Short version: If a guest books a room but can't pay for it, that room will be blocked off from the calender for those days for 24 hours.
The story: I had two guests inquire about a room this morning. One of which was taking his time (guest 1) about making a decision, one "ready" to decide right away(guest 2). So, the one that was "ready" decided to book. But, the payment was not getting issued. Not long after I noticed that the guest messeged me and offered $100 cash. I turned it down because it was already getting sketchy. I asked the guest to contact airbnb support and/or cancel his reservation, which he did not do.
I can still fill that room. I have another guest ready to book. So, I called airbnb and asked them to cancel guest 2s reservation because it's blocking the calender and he can't pay.
They said "we can't cancel a reservation that hasn't been confirmed yet".
Oh man did that set me off. Of course it's not confirmed, THEY CANT PAY! The lady kept repeating the same thing over and over. Put me on hold for 6 minutes then continued on with the same thing with some additions...
"the guest can contact support or cancel the reservation themselves."
Now I'm more triggered. What did I just tell you lady? I already told him to do that and he isn't doing either!
Okay, moving on from that here is the real crux of the problem. If the reservation is canceled, nobody is hurt. If the reservation is not canceled and also not paid for, I'm the only one getting screwed here. It's not looking out for the hosts _at all_.
I made the argument with support but being the robots that they are it helped not.
I wish I could give advice to you all if you're ever faced with this situation to make it better, but as far as I know I did everything right and am just plain getting screwed.
So just be aware of what will happen to your calender if someone can't pay for a reservation. You straight up lose the full cost of 1 day of booking.