Policies in Sharper control how deposits are collected and when cancellations qualify for a refund on Marina reservations. You create a policy once and then assign it to Marina products or rate plans. Every new reservation for that product will automatically follow the rules set in the policy.

To access Marina Policies, go to Marina, select Settings, and then select Policies.

A label for the policy used internally by your staff. Customers never see this name. Use something descriptive that makes the policy easy to identify, such as Transient – 50% Deposit or Seasonal – No Deposit.

The unit of time the policy applies to. This must match the booking period of the product the policy will be assigned to. For example, a policy with a Nightly booking period should only be assigned to products that are booked by the night. The booking period also changes how the deposit labels display — for example, Night(s) for nightly bookings or Month(s) for long-term bookings.

The booking guarantee defines what the customer must provide at the time of booking to confirm their reservation. Choose the option that matches how your marina collects payment commitments from customers.

Sets how much deposit is collected when the reservation is confirmed. Enter the deposit value and then choose how it is calculated:

Optional. Links the deposit to a specific product in your system so the payment posts to the correct account in your accounting setup. If left blank, the deposit is recorded without a product association.

Sets the cancellation window. Enter the number of days before the arrival date within which a customer is eligible to receive a deposit refund if they cancel. For example, entering 14 means a customer who cancels 14 or more days before arrival can receive a refund. Entering 0 or leaving this blank means the deposit is non-refundable under any circumstances.

Optional. Enter the number of days before arrival by which the full reservation balance should be paid. This field is informational — it records the expectation on the reservation but does not automatically collect or enforce payment. Your staff will need to follow up with customers who have not paid by this date.

When enabled, any price adjustments such as service fees or surcharges are included when calculating the deposit amount. When disabled, the deposit is calculated on the base rate only, and fees are excluded.

When enabled, any promo code discount applied to the reservation is factored into the deposit calculation, which reduces the deposit proportionally. When disabled, the deposit is calculated before any promo code discount is applied.

When enabled, customers can cancel their own reservation through the customer portal without contacting your staff. When disabled, all cancellations must be processed by a staff member in Sharper.

When enabled, taxes are included in the deposit calculation. When disabled, the deposit is calculated on the pre-tax amount and taxes are not factored in.

When enabled, this policy acts as a security deposit rather than a standard booking deposit. Security deposits work differently from regular deposits in two important ways:

Use a security deposit for damage holds or other refundable charges that should not reduce the customer's invoice balance automatically.

After creating a policy, assign it to a Marina product so it applies to new reservations. Policies can be assigned at two levels:

If a reservation's rate plan has a policy assigned, that policy takes priority. If no rate plan policy is set, the product-level policy is used.

The following examples show typical policy configurations for common marina scenarios.