When do guests have to pay for their booking?

[Anonymous]

Good evening. I am new to airbnb and have been asked from a prospective guest when they have to pay for their booking? Also does airbnb require full payment immediately or do they pay a deposit upfront nd then the balance. Do they pay when the booking is made or just prior to the booked date?

Any help would be gratefully received.

James

[Jeff158 · Accepted solution]

Hi James

Full payment at the time of booking or a deposit at the time of booking and a later payment are the 2 options available.

And you won't get paid until 24hrs after the guest arrives.

[Anonymous]

Thanks Jeff. Just what I needed

[Julia417]

When do guests pay the deposit and how much and when is the balance due? How do you set this up on the adverts?

[Steve143]

Hello @Julia417,

The host can't set it up. It seems to be a facility offered by Airbnb to guests in some countries.

If it's available to the guest, they see the option, on their booking page, to pay a deposit when they're about to make a reservation.

There's no setting for hosts to enable payment of a booking deposit on their listing.

Steve.

[Julia417]

Steve,

Thank you for your reply, does this mean that guests booking accommodation in the UK pay the full amount when they book regardless of how far away their stay is?

Julia

[Steve143]

Hello @Julia417,

Not necessarily. It doesn't matter where the acommodation is. It's a facility offered to guests in certain countries or regions. It depends only on where the guest lives.

Guests in some countries appear to be offered this facility no matter where the accommodation they're booking is.

Say, for example, the deposit facility is offered to guests living in Cyprus but not to guests living in France or the UK. Then a guest living in Cyprus, booking UK accommodation, would be offered the deposit option while guests living in France or the UK booking the same accommodation would have to pay in full at the time of booking.

Steve.

[Charles382]

Hi,

I'm resuming hosting after a 2-year hiatus. A prospective guest is wondering if he can pay the rent on a monthly basis rather than paying it all at once. Can this be set up by me, the host, as the guest claims, and if so, how?

Thanks,

Charles

[Eman750]

I wish if I have the answer, but I am replying to support this good question coz it is happening to me too. 

[Luisa363]

Hello,

Im also new to Airbnb....i have a guest asking if they can pay the deposit but the other half instead of paying one week before arrival, they want to pay when they get the keys......?  I'd rather not do that but i also dont want to loose them.  What is the normal, would you accept this request be seen as a good host?

Luisa

[Melanie33]

Hi

as a host you can’t set how payments are made and as far as I am aware there is no option to pay on receipt of keys.

Hope that helps 

Mel

[Karen1946]

Yes it's Airbnb rules people can't just say I'm doing this or that if they want yours they will book because any other Airbnb would have the same rules 😊 

[Helen3]

Hi @Anonymous 

Welcome to airbnb - do read through Airbnb Help Centre and the useful guides for new hosts on these forums to help you become familiar with how Airbnb works. It will help you understand the concept and manage your listing.

[Jen7132]

I am new to Airbnb and have a guest in my unit. We only received half of the funds. Any advise. I am reluctant to confront them if this is normal but would like to know soon is we need to have them leave as they have only paid a portion of the stay. 

[Sarah977]

@Jen7132  You have to give more specific information in order for anyone to be able to give you an on point answer. How long did this guest book for? If it is a long term booking, you will be paid monthly. So if the guest booked for 2 months, you would get the first month's payment after theey check in, and the second the following month.

If it's a short term, there is no way a guest can check in without having paid the full amount. If they opted to pay in two installments, if they didn't come through with the second payment, Airbnb would have cancelled the booking. 

In any case, if there is a payment question or issue, you don't start by confronting the guest- you contact Airbnb, as they handle the payments.