How your community earns from its spaces
A guide for managers and teams: rental fees, deposits, what members pay, and every setting your community controls.
On this page
Two ways to earn
Each space can carry a rental fee, a deposit, both, or neither. They do different jobs.
- A rental fee is the price of using the space, and it is the community’s revenue. Charge it for the clubhouse, the pavilion, a court or a guest suite, and set a different amount for each.
- A deposit is money set aside against damage or cleaning. It is not income. It goes back to the member unless you keep some of it, and then only the part you name, with a reason.
Rental fees come with Amenity Silver, and deposits with Amenity Gold, which has unlimited amenities on every community. On Amenity Free, which holds up to 3 amenities on one community, a space can still be booked, with no money attached. Apartment communities can set rental fees. Security deposits stay off for them until we finish reviewing state deposit rules.
The payment fee
Your community collects fees and deposits at its office, so no card payment goes through Amenity Reserve and there is no payment fee.
What members see and pay
You set the amounts in the setup wizard, one space at a time. A member sees the fee, and the deposit with its terms, on the booking page before anything is sent.
- Collected at the office. Your community collects the fee and the deposit itself. The booking page says so, and you record each payment in the dashboard when you receive it.
- Nothing is charged online. No card is asked for, authorized or charged through the booking page. A request that needs approval is held for the member while you decide, and the member is emailed the answer.
To change a price, edit the space and publish again. New bookings use the new amount, and a booking already made keeps the rules it was made under.
How a deposit works
- Collected. The booking page shows the deposit and says your office collects it. You record it in the dashboard when you receive it, as cash, a check or another way. No card is charged or held.
- Returned or kept. After the booking ends your office returns the deposit, and you record the return in the dashboard. If something is damaged or left uncleaned, you record the part you kept with a written reason, and the rest as returned.
Charges are per booking. Never collect an amenity charge at lease signing or move-in.
Cancellations and refunds
Cancelling a booking moves no money. A member who cancels before the booking starts frees the time for others straight away, and cannot cancel once it has started. A fee or deposit your office collected is settled at the office, and you record the refund, or the deposit’s return, in the dashboard. If your community cancels or declines a booking after the member has paid, settle the fee with them the same way.
If a member disputes a card payment
While your community collects fees and deposits at its office, no card payment is taken through Amenity Reserve, so the Payments tab has no card disputes to show.
Where the money goes
Your community collects fees and deposits itself, at its office, and records each one in the dashboard. Amenity Reserve keeps that record and takes no card payment. What your community pays us is on the pricing page.
Everything your community controls
These settings sit in the setup wizard, per space. The starting value is what a new space begins with, and each template adjusts a few of them.
| Setting | What it does | Starting value |
|---|---|---|
| Rental fee | The amount a member pays to use the space. Set per space, and it can be zero. | No fee |
| Deposit | A security deposit your office collects. Set per space. Not offered to apartment communities. | No deposit |
| Approval | Whether a request confirms right away or waits for an admin, and how many hours the admin has to answer. | An admin approves, within 72 hours |
| Who can book | Owners, tenants or both. | Owners and tenants |
| Good standing | A member you have paused can’t book until they are active again. | On |
| Bookings at once | How many upcoming bookings one member can hold. | 2 |
| Hours each month | A cap on the hours one member can book in a month. | No cap |
| Booking window | The soonest and the furthest ahead a member can book. | 14 days to 90 days ahead |
| Open and bookable hours | When the space is open, when a booking may start and end, and which days it is closed. | 7am to 10pm open, bookings 9am to 10pm |
| Length of a booking | The shortest and longest booking, and how often start times are offered. | 1 to 4 hours, start times every 30 minutes |
| Overnight stays | For guest suites: check-in and check-out times and the fewest and most nights. | 1 to 5 nights |
| Time between bookings | Minutes held after a booking for cleaning. | 30 minutes |
| Holidays, blocked dates and events | Close the major holidays, block single dates and hold a space for a community event. | Major holidays closed |
| Most guests | The headcount a booking can list. | 50 |
| Attendant | Send an attendant company a notice for every booking, for late ones, or for large ones. | Off |
| Alcohol | Not allowed, allowed, or allowed with security. The booking form asks only where it applies. | Allowed with security |
| House rules and agreement text | Your own list of rules and the agreement members sign. Members tick a box on Amenity Free and Amenity Silver, and initial each rule and sign with their name on Amenity Gold. | A short starting set you can rewrite |
| Which spaces | Publish the clubhouse, pavilion, courts or guest suites you want members to see. Each space has its own rules, fee and deposit. | Nothing is published until you publish it |
Members see these rules in plain sentences before they book. For their side of it, read how booking and deposits work.
See Amenity Reserve set up with your community’s amenities
Add your first space with the guided setup and open it for bookings. Prefer a walkthrough? Schedule a call.
