Risk & Money-In
Security Deposit
Money held against damage — mostly notional on the big platforms.
Why you care
Airbnb does not hold a real deposit; it authorises a claim route after the fact. Your actual recovery mechanism is documentation, not a held balance.
Worked example
A “$500 deposit” on Airbnb is not money sitting anywhere. On a direct booking you can hold a genuine authorisation, which is one of the real arguments for direct.