidebook gets the timing in effect when they add their card.
Settings save automatically. On the Haven site row, existing confirmed bookings keep the amount that was in effect when they booked; edits there reach new reservations only. The other rows are read live, because those stays never had a checkout to fix the terms at; the section on synced bookings below covers what that means in practice.
Settings → Trust & Safety → Security deposits in the host sidebar (or
/host?tab=trust&trustSub=deposits) shows deposits for your whole account,
the same way Guest verification and Rental agreements do. It has two pills.
Property settings (&sdSub=settings) lists every listing with the
channels it takes a deposit on and how much. Filter by Taking a deposit,
No deposit, or Payouts not connected (a guidebook channel is on but
the listing has no connected payout account). Click a listing to edit its
table right there; it is the same table, and the same setting, as Edit
Listing → Pricing → Security deposit, and it saves automatically.
At the top of Property settings is an All listings card with a Security deposit row, the same kind of account-wide setting as ID verification and the cancellation policy. Choose Set for all listings, fill in the channel table and When the hold happens once, and apply it:
While it is set, each listing shows Set for all listings and its own table and timing are locked, in the dashboard and in Edit Listing. Nothing is written onto the listings: Set individually instead brings back exactly what each listing had.
While each listing uses its own table, you can still set several at once:
These write each listing's own table and hold timing, so you can change one later without touching the rest. Amounts are entered in one currency at a time, and where your PMS supplies a listing's Haven-site deposit, that row stays as the PMS syncs it while the other channels are applied.
Holds (&sdSub=holds) lists every deposit hold across your
reservations: scheduled, held now, card declined, claimed, released,
collect manually, and expired or waived. Search by guest or reservation
code, or narrow to upcoming or past stays. Open reservation opens the
deposit card, where you deduct, keep, release or extend a hold.
Open the reservation page from your dashboard, or from Settings → Trust & Safety → Security deposits → Holds. The Security deposit card on the right shows the live status. While the hold is Authorized, you'll see four actions:
| Action | What it does |
|---|---|
| Deduct from deposit | Capture a partial amount. Stripe charges the guest only that amount and releases the rest. |
| Keep full deposit | Capture the entire authorized amount. |
| Release now | Release the hold immediately with no charge. |
| Extend review (+48h) | One-time, pushes auto-release out by up to 48 hours. |
The claim drawer requires a written reason (minimum 20 characters) and encourages you to attach photo evidence. Both are shown to the guest in the notification email and on their reservation page.
If the guest disputes a charge with their bank, the path depends on which charge they dispute:
A guest can swap the card on file from their reservation, and you can ask them to from the Card on file row on the reservation (Ask for a new card or Copy link). A hold not yet placed follows the new card. A hold already placed moves: Haven places it on the new card, then releases the old one. If the new card will not carry it, the hold stays on the previous card. See Update a Guest's Card on File.
If you do nothing, the hold is released automatically after checkout on the Release the hold timing you set (2 days by default — see When the hold happens). You'll get reminder notifications:
If you need more time to inspect the property, use Extend review to push out the auto-release by up to 48 hours. After that, the card-network authorization window starts to expire and the deposit must be resolved.
If the booking is cancelled — by guest, host, admin, or refund-override — the deposit hold is always released, regardless of your cancellation policy. Hosts cannot keep a deposit on a cancelled stay.
When you modify a reservation's dates, the hold slides onto the new stay window automatically, keeping the timing the booking was made with: it is placed the same number of days before the new check-in and released the same number of days after the new checkout. A change to When the hold happens reaches new bookings, never a stay that's already sold. A hold that's already authorized keeps its authorization rather than being cancelled and re-placed, so there's no risk of losing it if the card would no longer authorize.
Card-network authorizations typically expire after ~7 days. For stays longer than that, you can choose:
Security deposits and Truvi claims are independent and complementary:
| Security deposit | Truvi claim | |
|---|---|---|
| Money source | Hold on guest's card | Truvi insurance pool |
| Limit | What you configured (e.g. $250) | Truvi coverage cap |
| Speed | Instant capture | Adjuster review |
| Best for | Small incidentals (cleaning, small breakage) | Major damage / theft beyond the deposit |
A typical workflow for serious damage:
Both UIs live in the Protection region of the reservation card, with disambiguated buttons (Deduct from deposit vs. File a Truvi claim). Haven never auto-files a Truvi claim when you capture a deposit, and vice versa — both decisions stay with the host.
A reservation that arrives from Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com or your PMS never passes through Haven checkout, so there is no card for Haven to hold against. On those channels the deposit reaches the guest as a check-in task, and they pay it through Haven.
Setting it up. Switch the channel on in the Security deposit table and give it an amount. The same table opens from Edit Listing → Arrival → Check-in & tasks → Add security deposit; the two are one setting, and a change in either place shows in the other. One further choice appears once any of these channels is on:
The task then appears in the guest's guidebook under Your tasks, only for guests who booked on a channel you switched on, quoting that channel's amount. Because these rows are read live, switching Airbnb on asks every upcoming Airbnb guest, including ones who booked last month; switching it off stops asking at once.
What the guest does. They open the task, read how much will be held and when it is released, and add a card on a Stripe-hosted page. Nothing is charged. Haven places the hold about three days before check-in, or within minutes for a guest who adds the card later than that.
What you see. Until the guest adds a card, the reservation shows a Security deposit card marked Awaiting card with the amount requested. Once the card is on file it becomes the ordinary deposit card, with the same actions: deduct, keep in full, release now, or extend the review window. Auto-release, claims, payout timing and the long-stay policy all behave as described elsewhere in this article. A cancelled reservation releases the hold.
Three details are worth knowing before you switch a channel on:
The guest has to be able to open the guidebook for any of this to happen, so make sure your guide reaches those guests — see OTA guidebook automation.
A booking you enter by hand belongs to the Direct channel. With that channel switched on in the Security deposit table, the guest places the deposit from their guidebook like any other Direct guest, and Haven holds it on their card.
With Direct switched off and the Haven site row on, the older behaviour applies: Haven cannot place a Stripe hold on a manual booking, so the reservation card shows the deposit as Collect manually for your records, and collection happens out-of-band.
When you capture all or part of a deposit, Stripe charges the guest and transfers the captured amount to your Stripe Connect balance. Haven schedules a bank payout immediately — there is no check-in + 24 hour wait for damage claims.
The capture may still take 1–2 business days to move from Pending to Available on your Connect balance (standard card settlement). Until then, the amount appears in the Payouts list on Host Dashboard → Payouts → Payouts pill with today's release date, badged On the way to Stripe until Stripe settles it. Haven initiates the bank deposit as soon as Stripe marks the funds available.
This payout is independent of the booking's main payout schedule. Cancelling the booking later does not reverse a deposit you already captured — only the original booking payout row is affected.
See Scheduled Payouts for the full payout timeline.
For questions, reach out to support from your dashboard.
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