Please do away with REQUESTS to BOOK.

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

Why, oh why, does Airbnb allow guests to hold dates without having a valid payment?

It's completely unfair to hosts. No other platform does this.

I was forced to call AirBnB this morning and waste more than half an hour of my valuable time to get this sorted.

Newbie guest did not respond once they finished what they thought was a completed booking.

It wasn't, because the payment was not valid, and in the meantime, I'm left with my dates tied up, preventing someone who actually meets the requirements and has a *valid* payment from booking, and I'm also left facing penalties for not accepting a Request to Book.

It's not right, and it's infuriating to have to deal with this in this way.
No other platform does this.
If the payment isn't valid, the booking is simply not made, which is how it should be on AirBnB, too.

They should do away with requests and just go with inquiries, instead of trying to force hosts to accept bookings from guests that don't meet the requirements to book or isn't a good fit.
Had I accepted this Request, I likely would have been out the full amount, since the payment did not go through, and the reservation was for a check in today.
I was never sent the initial Request to Book email, which usually lists why a Request was made, instead of an instant book (except in the case of invalid payment, which lists no reason for why a Request instead of an IB was made), so unless I called in, I would have had no idea that the payment didn't go through.

We have requirements for a reason, and AirBnB shouldn't be trying to force us to waive them.

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

@Sarah977  You can disagree, but t he fact remains that if a guest's review comments are benign, such as, "Guest was friendly and quiet", but the star ratings are a 4 or 3 overall and the cleanliness star rating  and house rules were  a 1, would you still consider the star ratings unimportant?
That's very telling in my eyes and would definitely ring an alarm bell to me, because many hosts don't have the backbone to say what really happened and instead leave benign and noncommittal comments, which are not at all helpful to future hosts.
I've even reached out to previous hosts to ask what happened with the guest to see why they gave them lower stars (this works best with newbie guests who only have one review) with the result that my instinct was confirmed.
In fact, I've dodged many such bullets before, because once I saw the reviews and ratings, I was able to either convince such a guest that we couldn't host them and had them cancel, or I called in to AirBnB and had them cancel due to those concerns.
I've also made it a habit to go back later and check reviews and sure enough, every single time, there's been a subsequent honest host who leaves a less than stellar review for those guests, and I am assured that my initial instinct was correct.
But either way, I'm glad that the AirBnB system currently works for you, although I wouldn't count on that continuing, especially with the punitive to host changes they continually make and the new "covid guests".
I know it doesn't work for me and I don't expect that to change any time soon.
Best of luck to you.

[Sarah977]

@Michelle-and-Ray0  Yes, I know there can be a discrepancy between star ratings given and the written reviews- too many hosts are chicken to write an honest, informative review and I really wish that wasn't so. 

Many hosts who use IB aren't at all aware that non-IB hosts aren' t privy to star ratings and that they are doing all those hosts a disservice by leaving a misleading written review for a guest they rated poorly.

I actually dismiss those non-informative reviews. If it just says "Nice guests", that means nothing to me, and when I cross-refererence to see how that host has reviewed other guests, that almost always reveals that the host leaves "Nice guests" for every single guest. Useless.

Hosts who are used to requiring requests tend to be able to know what written reviews to take seriously amd which are indicative of a host who is loathe to be honest.

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

@Sarah977  And that is exactly my point.
AirBnB should simply not be hiding any part of the review from potential hosts at any point.
It simply doesn't make any sense to do so and I cannot see a benefit to anyone in doing so, except maybe the guest, because then, crappy guests can still make bookings, at least until their time runs out and it catches up with them, but there is no benefit to the platform or hosts to do it that way.
The only thing they accomplish is chasing good hosts away and besmirching the AirBnB brand.

[Sarah977]

I just wish all hosts would consider taking the 3-5 minutes to write an informative review (which is all the time it takes) as part of their job as hosts, just like answering guest messages, cleaning the place or managing their cleaners schedules.

Hosts don't need all the gritty details, but at least convey in writing what was addressed in the star ratings. Nothing wrong with using a saved review template for good guests ("Good communication, followed house rules, left the place clean") if a host is strapped for time or has high guest turnover, but at least leave a review which tells other hosts what they themselves would want to know about a guest.

[Melodie-And-John0]

@Anonymous , number 2 is definitely #2 (as in poo) and pisses me off every time it happens (4 or 5 in 3 years). At least let me know there is possibly a payment issue before I decide to accept or not, that seems pretty simple and reasonable.   I have actually had some of them work out after i got over the sneak trick of hiding it from me before I accept it but it really should be my choice to accept or reject any booking that isn't fully qualified without any penalization.

2) A booking without a completed payment can advance to Confirmed status if it is accepted, holding your calendar hostage for an additional 24 hours until the guest's payment method is successful. Most annoyingly, the host is not notified about the payment issue until after accepting the booking - so you have to make the awkward choice between waiting for the guest to finish a bungled transaction and potentially losing a valuable booking to a system failure.

[Pat271]

@Anonymous I don’t think locking a calendar only if payment is valid should be an option; instead it should just be the normal, fixed behavior. What host would choose to have his/her calendar locked on invalid payments? I don’t think any host would choose “yes” for this option.

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

It shouldn't even be an option, much less a question. 
It shouldn't even be an issue we are discussing.
Guests should not be allowed to hold our calendars unless a VALID payment has been COMPLETED, end of story.

[Dale711]

@Michelle-and-Ray0 

I am totally agree with you! 

        I know you’ll get touch this! 

“ Request to book absolutely *does* block your calendar, every time.
At least that's how it's worked with me, whether they are requesting to check in outside my scheduled check in time, bringing children under 8, which we don't accept, or wanting to skirt around any other of my requirements to book, without exception.
Dates get blocked.
Every. Single. Time.” 

