Payout not being sent because guest did not pay for date change.

[Marina586]

I need help about how to proceed with this.

I contacted support but I am extremely unhappy about the results.

TL;DR; My whole payout of the 5 nights wasn't released because the guest did not pay the extra night he requested. Airbnb did not notify me.

Whole story:

My guest was a very friendly man coming with his girlfriend. He said he had to come to the city one day earlier and requested me to extend his stay by one night before his original booking. I made the change dates alteration and sent to him. He approved right away. Airbnb showed me the green "accepted" sign. He came, we hosted him, everything was nice. He left a nice review.

Then I noticed i did not get the email from airbnb about payout being released. I contacted support and I was told by the agent that the payout was going to be on my bank account by the 27th of June. That didn't happen, so I contacted support again and this time they told me the payout won't be sent until the guest completely pays for his alteration.

But wait.. wasn't Airbnb supposed to charge them or let me know in case that didn't happen so I can not host them during that night?

The way I see it is that: 

1) Who did their job?
A) Not Airbnb - they did not collect the payment. They did not inform the host that the payment was not collected, they did not inform the guest the payment was not collected.
b) Not the guest, they did not pay for the service they requested
c) only the host - who provided all the service, cleaning, communication, very good experience for the guest.

2) When the guest requests a change of dates it is not clear to the host if the request was paid for or not. Who gets penalized?
a) not Airbnb - They have already 90% of the payout, no problem there to wait a few weeks for the guest to pay. That money doesn’t even belong to them so they actually have more money than they should have at the moment.
b) no need to say why it’s not the guest 
c) the host - the one who provided all the service and didn’t get a single penny for it. The one who is investing in the business and was expecting the money so that they can improve the listing for the following guests and pay for the investment we made to renovate he house to have an Airbnb. 

3) Agent told me the money would be on my bank account by the 27th. That clearly hasn’t happened. Why did he inform me that?

What should actually happen?
=> All the payout is released to the host, regardless of the guest paying or not. Airbnb’s job is to collect this payment, if they fail, that’s not the hosts problem. They should deal with the guest because of their own fault and solve it directly with the guest, releasing the whole payment to the host.

Why is that not happening?

Isn't it outrageous that now I have to wait over a month to get a payout for a reservation where I was the only one who responsibly followed through?

Isn't it outrageous that I am paying a fee, as a host, for a service that wasn't provided (secure payments)?

[Nanxing0]

@Sarah977 I have this type of experience a couple times and can share some info. Pretty often, a guest requests to change the date (basically adding like 2 nights) and then we as host either initiate the alteration request or accept the alteration request the guest submitted. It doesn't seem to make any difference in terms of who initiate the alteration request though. Ideally Airbnb should secure the payment before the alteration takes effect, however now Airbnb does it opposite that the change will take effect and THEN airbnb starts to collect payment. There are a couple times this payment collection fails, then Airbnb sends me an email saying the following:

Hi XXXX,

The attempt to charge your guest, XXXX, for the amount due for reservation XXXXXXXXXX from XXXXXXXX - XXXXXXXX was unsuccessful. The reservation is still active at this time, and we've sent XXXX an email alert with a direct way to pay the balance.

If your guest successfully submits payment, we'll send you a confirmation email right away. If you have questions about the payment problem, you can reach out to your guest.

If your guest doesn't successfully submit payment or if they cancel the reservation before making the payment, Airbnb isn't liable for issuing your host payout. If you prefer to cancel the reservation, you can cancel without penalty at any time before the trip begins. If the reservation has started and you'd like to cancel, please send us a note.

We appreciate your understanding.

Essentially, at this point we can only beg the guest to move forward to finish the payment. Since the guest is in the middle of the reservation we have no way to cancel it obviously and it's quite difficult to reach Airbnb at that time due to pandemic. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Ronald122 Have you looked in your 'transaction history' that is available under your account? What does that say about the missing payments?

[Kwok-Ming0]

I had the EXACT same issue! This is totally a flaw at Airbnb system to allow extension alteration to be confirm even the guest did not pay. I've filed a case to Airbnb support on this a month ago and the so called "specialist team" did not even contact me till now and i've calling them several time. It's mind boggling that Airbnb has such a serious flaw in their system. My guest paid for 2 nights and extend for another 30days (which they did not pay for). All i get from calling the support is they can't do anything for me and ask me to wait for the specialist team to contact me which never happen. After reading some of the comments here, i guess i would not get any payment. Seriously Airbnb?

