Deposit

[Jennifer521]

Hi,

Apologies for all the questions - we are very new to this. I have just had an enquiry for our home in Florida for January. Can I just clarify something. Does the guest have to pay the total rental immediately to Airbnb? Do Airbnb hold this money until the check-in date and then pay it to us? If he cancels up to 7 days before he gets all his money back? We have our home on various other rental sites and they all have much stricter cancellation policies - like 60 days (8 weeks) before. This concerns me beacuse if he changes his mind 8 days before, he loses nothing, and we could have rented to someone else. Also, we have a security deposit stated on our page, but our guest has asked how to pay this. Am I right in thinking that he doesn't techinically pay it but Airbnb will somehow retrieve the money from him if we have an issue upon check-out?

Thanks in advance.

[Hilary-And-Ed0]

Hi @Jennifer521,

No need to apologize - that is what this forum is for!

The guest pays the whole fee up front (well, on some areas, they are rolling out 50% at booking, 50% just before the trip, but a lot of people don't have that option yet).  At that point, the company holds the money until the trip.  They send you the payout 24 hours after check in, and then it arrives in your account 2-3 business days later.  It has worked well for me so far (since March, 17 completed trips).

You have the strict cancellation, so if they cancel, they will get 50% back for the days that are more than a week away, and 0 back for dates less than a week away.  Does that make sense?

Security deposit is a murky system here.  They do not pay it up front.  They just agree to pay if they need to, so Airbnb is not actually holding anything.  If you need to claim it, put in the claim within 24 hours of checkout (so take a good look at your property when people check out).  In my opinion, this is the flaw in the system.  I have seen lots of complaints about headaches regarding security deposits. 

[Jennifer521]

Hi,

Thanks so much for your reply. So, would I get 50% back if they cancel more than 7 days before check-in? And 100% if they cancel less than 7 days before check-in? What is the limit on this? They are coming in January 2018 so what happens if they cancel in say, for example, October/November 2017? Do they/we get anything? Do people generally tend to seek a security deposit privately (off airbnb) or is that not the done thing? We just want to protect ourselves and our lovely home. 

Thank you for your advice.

Kind regards.