How paying works

Every payment for a deal happens inside Vallo. Never pay outside Vallo. A payment made outside Vallo is not covered.

A payment made in Vallo leaves a reference on your booking or agreement. That reference is what support works from if something goes wrong. A transfer to somebody’s own account leaves nothing to work from.

Nobody on Vallo has a reason to send you an account number. If somebody does, stop and report them.

• Rent. Escrow, selected for you, or Pay by card.
• Shortlets and serviced apartments. Escrow, selected for you, or Pay by card.
• A sale. Escrow only.
• A hotel room. By card, when you book, at the price shown.
• A restaurant table. Free to book. You pay your bill at the restaurant.
• A viewing. Never any money.

For rent and shortlets you choose how to pay: Escrow, which is selected for you, or Pay by card.

With Escrow, a licensed payment partner holds your payment until the deal is confirmed. Only then is it released to the owner, agent or host.

If the payment does not go ahead, it goes back to you from the partner holding it, once the cancellation is agreed or decided.

A sale is always paid through escrow. There is no card option for a sale.

If escrow is paused, a payment that must go through escrow does not open, and nothing is charged. For rent and shortlets you can pay by card instead.

With Pay by card, your payment goes to the owner, agent or host through our licensed payment partner as soon as it clears.

You enter your card on the payment partner’s own page, never on Vallo. Vallo never sees your full card number.

A hotel room is paid by card when you book, at the price shown.

Tap Pay twice on a bad connection and you are charged once. A repeated attempt picks up the first one.

• Rent or a sale. After the viewing, the inspection report and the agreement. See From viewing to keys.
• A shortlet. When the host accepts your booking, or at once when the listing is marked Instant book.
• A hotel room. At once, when you book.

A card payment for an unusually large deal, or one where something changed recently, may wait for a person at Vallo to look first. You are told by email and in the app when it opens.

Vallo never holds customer money. Licensed payment partners hold payments and escrow. Vallo records each payment and shows you where it stands.

No Vallo balance holds your rent or any other payment, and no payment of yours waits with Vallo to be withdrawn. Referral rewards are separate: where they run, they are counted as a Rewards Balance, which is what Vallo owes you and never money held for you. If anybody tells you that Vallo is holding money for you, or asks you to send money to be held, it is not us.

You pay exactly the listed price. Every cost, including any charge at the door, is shown before you book.

Vallo's commission comes out of the host's or lister's share. It is never added to your price.

See What Vallo costs for every fee.

A refund goes back to the card or bank account you paid with, through our payment processor. Banks usually show it within 5 to 10 working days. There is no Vallo balance for a refund to sit in, so it always goes back the way the money came. For when you get money back, see Cancellations and refunds.

• Add a Nigerian bank account in your own name before anybody can pay you.
• Before you publish, Vallo shows you what you will receive after its commission.
• With Pay by card, your share goes to your bank account when the payment clears.
• With Escrow, your share is released when the deal is confirmed.
• Every payment and every refund appears on your earnings, line by line.

Every payment and every refund has its own reference. Open it from the booking or the agreement, and quote it to support. One payment can be from ₦100 to ₦10,000,000.

Keep every message, agreement and payment on Vallo. Vallo is not responsible for anything arranged, discussed or paid outside the platform. Payments made outside Vallo are not covered.

Say no, and report it. If you have already paid, read If you already sent money.