instant booking is turned off but a guest attempted to book on same day and then turned up late on same day and i cant accept the booking the next day

[Bellbunya0]

I thought that if i gave a day to make a booking that people could not book on that same day

but people still send in requests

yesterday i did not respond to the request as i was busy which is the whole point of not being able to book on the same day

The guests turned up anyway

the next morning i tried to accept the booking

so that we can get paid

but the booking can no longer be accepted

how do i now organise payment?

[Sarah977]

@Bellbunya0  You seem very confused as to how to deal with requests. First of all, you need to set advance notice to 1 or two days so you don't get same day requests. 

Secondly, you can't just let a request expire because you are busy. A request must be either accepted or declined within 24 hours.

Thirdly, these guests have no confirmed booking- they should not have shown up and you never should have let them in.

You have a real mess on your hands now and you will need to contact Airbnb to hopefully sort it out. But you should not let the guests continue to stay without having paid. There is zero guarantee you will be paid- what you have there now are trespassers.

[Bellbunya0]

First of all, you need to set advance notice to 1 or two days so you don't get same day requests. 

Yes that is how it is set up

this is what it says:

Calendar availability

Advance notice

At least 1 day’s notice

Secondly, you can't just let a request expire because you are busy. A request must be either accepted or declined within 24 hours.

If i have set advance notice required then i did not think that i had to reject the booking for the same day?????

Thirdly, these guests have no confirmed booking- they should not have shown up and you never should have let them in.

Well i guess so, But they showed up late and there was a room available so i thought i could organise the payment the next day.  They have provided their credit card details to air bnb to make the payment in the event that the booking was accepted so i thought i could fix it up the next day

Am i talking to someone from airbnb.

I am new to this and appreciate the help

thanks

[Sarah977 · Accepted solution]

@Bellbunya0  No, you aren't talking to someone from Airbnb. This is a discussion forum for hosts and guests. I am just another host.

Regardless of what a guest requests, you must either accept or decline the request within 24 hours. The guest should not have been able to input dates that were not available, so I'm not sure what happened there. 

If the request is inappropriate, you need to message the guest and explain why, and ask them to withdraw the request. If they withdraw it before the 24 hour window, you won't have to either accept nor decline it. If they don't withdraw it, you must decline it. 

Also hopefully you understand the difference between an Inquiry and a Request. The choices on an Inquiry are Pre-approve or Decline. But unless you feel fine about the guest and want to pre-approve, a simple return message within 24 hours is all you need to do. Don't waste declines on Inquiries. Even if you pre-approve an Inquiry, that doesn't mean it's a booking. The guest has to go on to book and often Inquiries never do.

You can't "organize payment the next day." Hosts have no input into payments. Payments are automatic and are between Airbnb and the guest. These guests have now stayed without having a booking. If they have no ill intentions, hopefully Airbnb customer service can help you set this right, but I doubt you will get paid for days that were not booked. If the guests are well intentioned, perhaps they will pay you in cash  for the nights they have stayed without having an official booking

This sounds like an unlucky combination of a host who was not aware of how things work on the platform and  guests who also didn't understand.

I would suggest you read all the articles provided for hosts in the Help section of the main site and bone up on how things work on the platform. It's a big learning curve, so you want to start out with as much info in the basics as possible.

[Bellbunya0]

thanks Sarah

i was able to organise payment

i just assumed air bnb would be able to do it the next day.

the room was available but we like to have notice to air the room and be available.  

they sent a request through at 5:30pm and arrived at 7:30pm.  

it seems like the option of 24 hours notice does not stop someone from asking and requiring a reply

It does concern me because it does not seem like i can stop it from happening in the future.  But at least now i know that if we do accept a guest in this scenario then i need to log in and accept the booking in order to be paid 

I appreciate you taking the time to provide this info

[Colleen253]

@Bellbunya0 You would think ‘a days notice’ would be 24 hours, but in Airbnb’s mind, it is not. Set your advance notice to 2 days at least,  not 1. And be sure to check ‘No’ for the box below that setting. Cover all bases. See screenshot. And keep in mind you always have the right to decline a Trip Request. But you must take action with one. You cannot ignore it. 

[Emiel1]

@Bellbunya0 

How can a guest turn up if you did not accepted the booking request ? They do not have your address (unless it is a returning guest). Just be sure your settings are correct to prevent such trouble, as explained by @Sarah977 

[Bellbunya0]

Because we are called by the name of the Community with a website.  So it is easily found

[Mark116]

@Bellbunya0  You need to check your settings, if you had 1 day advance notice no one should have been able to bookfor the same day.  Some hosts have reported that various settings get unchecked, maybe this is what happened. With 1 day's notice set, someone could send a request at 10pm on Wed. and want to check in on Thurs morning, but even by Airbnb standards 1 day notice should not allow for a 2 hour window.

[Sarah977]

@Bellbunya0

"it seems like the option of 24 hours notice does not stop someone from asking and requiring a reply.

It does concern me because it does not seem like i can stop it from happening in the future."

 Something to be aware of is that guests can ask for whatever they want. They just can't input dates that don't show as available. 

Is that what possibly happened here? 

Did the guests simply ask if they could check in the same day, or was the date they arrived actually the date their request had on it?

2 days advance notice doesn't mean you have 2 days to respond to a message. All requests and inquiries must be responded to one way or another within 24 hours.