Accepted a reservation request from a verified guest but payment was not confirmed

[Elaine30]

So this guest A sent a reservation request for the next day.  Guest A has a verified profile and a positive review from a past stay which gave me the "false" assurance that the guest was genuine and airbnb had had his payment secured.  After I accept the reservation, airbnb sends a note saying the reservation will be confirmed upon securing payment, which was a surprise to me.  Since I had accepted guest A's reservation, I had to tell guest B who had wanted to book for the same next day that she should look elsewhere.  

Several hours later, airbnb sends me an email informing me that the booking has not been secured by payment and that the booking has been canceled. 😞  Meanwhile, guest A has not bothered to respond to my earlier emails (very inconsiderate).

How do I check if a guest has had his or her payment verified before I accept a reservation?  Because early on, I thought of declining guest A's booking upon learning that payment had not been secured but didnt want to offend him and wanted to give him time to clear the payment hurdle.  In the end, I lost both bookings, one because he failed to pay and the other because I had accepted the first reservation.  

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

Unfortunately it just one of those rare'ish occasions - their card was delined for whatever reason...maxed out, or couldnt take both the payment and a charge against a security deposit.

[Elaine30]

I suppose....but Guest A didnt bother to even write to tell me.  Not very nice at all 😞

Appreciate your input, Gerry and Rashid

[Michael-and-Lois0]

Not as rare as we might wish. In this case it was on short notice but if they book, say a week booking a month in advance and the payment doesn't go through you don't even know how many bookings you may have lost.

[Melane-0]

 host, I would be pretty upset about this idf it happened to me. Especially if I had to decline  'guest B' who's payment would havae be just great. Shoouldn't Airbnb protect their hosts from this sort of thing? After all, as a host, thisis my business I run and Airbnb is my partner in this business. If my partner isn't doing their part, how can I be expectd to do mine well.

Melane`

[Elaine30]

yes i do agree with you.  especially in this case of a next day booking, airbnb should show to hosts clearly that payment has not been secured so that we can hold off on accepting until we receive such assurance.  

and worse, i had sent airbnb a message shortly after i found out that the payment had not  been secured and whether i could cancel without penalty to my profile, but no response given.  instead, i receive a message about 8 hours later (late into the night in my time zone) that the booking had been canceled 😞 

[Mala0]

Sorry you lost out.. Im guessing they have him verified as a real person and have payment detail... I guess payment details can change depending on bank and money going in etc issues as any bank details can over time. When a payment is declined it is only at that point it is flagged up to airbnb i guess!, so they let you know by the generic mail you recieved.  Im also just guessing that guest A was too embarrassed to message you and what could he say? that he did not know he had short funds in his account? or that their is a banking error that will take time to sort out? either way i guess and hope it is a rare thing and i hope you get luck back on your side and get bookings galore with no issues from here on end.

Warm wishes and thanks for your topic, all these things are learning topics for those not in the know.

Mala x

[Elaine30]

thanks mala.  

[Elaine30]

thank you mala