The security deposit

A deposit is held on the renter’s card for the trip rather than charged, and it is released after the host has had a chance to check the vehicle.

A deposit is a hold, not a payment. The amount is set aside on the renter's card so that it cannot be spent, and on most trips it is never touched.

What is held

The amount is set per listing, so the listing is what tells you which figure applies. A typical deposit is €300, and a host can also choose to ask for no deposit at all. Whatever the listing shows is what is authorised on the card for that booking.

How it is released

The hold is lifted after the trip, once the host has had a chance to check the vehicle. Nothing is charged at the end of a trip by default.

When money is taken from it

Only against a written reason the renter can read. A host cannot take money from a deposit themselves. They raise it with their evidence, support decides, and the reason is recorded where the renter can read it.

What it does not settle

Traffic, parking and toll fines are not taken from the deposit. Those notices reach the vehicle's registered owner by post, usually weeks after the trip and long after the hold has been released.

A deposit of €0 on a listing is a deliberate setting, not a missing value.

Releasing it is immediate on our side: the authorisation is cancelled as soon as the window after the trip closes. How quickly it stops counting against your available balance is your bank's timing rather than ours — usually a few days, occasionally up to a week. Nothing was ever taken, so there is no refund to wait for.