Visual One DEPOSITS & chameleon™

Included Below



About Visual One Deposits


  1. Deposits require the payment gateway to be connected to chameleon™. 

  2. The payment gateway deposit functionality is only available to users of Elavon’s Fusebox, Shift4, and Freedom Pay’s rGuestPay gateways.

  3. Properties can specify different deposit rules based on a variety of criteria, listed below under “Adding a New Deposit to chameleon™”.

  4. Once deposit functionality is enabled, chameleon™ will no longer accept fake credit cards for testing purposes. If a test is required, a valid credit card will need to be used and then refunded. 

  5. The deposit taken through chameleon™ automatically transfers to the property's merchant account bank, and posts on the reservation in Visual One. 

  6. chameleon™ does not process refunds, so it is recommended that properties taking deposits disable changing or cancelling online, unless prepared to arrange manual monitoring and processing of refunds.


Adding a Deposit to chameleon™


  1. Select “Rate Plans” then “Manage Deposits”.

  2. Select “+Add a Deposit”.



  3. Tariff ID: Select the desired tariff, package, or booking ID, or “All Rate Plans”.

    Note: You may select the GROUP tariff here to create a deposit rule for all groups.

    Note: if you have built a Booking ID as a Rate Plan, select the Booking ID here, as well as below, in the "Group" field. 

  4. Room Type ID: If this deposit applies only to a specific room type, select that room type, or select “All Room Types”.

  5. Start Date: Date to enforce this deposit rule.

  6. End Date: End date for this deposit rule.

    Navigation Note: Select the month, to fast forward through numerous months; select the year to fast forward through numerous years.

  7. Deposit Type:

    1. Percentage of Stay Total: Causes the deposit amount to be a percentage of the Grand Total. 

    2. Number of Nights to be Paid in Advance: causes the deposit amount to be based upon this number of nights.

  8. Include Taxes: to include taxes in the deposit amount.

  9. Include Options: to include selected Options in the deposit amount. 

  10. Extra Fee: if a service charge is to be added to the deposit, specify the dollar value.

  11. Priority: if more than one deposit rule exists for this date range, room type, or rate type, the rule with a priority closest to 1 will be apply. Use increments of at least ten between priorities so you are easily able in future to insert new priorities between others previously created. The system does also let you create numerous rules with the same priority level.

  12. Group: if this deposit rule is to apply to a Group, the Booking ID must be specified here.

    Note: if you have built the Booking ID as a Rate Plan, you can specify it under the "Tariff ID" field above, but you must also enter the Booking ID here. 

  13. Amount (% or # of nights): the percentage or number of nights to be charged as a deposit. Enter numbers only; no symbols.

  14. Save.




Editing a Deposit in chameleon™


The most common edit to a deposit rule is the adjustment of the date range.


  1. Select “Rate Plans” then “Manage Deposits”.

  2. Select the Edit button next to the desired deposit rule.  



  3. Adjust the desired fields. 

  4. Save.


Removing a Deposit from chameleon™


To remove a deposit rule:


  1. Select “Rate Plans” then “Manage Deposits”.

  2. Select the trash bin icon next to the desired deposit.




Deposit Samples


Situation #1: You have 6 tariffs. One of those tariffs charges a deposit, but the other 5 do not require a deposit.

Set-Up: One deposit rule is required for the tariff that needs to be charged. Create the deposit using the "Tariff ID" selection.


Situation #2: You have 6 tariffs. Five of those tariffs charge a deposit; the other 1 does not. 

Set-Up: This can be done in two ways:

  1. Build a deposit rule for the 1 tariff that does require pre payment and set it at priority 1. Then build a deposit rule for the 5 tariffs that require charging and set it at priority 2.
  2. Build 5 separate deposit rules for the 5 tariffs that require deposits.


Situation #3: You have non-group tariffs, the GROUP tariff, and 2 group booking IDs. For the 3 tariffs, 50% of the stay needs to be charged.  25% of the stay should be taken for all groups, except for one specific Booking ID, which should be charged only 10% of the stay.

Set-Up:

  1. Build the deposit rule for the booking ID that charges 10% and set the priority to 1.
  2. Then, build the GROUP tariff deposit rule for all groups to pre pay 25% and set this at priority 2.
  3. Finally, build a deposit rule for all rate plans as priority 3, since all other tariffs require a 50% deposit.


Situation #4: You have 6 tariffs. 4 of them are charged at 50% and 2 of them are charged 25%.

Set-Up:

  1. Set a deposit rule for each of the two tariffs that require a 25% deposit and set them both at priority 1.
  2. Set a deposit rule for all rate plans at 50% as priority 2.


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