Damage policy

Condition is assessed by comparison, not by rating. Before an instrument changes hands the lister uploads condition photos at the handoff, and the renter may upload their own. At the end of the rental both parties can upload condition photos again at the return. Those two sets of photographs, plus the free-text condition notes each party recorded, are the whole record.

Muse Rent does not apply a lettered or numeric condition rating to an instrument, and no such rating is stored anywhere. What is compared is the visible state of the instrument in the handoff photographs against its visible state in the return photographs, read together with what each party wrote at the time.

This is why the photographs matter. Take them in good light, capture the whole instrument and then each area that already shows wear, and take them before the instrument moves rather than afterwards. Once uploaded against a booking a condition photo cannot be replaced, edited or deleted — that is what makes it worth anything when two accounts of a rental disagree.

The security deposit is calculated automatically as 25% of the instrument value the lister declared when they created the listing. There is no flat rate and no per-category table: a more valuable instrument carries a proportionally larger deposit, and the figure for any given booking is shown to the renter before they confirm it.

The deposit is an authorization hold placed on the renter’s card, not a payment. The amount is reserved by the renter’s bank and released when the rental completes with no claim against it. It is only ever collected if a claim is reviewed and approved under this policy.

Listers are expected to declare a value that honestly reflects what the instrument is worth. An inflated value raises the hold every renter must carry; an understated one caps what can be recovered if the instrument is damaged.

When a return is confirmed, Muse Rent holds the rental fee for 7 days before paying the lister. That 7-day window is when a condition problem can be raised — after the payout has gone out, the money is no longer with us to hold.

To raise one, contact support at support@muse-rent.com with the booking reference and a description of the problem, and we will flag the booking for review. Reviews are carried out by a person on the Muse Rent team, not by an automated process, and there is no self-serve resolution flow in the product today.

The review considers the handoff photographs, the return photographs, the condition notes both parties recorded, any repair quote provided, and both accounts of what happened. Both parties are contacted before a decision is made, and both are told the outcome and the reasoning behind it.

Where a claim is approved, the security deposit may be applied to the reasonable cost of repairing the instrument — or, where it cannot reasonably be repaired, toward its replacement — up to the amount held and no further. Any remainder of the hold is released back to the renter.

Costs must be evidenced. A written quote or invoice from a qualified repair technician is what a repair claim is measured against; Muse Rent does not run an automated repair-cost calculator and does not publish a schedule of prices per fault.

Ordinary wear from normal playing is not damage. Fresh string wear, settled tuning, and the small marks an instrument picks up in careful use are expected and are not recoverable from a deposit. Cracks, structural damage, missing parts, water or heat damage, and a failure to return the instrument at all are.

Where the loss exceeds the amount held, this policy does not cap the lister’s rights outside the platform; it only governs what Muse Rent can settle from the deposit.