A renter arrives to collect the car, hands over a licence, and is told there is a GBP 300 deposit to pay that nobody mentioned when they booked. Best case, they pay it, annoyed. Worst case, they walk, and they book with someone clearer next time. The deposit did its job of protecting the car and lost you the customer anyway, which is the opposite of the point.
A security deposit is one of the easiest parts of a rental to get wrong, and most of the damage is done before any car is handed over.
A deposit is insurance, not a second rate
The deposit exists to cover what the hire fee does not: damage, a missing fuel tank, a cleaning bill after a dog nobody mentioned. It is not extra revenue and it should not be priced like it. Treat it as a line of defence against the unexpected, set to the realistic risk of the specific vehicle, and your pricing stays honest while the car stays protected.
A hold is not a charge, and the difference is money
This is the part worth understanding properly. A refundable deposit is best taken as an authorised hold - the amount is ringfenced on the renter's card and released after the car comes back fine. Nothing is actually captured, so on Webkio a hold carries no platform fee at all. The hire payment is different: a captured payment goes into your own Stripe account (Webkio never touches the money) and carries the platform fee of 2%, dropping to 1% from the Growth Business plan, with Stripe's own processing fee on top. So the deposit, done as a hold, costs you nothing in platform fees, and only the money you genuinely take does. Charging a deposit outright as a captured payment and refunding it later is the expensive way to do the same thing.
Set the amount to the risk, not the maximum you can get
A high deposit feels safe and quietly costs you bookings. Tie up GBP 500 on someone's card for a weekend runabout and the price-sensitive renter simply books the firm asking for less. Scale the hold to the vehicle: more on the luxury car and the van, less on the economy hatch. The right number is the one that covers a plausible problem without making an honest customer feel treated like a suspect.
Collect it online, before the renter arrives
Taking the deposit at booking, through the site, does two useful things. It secures the vehicle and filters out the casual no-show, because someone who has authorised a hold tends to turn up. And it takes the awkward money conversation off the forecourt. With Webkio, online deposits and payments are built into the booking flow, so the hold is placed when the booking is made rather than negotiated at handover. A booking backed by a deposit is one you can count on far more than an unsecured one.
Explain it where they will actually read it
The surprise at the counter is the real failure, not the deposit itself. State the amount, that it is a refundable hold and not a charge, and when it is released, all before the booking is confirmed. This is the same discipline as showing the full price up front: clear deposit terms are part of building trust on the website, and they turn a stranger handing over a card number into a confirmed, calm booking.
What a deposit will not do
A hold is not comprehensive insurance and should not be treated as one. It covers the ordinary excess and the small stuff; it will not make you whole after a serious accident, which is what your protection and insurance options are for. And note that the deposit lives behind the booking system, so it is a Starter-plan feature upwards - you cannot list a vehicle or take a deposit on the Free plan.
Start free to set your deposits per vehicle, or check the pricing to see where the platform fee drops.
FAQ
Does Webkio charge a fee on the deposit?
No. A refundable deposit taken as an authorised hold is not a captured payment, so it carries no platform fee. The fee applies only to money you actually take, like the hire payment.
How big should a security deposit be?
Enough to cover a realistic problem with that specific vehicle - more for a van or luxury car, less for an economy model. Set it too high and you lose price-sensitive renters to a competitor asking for less.
Where does the deposit money go?
Payments run through your own Stripe account via Stripe Connect; Webkio never holds the funds. A hold simply ringfences the amount on the renter's card and releases it after the car is returned in order.
Read next
- Car rental cancellation and no-show policies - the rules a deposit backs up.
- Reduce no-shows and cancellations - how a deposit at booking filters the casual booker.
- Build trust on your car rental website - terms that reassure before pickup.