How do Houfy members collect damage deposits?

You no longer need a workaround for damage deposits - Houfy collects them for you.

Open the listing, choose Pricing > Rates & Fees from the left menu, open the Damage Deposit section and set an amount. Under How do you collect this deposit? choose Charge with Houfy, then choose a date under When do you collect this deposit?

Houfy places a temporary authorisation hold on the guest's card when the whole window - from the day the hold is placed, through the stay, plus two days after checkout - fits inside seven days. For anything longer a hold would expire before you could act on it, so Houfy charges the deposit on the check-in date instead and refunds it automatically after checkout if no damage is claimed. This works with Stripe, Square and PayPal.

If you would rather not take a deposit at all, the same section offers houfyProtect as an alternative.

Collecting off-platform by Venmo, Zelle or a third-party form is still possible, but it is no longer necessary - and do not run a damage deposit through Square outside a booking, which breaches Square's terms.