Delayed payouts - anyone else having this issue?

Delayed payouts - anyone else having this issue?

This seems to happen to me every 3-6 months, but my latest payout for a check-in on 5/24 did not process.  I received an email on 5/25 saying the payout process (as it normally does 24 hours after check-in), but the payment still shows in my upcoming payments.

 

I reached out to support, and they won't respond other than to say give it a few more days.  Are others experiencing this?  Like I said, it happens every 3-6 months with my account, and the support people always blame it on "backend upgrades" but I can't find any evidence that others have the same issue.  I just don't think it's reasonable that I should have to wait a week for my payout when Airbnb collects this money upfront and earns interest on it until they pay the hosts.

 

Does anyone have a better way to get support to process these delayed payments?  It has now been 72 hours since check in, and I have no idea when I'm going to get paid for this stay.

37 Replies 37

I have contacted Support. It took 2 hours to get this reply pictured.

 

**[Conversation with CS removed in line with Community Center Guidelines]

Nick
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hi @Jennie44 and @Cindy1017 ,I reached out to CS and saw you both have open cases. I shared the information you provided and they have updated those cases. Both are assigned to Support Ambassadors who are working to resolve the matter. 

 

Hope this helps

 

@Nick any idea on root cause of the issue?  Is it actually fixed or just being worked on?  I continue to get canned responses from the support ambassadors telling me to wait 5-7 days, despite the fact that is not  how the system works. 

 

If I wait 7 days and payouts don't happen, Airbnb is going to owe me over $10k.  At this point, it just seems like someone should be reaching out to us directly?  The latest agent indicated there is no payout issue despite other agents over the weekend saying it was a known bug?  So now I'm just very confused how long this is going to drag on for...

Bryanna7
Level 2
Central Point, OR

We had a guest check in Sunday, he’ll be here for a month and I haven’t received my payment!  Payouts from last week are barely trickling in.

This is the same joke. We get it, every software company can have bugs every here and there, but it shouldn't be the users responsibility to report them especially if it's money withheld illegitimately. I have about $60,000 in outstanding payouts, and every time this occurs (and it's not the first time happening) we have to chase airbnb on these chats. Seriously, we understand that bugs and malfeatures can happen, but please airbnb report it before your hosts get suspicious about your intentions. Next time there's a payout problem, make a statement to those affected by the issue, this will save your reputation and more importantly, it will save time to your customer service specialists. I'm a super host and one of the reasons I'm very successful is because whenever there's an issue, and there often is, I address in a timely manner. Whereas now I have to upfront thousands of dollars, and I am not even given a timeline.

Kia272
Level 10
Takoma Park, MD

@Lee353  Hi- I experienced the same thing in the last week or so, but my take on it is slightly different. I've been hosting for about 1.5 years now, and this is the FIRST time I have ever experienced a delayed payment. I've now actually experienced three delayed payments, two of which have shown up. 

 

What I realized is that while I got used to getting the money instantly, the email always says that it may take up to X days to arrive. Instantly means that I would get an email one day, and the next day funds would show and be pending at my bank. 

 

So I was a little taken aback by the first delay, but instead of posting here, I decided to just keep an eye on it, per the information in the email: It may take up to X days to have the funds deposited. I also checked here in the Community Center to see if others were having the same issue, and they were. There's actually a bit of security in that. You're better off if it's a system-wide issue instead of just your account. 

 

So, long story short, I got the first payment, the second is pending at my bank, and I'm waiting on the third, but fully confident that it will arrive. AirBnB has never promised me next-day deposits, but that's what I've been getting. 

 

We all know that there was some kind of big system change instituted right around the time of the big "announcement" and changes to the home page. I just assumed this was part of it. 

 

Hopefully all will get  their funds in a timely manner, but it doesn't appear to be a plot in which AirBnB steals your income, and as far as I'm concerned, they've kept their word. 

 

When you work a "regular" job, your employer is -at a minimum-  a week in arrears paying you, sometimes two. 

@Kia272  I appreciate you responding, and I felt the same way as you the first 3-4 times this happened, but in those cases, Airbnb hadn’t laid off 50% of their support staff, so I was able to get it resolved in short order. 🥺

Just so you’re aware for the future, Airbnb does actually release your funds 24 hours after check-in, so unless your bank holds funds, you should get it next day every time. (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/425/when-will-i-get-my-payout).  

 

The 5-7 day delay Airbnb reps reference in their canned emails would be on your bank’s side. My bank is Bank of America, which, like most modern, global banks, does not hold funds and releases them immediately. So if I see a delay at Bank of America, I can know with 100% certainty, the transaction never made it to them. 

I do trust Airbnb will get this fixed, but I’ve only spoken to one ambassador at this point who even seemed to know there was a bug. The rest just keep sending canned emails over and over about “trust and security” or blaming the bank for holding funds.

 

I work in software dev, and I expect a global tech company like Airbnb to at least be able to communicate to their customers 1) if there’s a bug and 2) when it will be resolved. 

As I said originally, I am fortunate that Airbnb is a side hustle for me, but many people rely on this income to pay bills, and I’m guessing from your response, you’re in the same boat, which allows you to be less concerned. 

