thats not the point, for first time incidents, this can be confusing to hosts. host will generally believe that Airbnb is some big company that will back its hosts, but thats really further from the truth. If airbnb said they will take care of it, usually a host would believe that, because you would think that airbnb would get that form of payment originally or have already held the deposit amount. but airbnb doesnt authorize deposit amounts. Deposits do nothing for hosts. Also Airbnb isnt able to collect forcefully from guests. The whole operation sucks. My advise is to collect deposit in via paypal and draw up an agreement that guest can read and sign , stating its refundable upon check out