The simplest way to track deposits for holiday rentals is to give every booking one of three payment statuses — no payment, down payment, or fully paid — record the amount received next to it, and look at all of them in one list before every arrival. Whether you do that in a notebook, a spreadsheet or booking software, the rule is the same: the payment status lives on the booking, not in a separate place.
Why deposits get lost
Small hosts in Greece typically take money in four ways at once: Airbnb pays out after check-in, Booking.com guests pay at the property or through Booking.com's payment service, direct guests send a bank transfer as a deposit, and some pay the balance in cash on arrival. Each source shows up somewhere different. By August, nobody is sure whether the family arriving Friday has already paid €150 or not.
A system that works
- One status per booking. No payment — nothing received yet. Down payment — a deposit received, balance due. Fully paid — nothing left to collect.
- Record amounts, not just ticks. Write down the total price, the amount received and the date. "Deposit €150 by bank transfer, 3 June" settles every later argument.
- Set a deposit rule and say it once. For example: 30% within three days of booking for direct reservations; the balance on arrival. Put it in your confirmation message.
- Check before every arrival. Each evening, look at tomorrow's check-ins and their payment status. Anything still on no payment gets a polite reminder.
- Reconcile monthly. At the end of each month, compare what your bookings say you received with your bank account and platform payouts.
Spreadsheet or software?
A spreadsheet works for one or two units if you are disciplined. It breaks when bookings come from several channels, when more than one person takes bookings, or when you need the same data again for invoices and taxes.
Booking software keeps the status on the booking itself. In Ruma, every booking carries its payment status and the calendar shows it in colour, so you can see at a glance who still owes money; the bookings overview filters by status and period and exports to Excel or CSV. When the guest has paid, the same booking becomes an invoice in one click.
Questions to ask any tool
- Can I see payment status on the calendar itself, not only in a report?
- Can I record partial payments (deposits) and the remaining balance?
- Can I filter all unpaid bookings for a date range and export them?
- Do direct, phone and OTA bookings all appear in the same list?
Ruma is booking software for villas, apartments, rooms-to-let and small hotels in Greece: one calendar synced with Airbnb and Booking.com, payment status on every booking, and invoices with Greek taxes — €250 per year for unlimited properties, 14-day free trial. Read the FAQ.