Damage cover
No damage deposit is taken. A deposit you take and later hand back usually can’t be refunded through GoCardless: too soon after it was paid, or after it’s been paid out to you. So instead, a group paying you by bank sets up a Direct Debit with you, and after the stay you can collect up to an agreed amount from it for damage you’ve recorded. If the site is left as they found it, nothing is taken.
Setting the amount. Open a field or building under Sites & buildings and fill in Damage cover (£). A booking’s cover is the total for the places it uses, worked out when its places are chosen or changed, so raising an amount later doesn’t change bookings already agreed. Your own words about it, such as what you check and how you price repairs, go under Damage cover on the Prices page.
What groups see. The cover, and your words, on the enquiry form once they pick a place with cover, on the page where they pay, and on their booking page. While a booking has cover, every payment by bank sets up a Direct Debit, the balance as well as the deposit, so a group paying everything at once is still covered.
Covered or not. The booking’s Damage panel says Covered by their Direct Debit or, in red, Not covered: no Direct Debit. A group that paid by card or bank transfer has none. That’s worth knowing before you hand over the keys.
Collecting for damage. Report the damage as usual, then on it choose Collect from their Direct Debit, type the amount and what it’s for, and press Email them and collect. The group is emailed the amount and the reason first; GoCardless then tells them before it takes the money, a few working days later. You can’t collect more than what’s left of the cover. Only owners and leaders who can see money can do this.
The amount goes on their extras as “Damage — …”, already billed, so the payment balances when it arrives. Reports shows damage recovered apart from what you were paid for stays, because it recovers a cost rather than earning income.
It isn’t money held, or a guarantee. A group can cancel their Direct Debit, and a collection can fail. If a collection can’t start, nothing is charged and the damage goes back to waiting for you to decide. Once one has started, a mistake is put right by refunding the payment.