Payments update: Retiring the Group Payments feature

[Airbnb]

When we introduced Group Payments, we were trying to create a simple way for guests to split booking costs when traveling in a group. This arrangement meant the person organizing the trip wouldn’t have to pay all of the money up front, and hosts would have more visibility into who’s staying in their home since they’d be able to see profiles of everyone who contributed.

But we heard from you that holding your listing for 72 hours while waiting for all of the guests to pay was inconvenient. We considered the overall usefulness of this feature and its impact on the whole community and have decided to remove it in mid-September 2018. Any existing reservation that was paid for with Group Payments will be honored; we’re simply preventing new reservations from being made with Group Payments. We appreciate your feedback and will continue to work to build the simplest, most beneficial tools to support your hosting success.

[Diana108]

I disagree! Why should a host trust your friends or co-workers to pay if you wouldn't trust them to reimburse you?

[Diana108]

I am glad to hear the "Group Booking" option was removed. If you go out to eat with friends and the waiter brings a single bill, can't you figure out amongst yourselves who owes what? What's wrong with one person booking and paying and then collecting later from the other parties? Why should hosts be asked to "trust" you and your friends if you wouldn't trust them to repay you? It was a nightmare for me the one time a group used it (I had never heard of it) and I got a bad review from them because I asked them to pay the balance due promptly and not tie up my listing for days. Glad to hear it's gone and I can safely use Instant Booking again.

[Angie76]

Why not give 24 hour window to pay instead? Its more inconveniento for the trip organizer. It's already a huge task to search for a place to stay in a group trip, lots of homework. And then have to deal with managing all the funds too? I literally told everyone I knew to get airbnb solely for the group feature, which I thought it was wonderful. Instead of getting read of it, modifiy it and meet in the middle. 

[Susan17]

@Angie76 

Too late - it's long gone, and won't be coming back!

The reality is, the Group Payment feature was never about making it easier for guests to pay - in these days of instant money transfers, guests can easily send money to the main booking guest in moments. No need whatsoever for Airbnb to insert themselves in the middle of that process. 

The real reason the Group Payment feature was introduced, was simply to skyrocket the new guest acquisition figures, in the run-up to the IPO (on a booking with 10 guests for example, all 10 guests would have to sign up as Airbnb members, rather than just the 1 booking guest). The plan backfired badly though, due to a huge number of bookings failing/being aborted as a result of one or two members of booking groups not providing payment in time, malfunctioning verification processes (the true reason for the 72hr window on this policy), or simply not wanting to sign up as an Airbnb member themselves. 

From Day 1, it was always a disaster waiting to happen. Just another of the plethora of ill-conceived and abysmally-implemented policies that Airbnb never thinks through before foisting on their exasperated hosts. Now consigned to the scrapheap of Sh*te Airbnb Policies and Practices forever, along with all the other preposterous "initiatives" that have had to be quietly shelved.