You’re not alone! 

l have exactly the same experience with you in “ frequently”, guest pay or either payment didn’t go through  which I doesn’t know, my calendar date notifications in “ red” .

Calendar are block !

Then after sometimes or after a day or two, received a message the “  payment unsuccessful”, calendar date following reopen.

I was wondering what the reason Airbnb block the calendar without to secure of the guest payment by 100% and my calendar was block ?! 
I was frustrated and no where to get help ! 
Because the date are pass ! Too late to contact Airbnb Support Help Center or file a complaint? 

Therefore, I listed few new listings and turn off the instantly booking button in the new listings  , to assume my listing are complete booking everyday, avoid the same incident happened again and again. 

Well, that is the only way I can do for my calendar to take up  by reservation. 

As you can just imagine this happened on the festival season or on the holidays!  

Of course what happen when is a double booking in the same date, both reservation are confirmed and 100% payment through? 
I contact the Airbnb immediately, to request cancellation for the instantly booking reservation, and acknowledge the incident done by Airbnb.

The different of  between us, I still can handle it easily, because my listing is dormitory shared room, fill up with extra bed or acknowledge to the Airbnb.
Nevertheless, that is really hard for the listing of “ Entire Home” or “ Private Room” to organize the same ways that  I do.

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

But sometimes, AirBnB allows guests to make payments and the second or subsequent payment fails, so. your calendar is held for a partial payment.
Then, when the subsequent payment fails, the reservation is *eventually* cancelled and the guest is refunded the WHOLE amount.
Meanwhile, the guest could already be in the unit, especially in the case of longer term rentals.
Sometimes, the host is never notified and only finds out when they go to check payments, that they are missing several payments (in the case of several months) and the guest has been staying for free all that time.
This is why it's important to reconcile your payments on a regular basis and don't depend on AirBnB to make the payments to you or notify you when they aren't made.
I reconcile mine every week.

[Debra300]

@Michelle-and-Ray0,

Unfortunately, other platforms do hold reservations when an invalid credit/debit card is provided.  If a hosts processes their own payments on Both Booking and Expedia, these platforms give the guest 24 hours to provide a valid form of payment after being notified of the payment problem.  They charge an additional fee on top of the commission if a host signs up for these platforms to process payments.  

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

@Debra300 I don't process my own payments, so thankfully I don't have to deal with it on that end too.
It's simply wrong to do this to hosts, especially when the booking 24 hours or less away.
I use Payments by Booking and I don't use Expedia so I can't comment on that, but I can say that when a payment fails on BDC the booking simply isn't made, and that's as it should be.

[Inna22]

@Michelle-and-Ray0 how much of a rush for your listing do you have a day before? Do you regularly have such a short lead time? You are very angry about this so I would assume this happens all the time- a reservation a day before with a bad payment. I don’t even accept reservations for next day. They are always trouble. You know Airbnb can accept the payment and it might turn out it was declined a few days into the stay? 

I had six properties pre- pandemic (now three) and have been hosting for four years. Declined payment happened maybe three times in all those years. Yes, it is annoying but statistically insignificant. Who knows if I missed out on another booking. Just no way to tell. If this happens to you so regularly, would it make sense to revisit your listing and see why you attract that type of a guest? Perhaps raise your rates? I don’t want to turn this into victim blaming but Airbnb will not do anything about this so it’s on us to adjust. 

[Clare167]

Reflecting on your posts, I suspect that it may not be possible for Airbnb to verify payment conclusively, in advance of an actual attempted booking. For example, I have a valid credit card, but when I come to make a particular booking, there might not be enough money available in my credit limit. @Michelle-and-Ray0 @Anonymous @Debra300 

[Michelle-and-Ray0]

@Clare167 If a payment fails when a booking is attempted, then the booking itself should simply fail, not be held for 24 hours, hoping that someone will figure it out, because guests aren't notified that their payment has failed, and neither is the host.
The only reason I even know about it is because I am proactive about reservation requests that guests make and then don't respond to when I try to communicate with them. We don't ever accept reservation requests, so when a guest doesn't respond to my messages asking them to withdraw and meet my requirements and instant book instead, or when a guests appears to meet my requirements but still can't IB and they don't know why, I am proactive and call in and ask why it's sent as a request, or in the case of a non-responsive guest, I ask them to remove the request at no penalty to me.
So, if guests aren't notified of a failed payment, and neither are hosts, then how is holding the unit for 24 hours of any benefit to anyone?
It's simply wrong to do this to hosts and even worse when they do it with a reservation that's set to check in in 24 hours or less. 
Hosts are often left holding the bag for a guest that stayed and didn't pay and AirBnB tries to wash their hands of it and say they aren't responsible for paying hosts when that happens.
That's simply WRONG.
If AirBnB doesn't want to be responsible for paying hosts for guest who have stayed with failed payments, then they should be REQUIRED to notify us IMMEDIATELY of a failed payment and give us the opportunity to collect for ourselves.
But they don't do that. They want to have their cake and eat it, too, and that's not right.

[Clare167]

Ok @Michelle-and-Ray0 I think I do follow. Your essential point is that where an Instant Book is made impossible by a payment failure, it should not be converted into a Request to Book, it should just fall. Then if that potential guest still wanted to pursue a possible stay with you, they'd send you an inquiry, I suppose.

Fair enough, and as @Anonymous suggests, it would be great if options for different hosts' preferences could be built into the software.

I entirely agree with you that hosts should not be left unpaid because Airbnb has failed to collect. The only practical mitigant here seems to be not to take very short notice bookings through Airbnb.

I wish you all the best.