Guest Due Here in a Few Hours - Payment Has Not Processed?

[Susan1404]

I have instant booking turned on for one of my listings and received a booking at 1:30 AM while I was asleep.  They are only staying for tonight, but their payment is not processing.  Because they are due to arrive in a few hours, how should I handle this?  I have not encountered this situation before.

[Emiel1]

@Susan1404 

You could contact Airbnb and ask to cancel the reservation, unless payment is guaranteed.:

Contact Airbnb - Community Guide [Updated]

I personally would message the guest they can not stay as long payment is not finished.

If they have a technical problem, they should contact Airbnb themself.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Susan1404]

@Emiel1  Thanks for the fast reply.  That is what I will do, although I did already contact the guest and convey that payment must be made before they can stay.  The guest seemed a bit vague in her communications.  I was just afraid she and her fiance would show up here without their payment being processed.  I will go ahead and contact Airbnb.

[Sarah977]

@Susan1404  This is one of the reasons I don't accept same day reservations. The guest has 24 hours to complete payment-I want to see that has happened before anyone shows up at my door.

[Susan1404]

@Sarah977  I only just started trying out the same day reservations and am not sure I will continue.  I wasn't getting many views and was trying to do something to increase my views, which seems to have helped.  The payment did finally go thru, but not before she contacted Airbnb.  She and her husband were real nice people just wanting a little getaway time to themselves.

[Sarah977]

@Susan1404  Glad to hear you did get paid and it was just some Airbnb issue and they were great guests. I'm sure this happens, and hopefully more frequently than it being an issue of a scammer guest with a bad credit card.

[Dimitar27]

For the same reason, when I turned the IB on, I chose the "one-day-before" option.

I don't need to be 100% busy at all costs and to receive all last minute bookings around.