Ending a reservation because of non payment

[Lauren465]

Looking for Answers or suggestions to me possibly needing to end a guests stay early due to non-payment:

My current in house guest booked her room as if 1 person was staying. Initially, when she messaged me she was coming, she did mention the other person but I ‘assumed’ the additional guest fee I had in place was charged. At the time I had a lot of reservations.

The night before check in I notice only 1 person selected for check in, and no fee assessed. 

I message the guest that I will be updating the reservation to correctly reflect number of ppl and tell her that there will be a balance due.

She agreees to the reservation change, however, almost immediately after accepting it, I get a message from AirBnB saying the payment did not go through. She has been here for two days.

so, how do I proceed? AirBnB says they are not liable for the funds.

I would hate to cut short their stay on them, but if I do not receive payment soon, I think I will. 

Has anyone ever done this to a guest? (AirBnB says I can change the reservation I want to)

[Linda108]

@Lauren465  To clarify,  were you paid for the single guest the day after check in  and not paid for the extra guest?  Or, have you not been paid at all?

[Lauren465]

I have not been paid at all. The reservation was updated this last Friday and she checked in on Saturday, with the second guest 

[Paul154]

@Lauren465

Pragmatically, I guess it would depend on how much I trusted the  guests and Airbnb to at least pay the original agreement (Maybe the alteration has caused some technical glitch). I would ask Airbnb point blank if they have received the funds for the original reservation.

If no payment, kick them out. If they don't leave, call the police, it is theft/fraud.

If you are waiting for the 2nd guest payment, then do that which causes you the least stress.

Having a contract honored may be important to you. Memorialize through the Airbnb app that they must leave. Then kick them out. You will lose the future unearned income and risk the current income (dependant on Airbnb)

On the otherhand, I have had luck asking for acceptance of the extra guest charge. If the stay is short, I may let it pass and hope they will do the right thing. If they don't I berate them in the review.

[Lauren465]

That is my line of thinking. I am waiting to here back from AirBnB support. Unfortunately they are staying for 7 days, which is long for me. 

I just thinking What I would need to do worst case scenario...ugh to getting police involved:/ really hope it does not come to that 

[Christine615]

If you updated the reservation and she agreed, then the fee should show up as "pending" in your account. If she checked in on a Saturday, likely you wan't see an email showing the money is coming until Monday (tends to be faster on business days then on weekends).

So you should see the money being transferred to you today. Was it?

[Lauren465]

No I do not. I usually have received an email saying payment is on its way to my account. Instead I got guest payment declined

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Lauren465

Did you talk to the guest and tell them their payment did not go thru? I would tell the guest that they need to address this with their credit card company AND Airbnb so you get the payment. (Show them the email you got and your payment status as proof of non payment ans ask them to log into their Airbnb account to see the payment status from the guest's account.)

Without payment they are staying without a valid reservation. Give them 24hrs to sort it out and pay Airbnb/you. You can decide what to do (kick them out?) based on how they react and respond. 

Make sure all discussions are summarized/reiterated on Airbnb messenger with the guest as proof. 

Good luck~

[Lauren465]

Good news, AirBnB was able to get the funds from the guest. Hopefully this rest of the reservation will go smoothly. Thanks for the guidance everyone. 

[Dawn33]

Good for you.

How does that even happen?

When did they make the reservation?  Why didn’t Airbnb not contact you the moment their payment was declined?

[Ute42]

.

Hi  @Letti ,

yet another thread I have nothing to contribute to.

Write an answer and I will thumb it up, so we get

as least something out of this.