Awaiting Guest ID

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

It’s very annoying and inconvenient for a host, when you get an “Awaiting Guest ID” that blocks your calendar for 12 hours for the days that potential guest is attempting to book. Cmon AirBnb, you are stopping my other potential guests that want to book with me. Why does this one “potential guest” get to handcuff my booking system?

I don’t think that my calendar should be held ransom for a possible guest who’s identification or payment method has not been provided. 

How is this OK?

Glenn

[Flavia202]

@Andrea-and-Glenn0 , this happened to me once and I sent @AirbnbHelp a private message via twitter asking them to unblock the calendar, and they did so quickly:

  "Hello Airbnb. Thanks for looking out for me but could you please unblock my calendar that you have blocked re (insert name of guest) - "Awaiting guest ID".

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

@Flavia202  Thanks. I’m not on Twitter, great tip, glad to know it worked for you. 

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

I’m surprised more hosts are also annoyed by this and some how lobbied to have it changed. 

So, 12 hours our calendar is blocked by someone who ended up either not verifying ID or payment and have now simply gone away. 

Meanwhile, my calendar is blocked and I’m unable to accept other guests or make any other bookings in my own rental, this needs to change. 

Glenn

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

@Flavia202 

What does awaiting payment mean? 

Awaiting payment means that a host has accepted a guest's reservation request, but the guest's payment hasn’t gone through yet. In most cases, this means the guest needs to update information related to their payment method.

When a reservation is awaiting payment:

• The guest who made the reservation request will have 24 hours to successfully update their payment info before the reservation can be confirmed.
• If the guest doesn’t update their payment method within 24 hours, the request to book will be cancelled without penalty to the host or guest. Hosts replying on web will have the option to give guests a 24-hour window or not. If the host would prefer not to allow a 24-hour window, the request will be cancelled penalty-free for both host and guest.
• While the guest is updating their payment info after sending a request to book, dates will be blocked on the host’s calendar for up to 24 hours. This helps us prevent glitches such as a hosts getting multiple payments for requests from multiple guests for the same dates.
• If the current guest doesn’t confirm their payment info, the request will be cancelled penalty-free and other guests will be able to send inquiries or requests for those dates.

[Ashley-and-Mike0]

It's silly of Airbnb to implement these features which are hostile towards hosts. 

"Awaiting Guest ID"

"Awaiting Payment"

Neither of these issues should block a listing calendar. The reservation is not confirmed, why would the calendar be blocked for 12 or 24 hours?! 

Other platforms such as VRBO/HomeAway do not do this. If the initial payment fails on VRBO, the listing calendar would stay available for other guests to book.