There's something you hosts should know...

[Adam1506]

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. 

[Till-and-Jutta0]

Yes we know this issue. Can be annoying in individual cases - especially with check-in on short notice.

On the other hand, this rule gives the guest time to finish his payment.

If he definitely can't pay it would be fair, if the guest cancels his booking soon.

[Adam1506]

In 2021 it shouldn't take more than an hour or two to secure payment. This isn't really the point though. The point here is that Airbnb is doing things here that 1) don't make sense and 2) don't look out for the host. 

[Till-and-Jutta0]

You are right: If the guest pays (usually by credit card), then the payment is a matter of minutes. Only if there is an issue (with the credit card), the payment doesn’t go through, and the guest gets a second chance by using a different credit card.

In your case (the guest is not willing to pay?) it seems not satisfying, that the host has to wait the 24 hours until the booking will be cancelled automatically.

[Anonymous]

@Adam1506   It used to be the case that hosts could withdraw approval for a booking while it was still in "payment pending" status. That doesn't seem to be an option anymore, though I haven't experienced it personally. 

[Sarah977]

@Adam1506  "Not long after I noticed that the guest messaged me and offered $100 cash."

You probably could have gotten that booking withdrawn by Airbnb, so it ceased to block your calendar, had you focused on his obvious intention to try to make a deal outside the platform, rather than tried to argue your case on the basis that it's unfair to hosts and makes no sense.

If there's one thing Airbnb cracks down on, it's guests trying to  circumvent paying service fees.

[Stephanie365]

I would mention that he is trying to book off the platform in violation of AirBNB policy. That should get their attention.

[Allie228]

yea, themselves is all they care about these days.

[Adam1506]

If this wasn’t meant for me, you can’t be further from the truth.

[Susan990]

The way to prevent this from happening is to set a 2 day or more gap from making the reservation to occupancy.  Just 2 days deters the ABB system exploiters.  If you tried that on a Hotel and arrived at the desk with no money collected to secure the room you will NOT GET INTO IT> think hotel in running your ABB.  Since we cannot do what hotels do then do the next best thing.  You think the HOTEL blocked its calendar for a non paying guest?  Hah! Hah! Hah!

[Debra300]

@Adam1506 @Susan990 

I have experienced this, and it is annoying, but it's not just an Airbnb policy.  All of the other platforms where I list do this. It is standard practice in the accommodations industry to hold a reservation for 24 hours to allow guests to provide a valid payment.  

[Sarah977]

@Susan990  You're talkiing about setting a 2 day advance notice, right? I've had that since I started hosting, because I like to plan ahead. But I know that last minute bookings can result in payment issues that don't become known, sometimes until after the guest has checked in, so I'd never take last-minutes anyway.

But setting advance notice doesn't stop what folks are talking about here- the calendar being blocked for up to 24 hours.

I think this only mostly happens with new guests who don't have their payment info uploaded and verified when they request to book. With all my seasoned Airbnb guests, the payment and confirmation seems to happen almost immediately.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

The right thing would be not to block the calendar until the verification and payment didn't go through.