Direct Booking Payment Question - Paypal, Stripe, Zelle

Direct Booking Payment Question - Paypal, Stripe, Zelle

Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 36 votes

I have my short-term rental on Airbnb and also have a direct booking website. Currently, the direct booking site is very basic and does not allow for online payments (yet).  I have two upcoming direct bookings in September. I am using PayPal business to create the invoices. I've sent both my direct bookings invoices for their initial 20% non-refundable deposits (which they have both paid) and have now sent them the full invoice for the remainder of the balance + a $250 refundable damage deposit. They have both paid in full. 

Question 1 - Paypal takes a decent percentage for this service (especially for out-of-country bookings). I have now officially paid PayPal four times for the two different bookings (2 deposits and balance/damage deposit).  I like that I have the ability to invoice for tracking/tax purposes but wonder if there is a less expensive alternative. I'm sure Stripe will take their percentage too but will be looking into this later for my website. Does anyone use Zelle with customers?  If using Paypal, do you pass on the cost to the purchaser?  I typically wouldn't but I paid a vendor recently via PayPal and she made me pay the PayPal service fee. What is typical?  


Question 2 - When I hopefully give back the $250 damage deposit to both of my direct bookings, will PayPal take a percentage of that as well? I can see that as a customer I would be a bit annoyed by this as I wouldn't get my WHOLE deposit back. What is everyone doing for collecting deposits?

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Michael BaumPro Member
Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
4y

Hey @Christy Flora, I don't use Zelle with customers, but I do use it to pay my cleaner. It works well for that. There is a limit on how much you can send weekly without Zelle being attached to your bank.

I have a $500 deposit. I feel that guests take better care of our place with some skin in the game. I believe that PayPal will take a percentage.

Are you listing your place on VRBO? We get many bookings from there. More than AirBNB and the guests are generally better.

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  • Michael BaumPro Member
    Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    4y

    Hey @Christy Flora, I don't use Zelle with customers, but I do use it to pay my cleaner. It works well for that. There is a limit on how much you can send weekly without Zelle being attached to your bank.

    I have a $500 deposit. I feel that guests take better care of our place with some skin in the game. I believe that PayPal will take a percentage.

    Are you listing your place on VRBO? We get many bookings from there. More than AirBNB and the guests are generally better.

  • Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 36 votes
    4y

    @Michael Baum when you return the deposit, do you ever get pushback from your guests about the PayPal fee being removed from their deposit?

  • Michael BaumPro Member
    Olympia, WA · Member since 2016 · 8k+ posts · 7k+ votes
    4y

    I don't do direct booking. I have thought about it, but trying to drive traffic to a site is a PITA these days. People use AirBNB and VRBO and that is where I stay.

    Because I use them for bookings and payments, guests get the whole nut back. Some do get antsy that it takes a bit to get it back. 2 weeks or so.

  • Rental Property Investor · Phoenix, AZ and Rehoboth Beach DE · Member since 2019 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    4y

    Zelle is owned by 7 of the largest banks in the US, and they don't charge to transfer money.  So I think that would be better for transactions than Paypal. 
    I don't know if that holds true for out of country payments.
    And I do think your guests should get the entire deposit back.

  • Joshua MessingerBusiness Member
    Property Manager · Poconos, PA · Member since 2020 · 443 posts · 264 votes
    4y

    Hey @Christy Flora! 

    1. I would seriously recommend not to use Paypal as they are not that good in my opinion. Otherwise, I would recommend using stripe and charging your guests the processing fee so you don't have to pay it. This way if you use Stripe you will be able to get your money instantly as well. 100% a better alternative to Zelle or Paypal. 

    2. They most likely will. They always take their piece of the pie regardless of what the transaction is for. 

    I hope this helps and if you ever any questions please don't hesitate to reach out! 

    All the best,

    Josh

  • Realtor · Pocono Pines, PA · Member since 2019 · 183 posts · 108 votes
    4y

    Hello @Christy Flora

    Id suggest just charging the processing fee back to them or raising the prices so that they pay for the fee anyway.

    I hope this helps and if you ever any questions please don't hesitate to reach out!

    All the best,

    Mike

  • Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2018 · 22 posts · 36 votes
    4y

    @Joshua Messinger thank you I'm definitely going to look into Stripe. I made these two reservations super early in my STR career so learning along the way. I think people are more used to paying service fees for credit cards than for PayPal transactions.

  • Investor · The worst town to live in, KS · Member since 2016 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes
    4y

    I normally collect cash from the STR tenant when they move it. Sometimes we'll drink beer together if they are repeat renters. We discuss things like engineering, logistics and economics.

  • Rental Property Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2019 · 231 posts · 256 votes
    4y

    Hi @Christy Flora! Congrats on the STR! I use stripe and I would recommend just increasing the price to take into account the 3% fee that stripe charges.

  • Rental Property Investor · U.S. Virgin Islands · Member since 2020 · 6 posts · 2 votes
    3y

    @Bailey Kramer does Stripe payout 100% of the charged amount, or do they hold a percentage in "reserve" that will be paid out at a future date?

    I'm super curious here, I have an account with authorize.net, and the merchant account (bank) associated with it currently holds 10% of charged amount in these "reserves", which is painful.  

  • Rental Property Investor · Denver, CO · Member since 2019 · 231 posts · 256 votes
    3y

    Hey @Jonathan Gula! I no longer use Stripe for Direct bookings and use Baselane! In terms of Stripe, you would get paid out 100% after the 3% fee. In terms of reserves, that would only be if they set a reserve on your account and this only would happen if you are giving a lot of refunds, disputes, etc. Hope that helps!

  • Rental Property Investor · U.S. Virgin Islands · Member since 2020 · 6 posts · 2 votes
    3y

    Thanks @Bailey Kramer! Just looked at Baselane website. It sounds great, almost too good to be true! Baselane doesn't seem to advertise using it for STR direct bookings. Appears it's just a 2.99% cc fee.

  • Member since 2023 · 1 post · 0 votes
    2y
    Quote from @Jonathan Gula:

    @Bailey Kramer does Stripe payout 100% of the charged amount, or do they hold a percentage in "reserve" that will be paid out at a future date?

    I'm super curious here, I have an account with authorize.net, and the merchant account (bank) associated with it currently holds 10% of charged amount in these "reserves", which is painful.  


     Is this xpresspay?

  • Member since 2022 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
    2y

    Just made my first direct booking via Houfy. Tried with Square but they don’t do cross border (booking from UK). Setup a Stripe account which worked seamlessly. 

    Nice to collect the money from a booking well beforehand and even make a few bucks of interest instead of the OTAs using it for liquidity. 

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