Other payment methods

[Teresa1573]

I am new to hosting and received an inquiry to book. The person mentioned that his company was paying for the vacation and I could receive a company check or cashier's check.   Is this normal?  I hate to sound skeptical but I am too new to know about any potential scams.  

[Colleen253]

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2799/airbnbs-offplatform-policy

@Teresa1573 

Payment is all handled through Airbnb. Hosts don’t take payment, and in fact, you don’t receive the payout until 24 hours (or more) post check in. This person may just not understand how the platform works, but it’s obviously not right to try to skirt the Airbnb service fee. Just explain it to them briefly and move on. 

PS, you can do a quick search of the forum to find every scam under the sun. Good to be aware! Good luck!

[Lisa723]

@Colleen253 @Teresa1573 this is a well-known scam. You get a seemingly legit check for “accidentally” more than the amount due. You are asked to refund the difference. After you do, the original payment is detected as fraudulent and reversed.

[Colleen253]

@Lisa723 Good to know. I don’t pay much attention to what’s a scam or not, I tend to automatically report and block anyone who asks to go off platform in any way.

[Lisa723]

@Colleen253 this one has been making the rounds on Vrbo forever. Kind of surprising  for it to pop up on Airbnb where there is no real direct payment method.

[Gordon0]

Smells more than a little fishy; somebody's taken the time to register (presumably adding a credit card as they did) and now asks if a check/cheque is OK. Smells more than a little fishy and, as @Colleen253 says, @Teresa1573, we don't get involved in the money side of things (until it's time to spend it).

As for checks (we say cheques), I'm amazed they're still in use over there in these moderns times.