Guest asked for hosting 8pm the same day, not realized "Awaiting payment"

[Petra604]

Had a unpleasant experience with a guest and also with AirBnb support.

A guest requested staying in my unit 8pm for a night through AirBnb .

Thought it might be a traveler or someone in need. She had one 5stars review .

I accepted her, not noticing the info "awaiting payment". Next morning there was still this info 

Had next morning a talk with host support about this case. They will get in contact with the guest. Also I messaged the guest. She said the AirBnB had overdrawn her card limit whit 2 bookings, but she will pay me. She never did.

I had several talks with the support, asking what happens next. Because the guest never responded to AirBnB contacting, after 2 days  her request was withdrawn from AirBnB, deleted in my calendar , even she spend a night in my unit.  I asked the support why they ask for details/identifications from guests, when they don't use it. For me its a criminal act from the guest. 

I know nowadays I never give a guest a change for late check in, when  AWAITING payment shows up. I lost the money, but more concerns me, that I don't have a chance to write a review about this guest to warn other hosts. She has still one 5star review, which is a blending from the reality.

I'm very disappointed with this outcome

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Petra604

I am sure you are angry, who wouldn't? The host's calendar shouldn't be blocked until payment goes through. End of story. All these "awaiting payment" and "awaiting verification" is BS

We never allowed same-day bookings bc Airbnb always needed 24 hours to find out if the payment went through or not. We had 1 day preparation time for years.. until ABB changed it from "24 hours prior check-in time" to " until midnight of the previous day" allowing a booking to go through just a minute before midnight for check-in the next day. Many hosts then switched to 2 days prep time.

[Petra604]

What makes me most unsatisfied is

I could not write a review about her.

Might be that other hosts also blinded with the one 5star review what she had from one host

[Elena87]

@Petra604 

This awaiting payment loophole/scam has been open for some years now.

A host can be exposed when either a very last minute booking is made or an unpaid extension to an existing booking.

The help article published refers to a 24 hour grace and pop up notifications (but only on desktop) allowing cancellation. 

Unless you are robotically methodical it can be easy to be blindsided by these loopholes. If you are taking same day bookings up to the wire, you need a playbook on checking payment and having a strategy over awaiting payment cases, such as putting the onus on the guest to fix it within 30 mins or no access.

From Airbnb's' side, all the risk is completely on the host side as the payment terms and conditions are if no money is collected then no payment is made.

[Petra604]

Thanks for your comment.

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