Payout Delay, Missing Transaction

[Mary866]

I'm calling it a delay but it's been four days since my last guest checked in and I have received no payment from Airbnb and still no email indicating that a payout was sent.  This is very unusual because Airbnb always has notified me at the end of  Day 1 after check-in to let me know that a payment has been sent.  I checked my transactions page and the reservation was oddly missing.  It was not in the completed payments column nor in the upcoming payments column.  There is no 'pending column' where I hope my transaction is hiding. I called Airbnb customer service on Day 2 after check-in to see if there was some kind of problem or hold on the payout and the representative told me that there was no problem, that the payment was supposed to be sent but for some unexplainable reason, wasn't.  She advised me to wait a couple of days to see if anything happens.  I've been monitoring my deposit account daily to see if there has been any deposits from Airbnb - there are none. And still no email from Airbnb even after my guests have checked out.  

I'm fortunate that my bookings have picked up again after the devastating cancellations in March thru June, none of which qualified for relief funds.  Now I'm becoming concerned that Airbnb may be having financial troubles, as predicted early in the Coronavirus outbrea, and can't pay make the prompt payments that we rely on.  After absorbing nearly $10,000 in lost bookings this Spring, I really depend on those timely payments for my damage control plan.  An interesting note:  I did online searches for 'Airbnb financial trouble' and found many articles from March and April, but none, yes none, that are more recent than early June.  

Have any other hosts experienced this delay, or non-payment?  I'd appreciate your feedback.

[Sarah977]

@Lisa1889  Oh yes, that happens. Hosts have had guests come and go, then receive a message from Airbnb stating that they're sorry, but they were unable to secure payment for the booking. So the host is just s**t outta luck. 

This seems to be reported as happening most on last-minute bookings, which is why I would never accept those. I have a 2 day advance booking requirement so the payment has a chance to either go through or not.

[Cathie19]

Same! @Sarah977.

[Cheryl657]

They collect the money right from the get go so that is a lame excuse

[Eryn7]

I have had three separate stays (All in July and all three now completed) and have not received payouts.
I have called three times and Airbnb says they will look into, seems like everything is in order, they will have a team member who can better assist me contact me. I have now just messaged to advise I’d like to speak with a case a manger. 
I have been in contact with the guests - one gave an excellent review, one review is pending (neighbours had a party so that wasn’t great but the people loved our place so that was a one off and not our issue so I’m expecting a good rating and the ones departing today already messaged to say thanks for such a wonderful stay) so no guest issues. 
Something definitely isn’t right. I’m hoping it’s a pandemic staffing issue but if it is they should be transparent. Good luck with your payouts! 

[Katie]

Hi @Eryn7,

I'm so sorry to hear you're having this issue; it seems that this is a separate issue to some of the others mentioned here, which were fixed last week. What I'll do is drop you a DM with some more specific info.

Thanks

[Sarah977]

@Mary866 Judging by the scores and scores of posts here lately of hosts saying they haven't been paid, with even the transaction having disappeared from their accounts, this is beginning to seem like fraud on a grand scale. Hosts are reporting not having been paid for months worth of completed stays.

And since the majority of hosts worldwide don't even participate in these forums, I suspect Airbnb is sitting on millions of dollars of illegally withheld payments. This is more than a little concerning, nor can it be attributed to some glitch, as it has been going on for months.

[Alexandra316]

@Sarah977Yeah, the more of this I'm seeing, the more concerned I'm getting. I'm wondering why so many hosts seem to be missing their payouts. It hasn't happened to me yet, but I'm wondering if it's just a matter of time. I can't afford to host for free. 

[Sarah977]

@Alexandra316  I haven't hosted my home-share since March, due to coronavirus, and I never had missing payments before, but I'm getting wary of hosting again if this missing payout issue doesn't turn around. I would be furious if I hosted guests and never got paid or even if I had to keep dealing with Airbnb over it for weeks or months. 

