Deposits on changeover day
Every bareboat charter involves a security deposit, or a damage waiver instead of one, according to your terms. At the base on Saturday, guests hand over a card for the deposit to be taken or held, or they bought a waiver in advance and there is a smaller amount to take. Some guests pay by a card that will not accept a hold. Some find the hold has been taken from their available balance and are unhappy about it.
A week later, the boat comes back. The check-in finds a scratch on the hull, a lost winch handle and a torn sail cover. The base agrees a deduction with the guest, or not, and writes it on the paper form. The office later works out what to refund, releases the hold or refunds the rest, and the guest emails to ask why it has not arrived yet.
Sometimes a hold expires before the charter ends, because card holds only last for a limited period, and the base discovers there is nothing to deduct from.
Why deposits get messy
The deposit sits at the end of a chain: payment, check-out, charter, check-in, damage assessment, decision, refund. Each step is recorded somewhere different.
- Deposits are taken at the base, in a hurry, on a card terminal that is not linked to the booking.
- Card holds expire, and long charters can outlast them.
- Waivers are sold at booking and not always visible to the base.
- Damage is agreed on paper with no photos or price reference.
- Refunds are processed by the office days later, from notes.
What you charge for damage, and how your terms treat deposits and waivers, are set by your own terms and conditions and your advisers. The process around them is where we help.
The cost of disputed deposits
| Problem | What follows |
|---|---|
| Deduction with no photos | Guest disputes, sometimes as a chargeback |
| Hold expired | No way to recover the damage cost |
| Refund late | Guest emails, complaints and poor reviews |
| Waiver not visible to the base | Guest charged a deposit they should not have been |
| Damage priced differently each time | Inconsistency that looks unfair to guests |
Chargebacks are particularly frustrating: the card provider asks for evidence, and a handwritten note that says 'scratch' is rarely enough.
A deposit process tied to the boat's records
What we build links the deposit to the booking and to the evidence about the boat.
- At booking, the guest is shown your deposit and waiver options, and any waiver purchase is recorded on the booking so the base sees it.
- Before arrival, the deposit is taken as a card hold or payment through Stripe or your payment provider, timed according to your terms so it covers the charter, with a fresh hold or payment taken if a charter is longer than a hold can last.
- At check-out and check-in, the condition record for the boat, with photos, is linked to the deposit.
- Damage and missing items found at check-in are priced from your own price list, so the same item costs the same on every boat and at every base.
- The guest sees and signs the damage record on a tablet, with photos, before leaving the base.
- The deposit is then released, partly captured or settled automatically according to the agreed record, and the guest gets a statement showing what was kept and why.
- Any disputed or unusual case goes to the office, and the full record is ready if a chargeback arrives.
Handover day, deposit settled
Guests leave the base knowing what, if anything, will be kept from their deposit, with photos and prices they have seen. The rest is released straight away, not days later. Holds that would expire are caught before they do.
The office stops processing deposits from paper forms. When a chargeback or complaint arrives, the evidence is already assembled: the check-out condition, the check-in condition, the photos, the price and the guest's signature.
Does this sound like your deposits?
- Deposits are taken at the base on an unlinked card terminal.
- Damage is agreed on paper, without photos.
- Holds have expired before charters ended.
- Refunds are processed from notes days later.
- Chargebacks are hard to fight for lack of evidence.