Hey Anna & Ben and whoever else might find this helpful,
I asked WooCommerce about the security deposit and this is what they had to say:
MY QUESTION: Can I used WooCommerce (along with WooCommerce Bookings) to create a WordPress site where users can rent items to each other and renters protect themselves by attaching a refundable deposit (security deposit) to the item to protect themselves until the rental item is returned?
WOOCOMMERCE ANSWER: You can refund any transaction or any amount in WooCommerce as long as your payment gateway has support for refunds. There wouldn’t be a separate functionality for a Security Deposit specifically. You could create a product called Security Deposit and attach it to your orders or you could add in the deposit to the cost of the booking.
MY QUESTION: If I added “Security Deposit” as a product, I would then just refund that item (Security Deposit) after the rental item returned, is that right?
WOOCOMMERCE ANSWER: Yes that is correct.
MY QUESTION: This would also work in a multi-vendor setup where each vendor/renter/lender would rent their item and have their own “Security Deposit” product, right?
WOOCOMMERCE ANSWER: Yes…if you are using Product Vendors then all the money initially goes to the Admin of the site (you then pay out commissions later if that is part of the your set up) so you can refund the security deposit amount yourself.
So, where WooCommerce mentions their product “Product Vendor” is where I would like to think WC Vendors Pro would take the place, am I right OR do I have to use WooCommerce Product Vendor in my case?
Thanks!
Sri