I've always been fine with Airbnb as far as the guests I get and getting paid, but I'm thinking I should find other ways to get guests (not that easy with a home-share) where I am in control of the money, not some company that doesn't pay out on time and then comes up with bogus excuses if you can even manage to get ahold of them.

[Danielle476]

Bingo.  I hate to admit that I was very much pro-AirBNB before COVID hit, and assumed anyone experiencing any issues were either to blame somehow or the victim of a glitch/error.  It's become increasingly apparent that AirBNB is intentionally causing these issues and hoping hosts won't notice.  I'm missing payouts from as far back as April, with no resolution in sight.  I've also noticed that when AirBNB has refunded ineligible guests without my permission, (yet another issue I've been fighting) they've actually rounded up to the nearest dollar; e.g., the guest requested $74.20 and AirBNB refunded $75.00.  This might not seem like a big deal, until you consider how much they'd potentially be making off tens of thousands of hosts across the platform doing the same thing.  It's my belief that they're lining their pockets as much as possible for if/when they go under.  Hosts should be hyper-vigilant right now and have these issues addressed as soon as possible.  And in case you aren't already, take screen shots.  Don't trust this platform to save the data that could incriminate them in the future.

[Jon2761]

@Danielle476  thank you for the great idea to take screen shots - I just took some from my account. We are also owed a significant payout, the guests checked out last Wednesday. I've spent hours on the phone, messaged back and forth, etc. Still no resolution. I'm a new host, and this was our first guest, so I assumed that the "glitch" was a unique situation, but I'm shocked to see that it's commonplace. Do hosts really have no recourse?

[Sally10]

Hi Jon

Im in Marin also.I have bran hosting since 2013 This has never ever happened NoW It has I have a guest who checked in July and still I have not been paid. I believe it due to Covid and the whole system is mixed up 

I am very concerned I have been getting the run around now for days 

Take Care

Sally Catalana

[Jon2761]

Hi Sally,

I'm sorry to hear that you're going through the same issue of not getting paid. We live in Marin, but our house is back East in the Berkshires, which is a bit challenging as we're handling everything long distance. Today I was advised by Airbnb Support to try changing my default payout setting from PayPal to a different account, with the idea that maybe the system would try to send it to the new payout method. So far, that hasn't worked either. I don't know how they can get away with this and I hope this ridiculous "glitch" is resolved soon for all of us.

Nancy - from the Jon and Nancy team 🙂

[Tim-and-David0]

I'm having the same problem missing money !!!!!

[Debra300]

It does seem like we are seeing more posts about missing or delayed payouts.  It's happening to me now.  I had a guest check-in on July 16 and checkout on July 18.  I have not received an email notification about a payout, but in my transaction history, it says "Processing".  This concerns me, because I have an upcoming stay for 9 nights.  I will wait until tomorrow, and if the payout isn't processed, I may have to consider canceling the reservation. I cannot afford to give away free stays, nor do I want to spend a lot of time in a futile attempt to get paid by Airbnb. 

[Stephanie365]

Myself and another AirBNB hosts have our own theory about this.

Because of the losses from COVID, AirBNB has likely taken it upon itself to make funds "disappear" in the system and chalk it up to a "glitch", when in fact they are likely holding the money in their coffers (and investing it) a bit longer to collect extra interest. Not to mention how long they've held a guest's money prior to the guest's arrival. I'm betting they have quite the short-term securities investment laddering going on, and if they need to hold the money for an extra week to get the full interest on it, "Oops, we have a glitch. We don't know what happened to your payout".

Granted, this is just a theory, but it certainly makes sense considering prior to COVID, there were not literally thousands of hosts complaining about delayed and lost payouts. 

Either that or AirBNB's bookkeeping has "somehow" become grossly mismanaged. (roll eyes)

I shut down my AirBNB until July 15th due to COVID. I had a booking for 2 weeks starting July 16th. The guest cancelled for documented non-COVID reasons.
I never received my payout. It shows the guest has been refunded but two case managers assure me the guest has NOT been refunded. They "don't know where my payout is", but it was supposed to post at 3 pm Pacific time on the 18th. Needless to say, it did not. 🙄