How to get your deposit back

The seven steps

1. Assemble everything you already have

   Your booking confirmation, the signed terms, proof of the deposit payment, your check-in photographs, all app-chat and email history, and the check-out record. Screenshot the in-app chat now — an app conversation is not a document you control, and access can end when the tenancy does.

2. Write one clear demand, in writing, in the app and by email

   State the unit, the check-out date, the deposit amount paid, the amount returned so far, and the amount outstanding. Ask for one specific thing: payment of the outstanding balance, or a fully itemised breakdown with dated photographic evidence for each deduction. Ambiguity is what allows a case to drift.

3. Set a deadline and say what happens after it

   Give seven calendar days. State plainly that if the balance is unpaid or the itemisation is not supplied by that date, you will file with BPKN and the LAPOR! portal and publish a factual account. A deadline with a stated consequence changes how a case is handled internally.

4. Challenge each deduction individually

   Do not argue about the total. Take each line item and ask for the dated before photograph, the dated after photograph, and the invoice for the repair. Normal wear and tear is not chargeable. Deductions that cannot survive this itemisation frequently disappear.

5. Escalate publicly and in parallel

   File with BPKN and LAPOR!, submit a letter to MediaKonsumen, and post a factual, dated review to Trustpilot and the app stores. Parallel escalation matters: a complaint visible in several places at once is materially harder to leave unresolved than a single support ticket.

6. Take it to BPSK

   BPSK, the Consumer Dispute Settlement Body, hears consumer cases without requiring a lawyer and issues binding decisions. For a withheld deposit this is usually the most effective formal route available, and it is the step most tenants never learn about.

7. Send us the outcome

   Whether you recovered the money or not, the outcome is the most useful thing you can contribute. Resolution rates and timelines are what turn a pile of complaints into evidence a regulator can act on.

A demand letter you can copy

Replace the bracketed fields. Send it in the app chat and by email on the same day, so both timestamps exist.

Subject: Formal demand — outstanding security deposit, [unit / booking reference], check-out [date]

To Travelio Customer Service,

I rented [unit / property name] under booking reference [reference]. I checked out on [date]. I paid a security deposit of IDR [amount] on [date], by [payment method].

To date I have received IDR [amount returned]. IDR [amount outstanding] remains outstanding, [X] days after check-out. Travelio's stated policy is return within [7 days / 14 working days] of check-out.

I request one of the following, in writing, within 7 calendar days of this message:

1. Payment of the outstanding IDR [amount] to the account already on file; or
2. A fully itemised statement of every deduction, each accompanied by a dated photograph taken before my tenancy began, a dated photograph taken at check-out, and the supplier invoice for the work charged.

Please note that normal wear and tear is not a chargeable deduction, and that I hold dated photographic evidence of the unit's condition at check-in.

If I do not receive payment or the itemised statement with evidence by [date], I will file complaints with BPKN and via the LAPOR! portal, refer the matter to BPSK, and publish a factual account of this transaction.

I would prefer to resolve this directly and promptly.

[Full name]
[Contact number] / [email]
[Date]