Damage deposit - how much?

[guest 4]

After reading BW's thread about her damaged pool cover, it got me thinking. (makes a change for me )

I take £200 as a damage deposit. If I rent to a group of six people that works out to under £35 each they stand to lose if they cause damage.

Is this incentive enough for them to think about taking care of my property?

I am aware that I could chase them through the courts if they caused more damage than the deposit covers, but wonder if a higher deposit would encourage them to think more, or would it put people off booking?

Ruth

[Giddy Goat]

I charge £200 per week of stay Ruth - is that what you do?

[guest 4]

I charge £200 per booking GG. Never thought of doing it per week, hmmmm. (More thinking )

Ruth

[la vache!]

In the US some places charge a lot more that £200. Personally I think it may put people off here. Doesn't your insurance cover you for serious damage? Companies like Intasure specialise in holiday lets and include guest damage in their cover.

[fibi]

I replying to this thread as customer of holiday accomodation - I don't take deposits for my cottages and never will.

Anyway no I don't think a larger deposit will prevent damage. Probably 80% ++ of damage is accidental non malicious stuff - like BPs pool cover that was maybe stupid but not malicious. If you are really worried about this sort of damage you can insure against it, I have for £120 a year per cottage - accidental guest damage - covers malicious stuff too. Having said that it won't prevent damage to charge people large deposits it may lessen your annoyance if you have a large chunk of money to put towards the damage

As for larger deposits putting people off it most definately would. Customers have to pay this money up to a year in advance sometimes, in real money- not credit card guarantees and have to trust someone to refund it - sometimes weeks later. In the 60+ self catering holidays we have taken our deposit has been held back 4 times for no reason, we got them all back eventually but I could have done without the hassle.

I would expect to pay between £100 and £300 per stay not per week and if owners were charging any more than this ,unless it was for a specfic reason, then I wouldn't book. My preference would be not to pay a security deposit at all.

[guest 4]

Thanks LV,

We are covered with our Cypriot bank insurance at the moment, they do give liability cover but no content insurance, it seems content cover is not generally offered in Cyprus, beleive it or not.

I got a quote from intasure a couple of months ago and their rates were favorable, but we had just renewed our insurance with the bank.

I think I will go with them next year, didn't notice the bit about guest damage cover. Thanks for the heads up.

How can they insure at those rates, when they cover damage, or is there a catch?

Ruth

[guest 4]

Hi Fibi,

Thanks for that. Obviously if you have insurance cover you don't need to take a deposit.

I take my deposit with the balance payment, eight weeks before the departure date.

I would be happy to take it a week before if it cleared before they arrived.

Ruth

[fibi]

Just a thought but does anyone have any actual proof that taking damage deposits actually prevent damage? I know that I would treat someones home with the same respect whether I paid a £200 deposit or not - and I think most guests would be the same.

I have never taken damage deposits in almost 3 years and OK sometimes the cottages were left less than clean and there has been crayoning on walls. carpet stains, broken items etc but surely when you have new families every week in a home they are not familar with you have to accept the odd bit of damage and build it into your prices. That being said if anyone maliciously damaged someting I would go for their jugular through the courts!!

[Giddy Goat]

I take my deposit with the balance payment, eight weeks before the departure date. Ruth

Me to Ruth. Fibi, we have quite a large property with some valuable pieces in it, so the deposit is intended to reflect that.

Pages and pages have been devoted to this debate, but the longest thread can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/35c8m8

[guest 4]

Thanks GG you have the memory of an elephant, do goats have it too?

In my defense it is an old thread, I should have tried harder with a search. I'll have a good read through it tomoz, bit late to start on a 10 pager now.

Ruth

[Bellywobble]

Has anyone made a claim for damage through Intasure? I would just like to know if they are as good as they say they are. I had a reduced premium with them this year which was lovely, but the proof is in the pudding!

[Giddy Goat]

Thanks GG you have the memory of an elephant, do goats have it too?

No Ruth, I've just been knocking around LMH a bit longer than you - and had contributed to the earlier thread. But it did take a bit of finding - a search isn't as easy as it used to be, with the wealth of stuff that is now archived, especially as the old thread is under the heading of 'security deposit' and not 'damage deposit'!

[fibi]

thanks GG read up to the point where it went off thread to septic tanks....but still nothing to convince me that taking deposits makes one bit of difference - in fact quite the opposite the people who don't take deposits seem to have less problems...

if we accept that the majority of guests are decent human beings who do not wish to cause any damage to your property why would taking £200 to £500 (whatever) cause accidents not to happen ?

If you wish the customer to pay for accidental damage (because you cannot get insurance like Kipz) surely its better to do this on an individual basis when necessary ?

When I first starting renting my holiday cottages I assumed that I would have to start taking deposits cos' that what was always done and if I didn't the cottages would be trashed at every changeover, but hubby pointed out that we have never caused any damage and why would other people be any different to us so I didn't and I've had no problems. If I did I would rely on the courts to sort it out and not a deposit.

Fibi- not convinced that security deposits do any good whatsoever!

[guest 4]

I'd be interested to know too BW, I have never claimed through my Cyprus Bank's insurance either, so have no idea how good they are.

Perhaps a new thread is in order?

Ruth

[roxytoo]

I take a damage deposit of £100. On occasions where guests have broken things due to carelessness and not accidental damagae they have gone out and replaced the items with something very similar (due to a clause in the contract that says if anything is broken is it better to replace than get the representative to replace and taken out of the secuirty deposit). I do not think they would replace otherwise. It works for me and no-one has ever complained about giving the £100. I wouldn't ask for any more than that though!