Guest tricked us for a free night --- Again AIRBNB's FAULT ON PAYMENT COLLECTION

Nanxing0
Level 10
Haverford, PA

Guest tricked us for a free night --- Again AIRBNB's FAULT ON PAYMENT COLLECTION

We have a guest who stayed with us a few times before. Literally EVERY TIME he books with us after we confirm booking it shows "awaiting payment". Sounds like he had to deposit money into his bank to make the payment. There was one time he made a same day reservation but never completed the payment so our calendar remained blocked for that day. 

 

He requested to book for one night (night of 11th) on the same day. Given his record of this issue we were a little hesitant so I asked him if he had his payment ready and he said yes. I accepted the request and payment was clear so I let him in. The next day (12th) he asked me if he could extend it and I granted it but that ran into the awaiting payment. He made several promise to me that he was going to pay it but it never happened. He literally stayed a free night and checked out late today (13th). 

 

I found it ironic that Airbnb does not collect payment ahead even for same day booking requests, and allows the payment window to even run until after the check out time? The system needs to be revised IMMEDIATELY!

20 Replies 20

 

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@Nanxing0 

Which is exactly why I don't allow same day check-ins. Imo, the risk to accommodate these last-minute requests is not worth it. My setting has always been a 3-day advance notice. Also, one way to manage extensions (if it's short.... like  just 1 or 2 days)  would be to simply block the date(s) on the calendar and instead send a "request money" for the dates, then have the guest accept the request immediately.  Changing dates on existing confirmed bookings on Airbnb has always been a bit glitchy. 

Personally I would ask Airbnb to block the guest so they can't try and book with you again.

 

I wasn't quite clear from your post, when the guest asked to extend his booking, how did you arrange with him to extend it. Did you ask Airbnb to do this as I know you can't do this once the booking is live?

@Helen3 I usually ask the guest to submit an alteration request. However apparently Airbnb has made the booking system so confusing that lots of guests cannot find the way to do it --- it's buried in the "manage reservation" option as I just found out a few days a go. Most other guests do it by initiating another reservation, which I only need to refund the extra cleaning fee.

 

This specific guest actually did it with a new reservation. Maybe I should ask the guests not to go with this, but as I mentioned, when the guest is already in the flat what can we do? 

 

Honestly it doesn't make any difference in terms of payment. I have seen alterations awaiting payment and new reservation awaiting payment as well. 

Helen3
Level 10
Bristol, United Kingdom

Well actually it does.

 

You could have asked the guest to make the arrangement directly,  have them pay by cash and then you would have been paid.

@Jessica-and-Henry0 I agree with what you said and I'm now rejecting most of the same day reservations but like I mentioned in the original post, this specific guest has stayed with us several times and we know each other so emotionally it's difficult to turn down someone you are familiar with... it's not about money just about human relationship...

 

I have thought about the request money method, but it also poses an issue I'm not sure if you thought about it. By doing your method the 2nd night is not covered by the host guarantee officially, although I know folks might argue that there's usually ways to work around it since the first night is covered and the host guarantee is mostly useless, etc. But it's an apparant issue to me as well.