Dynamic Unit Deposits

When taking an online reservation, you may desire a guest to pay a different upfront deposit based on the reservation type, the days in the reservation, and even how many days out the reservation starts.

With Firefly, you can create custom deposit rules for each individual unit based on these factors. Deposits can be a % of the total or a set dollar amount.

Creating a deposit rule

To create a deposit rule for a unit, go to the units setting page, and select the Deposit tab.

Once the deposit rule dialog displays, enter the amount, deposit type, and type of reservation.

The deposit type can be a percent of the reservation (%), or a set dollar amount ($). If you choose %, the deposit amount will be calculated based on the entire reservation amount for standard reservations, and the first months amount if choosing an ongoing reservation type.

You can even choose to have the remainder payment scheduled to a date in relation to the arrival date. This allows you to collect 50% at the time of the reservation and schedule a payment for the rest for the day of their arrival for example.

To add more advanced rules to the deposit, click Show advanced deposit options.

Nights in reservation
To create a special deposit amount based on the number of nights in the reservation, just enter a minimum and/or maximum nights in stay amount. For example, to apply this deposit rule to all reservations which have 3 to 7 nights in the stay, enter 3 as the minimum and 7 as the maximum. To apply this rule to all reservations with 8 or more nights in the stay, just enter 8 as a minimum, and leave the maximum empty.

Days until reservation starts
This works just like nights in the reservation, except the deposit rule will only be applied if the number of days until the reservation starts matches the min/max criteria.

Reservation Dates
This section allows you to specify minimum and maximum arrival and departure days to limit when this deposit is applied. You can specify any combination or all four dates. For example you can only set the minimum arrival and maximum departure to set a range the entire reservation must fall in. Or you can specify minimum arrival only to only apply this deposit after a certain date.

Managing multiple deposit rules

You can add as many deposit rules as you would like. If multiple deposit rules match the criteria for a new reservation, the topmost deposit rule will be applied.

You can reorder deposit rules to put them in the order you prefer so the correct deposit rule is applied. To reorder, just drag and drop the 3 stacked dots icon.

In the image above, you can see the basic deposit rules: 100% deposit for standard reservations, and 50% deposit will be required for ongoing reservations (50% of first month).

In the image above, you can see a more advanced deposit rule setup: A 50% deposit will be required for reservations that start 7 or less days away, 75% for reservations 8-15 days away, and a 100% deposit required for reservations 16 or more days away.

All the flexibility gives you the ability to collect deposits however you want! And don't forget, when you update the deposit rules for one unit, you can export the rules to other units so you only have to make the changes once.