@Lee353 I also bank at Bank of America. I agree that AirBnB should be on the front end of something like this, communicating and updating hosts as appropriate. When it's a system-side problem (as it appears to be) it shouldn't be up the the mods to address issues on a one-by-one basis. It also shouldn't be a situation where hosts are forced to contact customer "support" first, as we know that's often frustrating and futile. 

I appreciated your measured approach to the issue, in that you didn't post some sort of angry diatribe, and provided useful information. 

This isn't necessarily a side hustle for me. It was before the pandemic, but now it's about 50% of my income. However, I do feel that anyone running a business should be able manage funds in such a way that a few days of delay in payment is not an emergency. I guess my emphasis was that while I was experiencing a "delay", it was not actually a delay per AirBnB's promise as to when funds would arrive. We all got comfortable with the speedy payments, but the terms allow some leeway on AirBnB's part. 

Thanks and good luck! Kia

@Lee353 @Kia272   I have to agree with Lee here.

 

I work with bank payments all day long at my day job. In-country electronic payments take 24-48 hours (1 - 2 business days, so not days when banks are closed) after the sender hits "send" to when the recipient sees the transaction in their account, when working with ACH payment methods.  One might expect to add a day or two on for locations where there are arcane distribution systems.  ACH payments do not meander around in cyberspace trying to find us, like a check in the mail. 

 

I've been watching my next payment. Check in date was  May 30th . I got the notification email on May 31st.  

 

May 31st was a bank holiday. The ACH transaction should have been sent on June 1st, arriving in my bank June 2nd or June 3rd.  It just moved from "Pending" to "Processing" overnight last night, with a date of May 31st, but is not in my bank today, June 3rd. 

 

I can only conclude, by what I know about ACH processing, is that it was not actually sent on either May 31st or June 1st, even though it was "released for payment".   My guess is that it was sent when the status changed from "pending" to "processing" and will arrive tomorrow, June 4th.  I will update this tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

@Michelle53   

All I'm saying is that I believe that AirBnB is still within their payment commitment:

 

How getting paid works:
Payouts are typically released 24 hours after your guest checks in. The time it takes for money to get to your account depends on what payout method you use, generally 1-7 business days.

You can find more details in your transaction history.

 

 I can't speak to when they are releasing it and how it's being disbursed, or the processing time of their distribution system. They don't promise it will arrive within 24-48 hours. My most "delayed" payment still arrived within the 7 business days. That's all. 

Do I like waiting? No. Have they broken their agreement with me? No.

 

@Kia272  What I'm saying is that the wait to send is unnecessary in any modern payment processing system. There is no reason whatsoever that we shouldn't expect to receive the funds in 1 -2  business days, despite whatever caveats and disclaimers appear in Airbnb's agreement to cover themselves in the case the payments really do end up meandering around in cyberspace. 

The payment should be released and sent the day after check-in, as advertised. ACH processing does the rest. 

@Michelle53 After giving this some thought, I've come to the conclusion that your argument is based on how you feel AirBnB should be conducting their business, and mine is based on the terms of the agreement between AirBnB and me. 

What you say is absolutely true, but they are not under any obligation to utilize a modern payment processing system. We've agreed to let them pay us under the terms dictated by them.  

@Kia272  Well, it didn't used to say 1-7 business days, it used to be something like 3 to 5. 

 

And while they may be within the agreement, what Michelle is saying is that they do use a modern payment processing system. And that therefore, there is no reason for it to take so long for payments to appear in your bank account. 

 

While Airbnb may not be intending to keep your money forever, they are pretty obviously hanging on to it as long as they possibly can without incurring total outrage, to collect interest on it. So when it says it has been released, and still takes a week to show up in hosts' accounts, "released" apparently doesn't mean what hosts are led to believe it does. They are still sitting on it, they haven't sent it anywhere.

@Sarah977 I understand all this. But again, you're disagreeing with the way they do business. I'm just saying that they are not in violation of their payout agreement. 

Most businesses that deal in this much cash do the same: yes, they are earning interest on the funds, so they hold on to them as long as they reasonably can. 

Some bank billpay systems take your funds the day they "send" the payment, but they know the payment won't clear for several days, and they make money in the interim. 

Do I want my money quickly? Yes.

Do I have the right to tell AirBnB how to conduct business? No.

Did I agree to it when I signed up to be a host? Yes. 

Did we all get used to getting our money quickly? Yes. 

That's all I got.

 

@Sarah977  I did a couple of back-of-the-envelope calculations this morning. 

 

According to Airbnb's Q1 2021 financials, their revenue earned was around $886M,   and the interest they earned was $3M - for the whole quarter.   

 

That's an interest rate of around $33,000 per day.    A percentage of daily revenue of around 0.34%. 

 

From the balance sheet, the "Funds receivable and amounts held on behalf of customers" was over $4B.   By the way, this is reported separately from cash, which was almost $4.5B

 

If they were actually earning that interest on funds held on behalf of customers, it's a miniscule daily  interest rate. 0.0008%.    It would barely move the needle on their operating results.

 

It's more likely, in my opinion, an issue with their internal systems, not a deliberate attempt to make more money on customer funds held in trust deposits.