Guests enquiring to make a booking but with a faulty or lost payment card.

[John2475]

This is some sort of SCAM from a guest. Although i dont see what the gain can be.

I have had 2 guests enquiring to book my house. They arrive in town the same day as the request.

They say payment was declined by Airbnb and could they just pay on arrival by cash. I always say ' You have made the enquiry through AIRBNB so its not possible to accept cash. They say they will go to their bank and sort the problem.

I never hear from them again.

Whats it all about ?

I have had this lately on Booking.com also. The very same scenario.

[Corliss2]

Thanks for the "heads up." I'm not certain what their angle is, but good to know. As a reminder to us all to reiterate to guests and potential guests to conduct all business and communication through the platform. As an aside, if the guest pays in cash outside of the platform, I doubt that AirBnB would honour any requests for damages, etc.  

In this specific situation, if the guest has made an inquiry, a simple response from you stating that all transactions must be through the platform.  I might then temporarily block off one of the nights so that they cannot make a request to book.

Hope you are well. Again, thanks for the passing along the info.