Fraud by guest - no payment

Sean78
Level 2
Atlanta, GA

Fraud by guest - no payment

Hello All Airbnb Members,

 

I feel the need to make you all aware that there has been alot of fraud and strange things happening amongst guest that will book your place and even call you and contact you to arrange checking in however the credit card payment hasnt been processed and airbnb will delay issuing a payment. So basically the person who is staying in your home is not only staying for free but is also a scammer and Airbnb is not helpful or doesnt get involved at all. It has been well over a week now that I been trying to reach a resolution as I have not recieved any payment and this person has stayed in my home and they cannot collect from the card they have on file for whatever reason. I just want to know am I the only person a victim of this? I read some reviews or BBB and it seeems this is a common scam that airbnb is aware of but doesnt have the resources to help. I hate that when trying to call to get this resolved im told that its being handled by a different department however no one from that dept responds to emails and arent available to take calls. This has definately changed my perspective of airbnb in general and will do everything I can to voice these concerns because as Host and as a community it is only right we are properly paid and made aware of any recent fraud or scams so that as host we can protect our homes and business. Any comments or feedback would be greatly appreciated.

40 Replies 40

Since Airbnb handles the payments, they take all the risk and ensure the payments are made to the hosts.  I have not found, in a year and half hosting, that Airbnb has ever refused to pay me for reasons that they are responsible.  In my experience, they take the guest's money on the day of booking and if they cannot get the payment to go through, they cancel the guest's stay.  I've never had a delay in payment whatsoever.

What has Airbnb communicated with you regarding this transaction?  Is it showing up in your Future Transactions list or has it shown to already be paid out?  What problem are you trying to solve exactly?   

This is not true @Alice-and-Jeff0 .

 

If the guest payment fails hosts don’t get paid. 


Why would you think Airbnb would cover the costs?

@Alice-and-Jeff0 This is absolutely not true. I had a reservation the guest extended for one night but payment didn't go through. This is part of the email Airbnb sent to me.

 

"If your guest doesn't successfully submit payment or if they cancel the reservation before making the payment, Airbnb isn't liable for issuing your host payout. If you prefer to cancel the reservation, you can cancel without penalty at any time before the trip begins. If the reservation has started and you'd like to cancel, please send us a note."

 

Now the reservation has ended 3 days ago and I still haven't received any payout from that reservation. I reached out to the guest and the guest told me he can see the first charge on his account for the initial reservation but not the one for the additional night. I'm reaching out to Airbnb CS looking for a solution but not received any help yet. 

Kenneth12
Level 10
Chicago, IL

Please open this as a separate thread. @AirbnbHelp on Twitter may be able to get you attention (hit and miss).  Isn't payment guaranteed regardless? Good luck.

It’s not. This did happen to me too and I had to contact the guest myself to tell her the payment wasn’t working. Fortunately for me she wasn’t a scammer and she then updated her card. Meanwhile Airbnb said some department was working on it and I wasn’t getting my money until she paid. There is no guarantee, Airbnb does not “take the risk”.

Debi1
Level 10
Portland, OR

@Sean78 I have not heard of this!  Are you using Instant Book, or did this person give you any lead time?  One of the benefits of NOT using IB is that the credit card should have time to be processed.  I wonder, though, if you have requested verifications and host reviews in your booking settings if this would alleviate this particular issue.

 

I don't know how to help you, but I think it's important to figure out how to keep this from continuing to happen.

 

Regarding the lack of support from Airbnb, I encourage you to keep calling and be the squeaky wheel if you have to.  I find it very frustrating that staff is so unavailable to trouble-shoot problems outside of the normal customer service issues.  Calling at different times of the day may help too, because you will then reach different call centers which might help.

Hi Debi,

 

instant book is on but it is only for verified guest who have been recommended by other host. Which is the case with this guest as well as others that this has happened to me. At this point im more so afraid of my safely and items in my home because if these people are doing fraud and using fake credit cards and they book my place i have no recourse on finding them or being compensated. Airbnb isnt help at all i have been dealing with this for over a month now with no help at all from airbnb

Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Hi @Sean78 this is a known problem, but usually only for same day bookings.

Since the credit bank check has 24h to verify card payment, it first goes through Airbnb with no problems, but the payment retraction through credit company is delayed. In principle there's nothing Airbnb can do about it because it has to do with the credit card bank.

Best then not to do same day bookings.

I’m actually going through this right now and they are saying the payout department is going to contact me 

I’ve just had the same thing happen to me. This particular guest seems experienced in doi this and seemingly found a loophole - he initially booked for 3 days and because he met the verifications we set up, it went through. Then immediately after, he sent a request for alteration and an extension of the stay. So when I asked AirBnB why they hadn’t collected the full payment before check in they said it is because his stay was extended after they had collected the payment for the initial request. I’m just curious if you ever got your money as I was told they guarantee the host 100% is it? 

Im in Atlanta too and my guest hasn’t paid for a full week and I just found out yesterday. Airbnb contacted me only yesterday that they had not received payment. This guest has the gall to continue to stay. I can’t believe that payment wasn’t secured for the booking from Airbnb.

yes this is the problem...i am being delayed by this payment department and  i cannot get a response from and that apparently customer care cant even call...how convenient!! Its been "escalated" three times and no one from this so called dept has called me back....after speaking to 4 customer care people and pushing i was put to a so called suprivisor and she could offer nothing as well...as this  department can only be emailed....how fishy ! and convenient///i am through with this company....they get their money from our homes we rent out and they dont even support us...all they care about is their cut. They have taken control of my entire booking business...forcing me to communicate through them which severely hinders my business. all under the guise that dealing direct with us is shady and bad meanwhile they are just concerned with securing a booking and their fee....its gotten way out of hand this whole industry has made airbnb and vrbo very rich on our backs and seriously impaired our business and livelihoods

This has happened to me as well.  It's been over a month and I still haven't gotten paid.  The worst part of the situation is this is not a "fishy" guest, and my guest paid Airbnb--but Airbnb still has not paid me due to a "technical issue" with my account.  No one can tell me what this issue is, and the department I need to speak with can only be emailed.  Still have not heard anything from someone in this other department.

Cynthia-and-Chris1
Level 10
Vancouver, WA

This sounds like it may only be a problem for last minute bookings - of which hosts should always be wary.  If someone books my place for a week from now, there's a whole week between Airbnb collecting payment and confirming the reservation vs the guest actually showing up to stay.  If, for whatever reason, Airbnb is having trouble collecting payment, at least they can cancel the reservation with days to spare.