Partial Payment Problems in Denver

[Amber95]

Hello,

Apparently Airbnb now allows guests to pay partial payments in Denver. Unfortunately, this has created lots of frustration on the part of my guests and myself.

In Denver, we have to collect a Denver Lodger's Tax of 10.75%. There's no way to collect these funds in the original booking, so we need to send a request via the Resolution Center for the amount. This hasn't been a problem - until recently when I began having guests make partial payments, as I cannot request the tax amount if the guest hasn't paid in full.

I'm currently running 2 businesses and taking work at 3 more. Part of the reason I chose Airbnb over other platforms is because the process is streamlined and easy to manage. Unfortunately, that is no longer the case. Now, instead of responding to booked guests with a nice welcome message and immediately requesting the Lodger's Tax so I can move on with other things, I have to keep track of who has paid in full and who hasn't so I can follow up 10 days  before they arrive to request that amount. In addition, when these guests attempt to pay in full after the fact, the system won't allow them to.

My question is: Does anybody know how to turn off the ability for guests to pay partial amounts? I've looked and looked and I can't find anything.

Also, I would like to say that every guest that this has happened with has mentioned that they never would have submitted a partial payment if they knew what a pain it would be.

Thank you ahead of time for any information you may have.

[Paul4]

Hi,

Airbnb's handling of state and local taxes is generally terrible. If they don't collect it for you, the help section says to either collect in person when they arrive (in cash I guess?) which many actually do, or send it as a "special offer" (such a deal!).

Of the two, the special offer, although it sounds ridiculous, might actually work better. It might allow you to collect the full amount.

Another idea I have heard of is to charge the tax to their credit card off the system on square or paypal or whatever... Just let them know about it ahead of time and it should not be a problem. Not sure about Airbnb's policy on this idea, but if they don't collect it for you, they don't really seem to care what you do.

Good luck