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Booking: How to work with Deposit Fee and Service Fee

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How Booking Payments Work with Deposit and Service Fee

When you set a value for the deposit and or admin service fee, payments are always collected in the admin account through the enabled payment method, such as PayPal, Stripe, or a merchant configured through WooCommerce.

In WpRentals, the admin controls how booking payments are handled. If deposit and service fee options are enabled, the guest pays the required amount to the admin account, not directly to the owner.

Key Payment Settings

Deposit Fee

  • The admin can set a global deposit value required to confirm a booking
  • The deposit can be configured as either a fixed amount or a percentage of the booking total
  • If a deposit is set, the guest must pay it before the booking is confirmed
  • If the deposit is greater than 0, it must be large enough to cover any service fee and any included admin-collected expenses

Admin Service Fee

  • The admin can set a service fee paid by the guest
  • The service fee is deducted from the owner earnings
  • The service fee can be configured as either a fixed amount or a percentage
  • The service fee is included in the amount collected by the admin

Expenses

  • The admin can choose whether city fee and cleaning fee are included in the deposit calculation
  • If the deposit is set to 100 percent, city fee and cleaning fee must be included

Booking Scenarios

Instant Booking

No owner approval is required. You can read more here: How to set up Instant Booking

  • The guest sends a booking request
  • The guest must pay the deposit, if a deposit is set by admin, to confirm the booking
  • The payment goes to the admin account

Manual Booking Approval

The owner must approve the booking request first. You can read more here: More on the booking process

  • The guest sends a booking request
  • The owner approves or rejects the request
  • If the owner approves the request, the owner issues an invoice
  • The guest must pay the deposit, if a deposit is set by admin, to confirm the booking
  • The payment goes to the admin account

Deposit Fee Required

Important: For the deposit, use either a percentage value or a fixed value, not both.

If the deposit is set to a value greater than 0, the guest must pay that amount before the booking can be confirmed.

The deposit required value is set in Theme Options > Add Listing Page & Payment Settings > Booking Payment Settings.

How to Collect Only the Admin Service Fee with Deposit

If the admin wants to collect only the service fee through the platform and leave the remaining balance to be handled outside the theme, this is possible.

To do this, set the Deposit Fee and the Admin Service Fee to equal values.

  • In the User Dashboard, the confirmed booking will show the deposit already paid and the remaining balance
  • Paying the remaining balance through the theme to the admin account is optional
  • If needed, the remaining balance button can be hidden with custom CSS

When Deposit is 100 Percent

  • You can choose to include additional expenses such as city fee and cleaning fee in the deposit calculation
  • If the deposit is 100 percent, these expenses must be included

Admin Service Fee

The service fee is paid by the guest, but it is deducted from the owner earnings.

  • The service fee is part of the deposit, so the deposit must always be greater than or equal to the service fee
  • You can set the service fee as either a fixed amount or a percentage, not both
  • If Deposit is set to 0, Service Fee must also be set to 0

Where the Service Fee Is Visible

  • The service fee is visible in the Owner Dashboard under View Invoice Details
  • The fee is deducted from the owner earnings shown in the invoice details

Payment Methods

WpRentals supports several ways to collect booking payments.

Theme Integrated Payment Methods

WooCommerce Payment Methods

  • You can also use WooCommerce supported merchants to process payments
  • To enable WooCommerce payments, see: Help to install WooCommerce
  • WooCommerce supports many payment merchants, each with its own setup documentation
Note: Even when payments are processed through WooCommerce merchants, the money is still collected in the admin account.

Important Considerations

  • If Deposit is set to 0, Service Fee must also be 0
  • The service fee is collected as part of the deposit and deducted from the owner earnings
  • The deposit must always be greater than or equal to the service fee
  • If city fee and cleaning fee are included in the deposit, those values must also be covered by the deposit amount