[Nanxing0]

I experienced similar things in the past month or two. It's apparently a loophole in the Airbnb payment collection system that I already talked about in another thread, as well as the "awaiting payment" bs. Apparently Airbnb changed to such setup instead of the original payment-before-request setup to attract more guest and give some convenience to guests, but some shameless guests have learnt this trick and use it to play game with hosts. 

The problem arises when the pandemic striked, more people have restriction on their bank account that every transaction need to be approved by the bank before funds can be transferred. This raises the issue up that it will take anywhere from a couple hours to 2-3 days to finish payment but Airbnb is allowing the request to block our calendars even if the payment has not been approved by the bank. This is really disgraceful.

[Ellie343]

sounds like a smart lawyer should read these posts and start a class action suit.  literally the ONLY thing airbnb does is collect the payment. and now they can't even do that?

[Inga182]

We just got a cancellation for a 4 month reservation the day before check in. The guest pre paid the 30-first days, but not the non-refundable service fee, which bounced when Airbnb tried to collect it. Got the same message as @Nanxing0. We won’t get paid the “”guaranteed” 30-days” unless the guest pays the service fee. Which means Airbnb will be keeping the 30-days guaranteed money meant for the host, whilst we have to wait for the Airbnb Service fee payment?!  Something seriously backwards and wrong here. 
Happend today, so I hope to resolve it fast and painless.

If not, I think you’re onto something @Ellie343. Might have my firm check it out

[Rachelle105]

I also had a guest that originally was staying for 40+ nights and then changed the reservation to 28 nights. I accepted the change, but when I looked to see if I received the payout a week after check in, nothing was there. I've called Airbnb support 3 times and they say they will 'escalate' this but I don't think they are doing anything. They asked me to ask the guest to finish the payment, but I don't think it's my role to hunt after guests for payment. That's why I use Airbnb! This is outrageous.

[Helen744]

@Rachelle105 you should have sent the change , not the guest . the guest should have accepted the change and you need notification of it .It seems the original booking was cancelled , not changed and the guest received a refund and stayed without a reservation in place at all . scary . watch your dashboard . you should have been paid before the guest was fully in the stay .

[Rachelle105]

@Helen744 What are you talking about? The guest, a couple days before even arriving, sent a request to changed her checkout date - which I approved because Airbnb sent me a notification. I did not initiate nor suggest any changes. Nothing was cancelled. Are you with Airbnb and can you see my reservation details? You're right, I should have been paid within 24 hours after check in, but this is not the case.

[Helen744]

@Rachelle105 the guest should have initially sent a message to you to ask for a change .Next to the guests reservation page and under 'payout details 'if you scroll down is the area where you send changes to the guest . These are sent to the guest as a request and the guest must accept them before the reservation can proceed .It is sent by you not Airbnb. It does not matter if you say yes or no because you may or may not have vacancy but if you do have vacancy then you must send the amendmet to the guest and message them that they must accept the amendment before the reservation can go ahead. then if their credit card will not accept the extra fee you should know immediately or withing an hour at the latest . do not let anyone stay an extra day unless this process has occurred . H

[Helen744]

This is a forum and no one on here is any different to you ,we are hosts albeit with more experience than some others.If you want to contact Airbnb you will find details on here at the top of one of the pages . Good luck H

[Helen744]

when you say Airbnb be aware of the difference between automated messaging and guests sending you a message as opposed to Airbnb sending one .H

[Rachelle105]

@Helen744 thanks for the help. Unfortunately, when a notification comes from Airbnb to 'accept a change' and I am prompted to say 'yes' or 'no' then it doesn't make sense that Airbnb would not amend the payment automatically. If we should say 'no' and send the amendment ourselves, that would have been nice to know before hand. Why is this a feature anyways? Terrible UX.

[Helen744]

@Marina586 this is an anomaly that I have pointed out o a number of times. it is also the same on extension of the stay which is sent to the guest to accept. It should come back that the guest has accepted the variation sent to them . Many guests do not see this variation or do not accept it even though they have asked for it .{in other words they do not pay for it} any variation that a guest asks for can go ahead even to the point that the guest again changes their mind and either refuses the extension ,by saying they do not want it any longer and then requesting a refund for the days they have not stayed. Beware of this very subtle scam being practiced by apparently very nice people . H