Non payment from guest

[Michelle2137]

I accepted a booking this week for 1 night and the guests requested to stay an additional 2 nights. I have a payment of $10 an extra guest a night which airbnb had not added on the total amount.

I just got an email from airbnb saying the guests payment didn't go thru and they would not be paying me. 

How is this possible?

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

"Note: Payment plans are no longer available for new reservations,

Now, do you think this might have anything to do with Airbnb trying to fill its coffers right now? Ya think?

Of course! At the moment, Airbnb are either grabbing or holding onto cash whatever way they can.

I would suspect that early on in this pandemic Airbnb worked out that they had already spent the deposits paid by guests leaving them cash vulnerable, those deposits were held entirely for the hosts benefit. Not being able to pay the whole amount out they decided vouchers (not real money) would be a good idea! if Airbnb were a country - they just printed more money and entered into devaluation. With everything going on here, as a guest, probably the last thing I would trust would be a payment promise from Airbnb.

Not having a payment plan option sure shows the true colours of Airbnb. With what we already discussed, not having a payment plan option doesn't help guests needing to lay out larger sums for booking and it doesn't promote a booking. That doesn't help hosts. Combined with their propaganda that having a more lenient cancellation policy will lead to more bookings, this would purely be compensation for guests being shafted up front by them! Once again, hosts are providing the risk for Airbnb's benefit.

[Susan17]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 @Sarah977

The Pay Less Upfront option was "suspended" a couple of months ago, along with the removal of the Super Strict 30 and Super Strict 60 cancellation policies for new hosts on March 19, and the disbandment on the early payment feature for hosts on SS policies on March 25. All clearly cash-flow related measures.

There has always been confusion surrounding the hosts' ability to see whether or not their guests had paid 50% upfront, or had paid the full amount on booking.

Certainly, the majority of hosts have never had that option, but some definitely did, at least for a time. Perhaps it was just a test period, and it did seem to be a random selection of hosts who could see it, but either way, the entire feature is gone now anyway.

I was never one of those who could see it but I did phone CX one day just out of curiosity, to inquire at to why that information wouldn't be freely available to all hosts, as surely it made sense that we should know if our bookings were fully confirmed, or only half "confirmed".

I was informed by the rather snotty CX agent I spoke with, that - and I quote - "You have a duty as a responsible host to respect your guests' privacy", and "Guests' financial affairs are none of hosts' business"

I'll leave you to imagine how the rest of that conversation went. 

[Sarah977]

@Susan17   "Guests' financial affairs are none of hosts' business".

Oh, that's rich. Coming from the same people who call up hosts, trying to pressure them to refund guests more than they are due, because "the guest is poor" or "they're having a really hard time financially".

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Susan17 @Sarah977 

What guests will want to pay the full value of a reservation up to 6-8 months in advance? Thats just mad!!

With the historic actions of Airbnb converting that money into vouchers instead of a full or part refund in cash to replace their credit or debit card balance, what guests will trust them to make a large payment upfront? This clearly will adversely affect bookings and guests will be thinking that its the hosts insisting on these large payments as they already believe the cash goes to hosts directly!

The Pay Less Upfront option - which I opted for in my settings - has now been overridden? As I pointed out previously, that was part of my guest proposition and not something for Airbnb to remove or meddle with. 

[Susan17]

The Pay Less Upfront option was only actually rolled out in January of 2018, @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 , so is really only a couple of years old. For the ten years prior to that, guests always had to pay in full at time of booking, so I guess you could say Airbnb are just going back to their roots with the removal of the feature 😉

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Susan17 

I'm sure the reason to remove the feature is not due to Airbnb pining to re-establish their roots. Thats like saying "Live like a local" will be revived as their calling to a revolution requiring the demolition of their humongous hotels and sacking off all the commercial operators.

<insert cheeky smiley face waving airbnb revolution banner>