Journal · 2026-07-05
The Deposit Across Twelve Bookings on a Long Stay
Over a three month stay the deposit rule comes up a dozen times, and read across a whole calendar rather than one evening it turns out to be quite simple.
A guest who books once meets the deposit rule once. A guest who books twelve times over a posting meets it twelve times, and after the third or fourth booking it stops being something to think about and becomes a habit. It is worth setting out how it actually reads across a long calendar, because the pattern is simpler than the list of cases implies.
The rule, in one paragraph
Half the fee goes ahead on seven kinds of booking: the first booking a guest ever makes with the house, anything arranged more than twenty-four hours before it starts, a session of three hours or longer, an overnight, any booking with two therapists, anything at Schiphol or an airport hotel, and any booking on a peak date. The single exception, settled wholly at the door, is a guest the house already knows who asks for one or two hours later that day at a city address.
Reading it over a stay
For a long-stay guest, that list collapses into a single practical question: are you booking on the day, or ahead? The first booking always carries a deposit, so leave it aside. After that, almost every booking a long-stay guest makes is either an hour or ninety minutes or two hours, at the flat, on an ordinary date. For those bookings, the only thing that decides whether a deposit is due is when you write. On the morning of the day, it is not. A few days before, it is.
A worked example
Take a twelve week posting with twelve bookings. The first, ninety minutes in week two, carries half: EUR 135 of EUR 270. The next seven are mostly same-day hours and ninety minutes, written over breakfast on the day, and each is paid in full at the door. Two are ninety minutes planned a few days ahead because the week was busy, and each carries EUR 135 in advance. One is a two hour Saturday booked a week out, with EUR 180 ahead. The last is a three hour evening in the final week, which carries EUR 270 ahead whatever the timing. Of twelve bookings, five carry a deposit, and none of them surprises anyone.
Paying it
By the second or third deposit, guests stop thinking about the method. Card is the usual route, with Revolut, Wise or cryptocurrency for those who prefer them. The amount and details appear in the booking thread and nowhere else. Neither PayPal nor a bank transfer is used, and cash cannot act as a deposit because it only changes hands in the room. The balance is paid at the door, in euros or, if confirmed in writing in the thread beforehand, in another major currency.
Two therapists, three hours, an overnight
These are the bookings on a long calendar that always carry a deposit, however they are timed. For a long-stay guest they tend to be the occasions: a birthday away from home, the end of a hard project, the last week. Two therapists at ninety minutes is EUR 540, so EUR 270 goes ahead. Three hours with one therapist is EUR 540 as well, with the same EUR 270 in advance. The overnight is EUR 1,250 with one therapist, and EUR 625 is paid before she sets out. Because these bookings are planned anyway, the deposit rarely changes anything about how they are arranged.
What happens when plans change
On a long stay, some bookings will move. The rules are the same on every one. Cancel more than twenty-four hours ahead and the whole deposit returns. Inside the final day, before she has set out, half is kept and half returns. Once she is on her way, all of it is kept, unless another guest takes the hour, in which case it is repaid in full. A booking can also move once to a date within fourteen days without cost, if you ask more than a day ahead. None of this ever becomes a claim for damages. A same-day booking without a deposit costs nothing if called off before she has left, and the share of the fee her journey represents once she has set out.
The pattern long-stay guests settle into
After a month, most guests settle into one of two habits without deciding to. Planners, who like the evening fixed early, pay half ahead on most bookings and never think about it again. Deciders, who prefer to see how the day goes, write on the morning and pay at the door. Many are a mixture, planning the evenings that matter and deciding on the day for the rest. Both are ordinary, and the fee is the same either way; only its timing differs.
The full wording, including force majeure and what happens when the house cannot keep a booking, is on the booking terms page. For a long-stay guest it is worth reading once, early, and then forgetting about.