Car rental agreements, e-signatures and deposit holds

How renters sign

The renter opens a signing page from their booking, reads the full agreement, ticks a box, types their name and signs. The typed name has to match the renter's name on the booking. If the terms change after they open the page, they are asked to read the new version and sign again.

By default, a booking cannot be marked as picked up until its current agreement is signed. You can override that for a booking when you need to.

What the signing record keeps

Each signature records who signed, when, which version they saw, their IP address and device, and a fingerprint of the exact text. That text is frozen when the agreement is created, so later edits to your template do not change a signed agreement.

Rentovation records the signature. It does not give legal advice. Start from the built-in car rental template, edit it for your business, and have a lawyer in your state review your terms.

A deposit hold is not a charge

A deposit hold sets aside part of the renter's available credit or funds on their card. No money is collected when it is placed. Holds run through your connected payment account.

The amount is the car's own deposit, else your account default, else $250. Pick amounts with your insurer and your own policies; Rentovation does not recommend one.

When the hold is placed

Hold timing is an account setting. By default the hold is placed about 48 hours before pickup, on the renter's saved card. If there is no saved card, the renter gets an email with a link to complete the hold. If a booking is made inside that window, the hold is placed with the payment.

Card holds expire at the processor after some days. Rentovation watches the expiry, alerts you while a hold can still be placed again, and checks with your processor before it marks a hold as gone. It does not renew holds on its own.

Keeping part of a hold

To keep money from a hold, you list each charge with a reason and an amount. The total taken from the hold cannot be more than the hold. When you resolve damage from the deposit, every line needs an inspection photo. Fuel and mileage fees have no photo, and when you collect post-return charges, a damage amount needs a written note.

When you collect post-return charges and more is owed than the hold covers, the rest is billed to the renter with a payment link. Some processors, such as Square, cannot take part of a hold. Rentovation then collects the full hold and refunds the difference, and that refund takes time to reach the renter.

The renter is told and can respond

When money is taken from a hold, the renter gets an itemized email with a link to dispute a charge. A dispute gives the renter a way to respond. It does not decide the outcome, and a hold is not a promise that you will recover a loss.

Release after a clean return

When you mark a trip complete and nothing is owed or recorded against the hold, the hold is released automatically after a 48-hour window for you to record charges. You can also release it yourself. The renter's bank decides when the funds show again.

Tolls, tickets and fines

The template's tolls clause makes the renter responsible for tolls, tickets and fines. Rentovation does not import toll bills or charge them to renters for you.