Payment from another person

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Payment from another person

Hello

i am new to AirBnB and I’ve received a very nice email from a family wishing to stay in my home whilst they are in the area on an adoption translation plan. They’d like the local council to pay the fee and they would have to pay on their behalf. Is this allowed and/or advised?

thank you in advance 

1 Best Answer
Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Anna10207  A reservation on Airbnb has to be paid by the guest. The exception to that is if a business sets up a business account on Airbnb, then they can book on behalf of employees or other users of their service. So the council would have to set up an Airbnb business account.

 

A guest should not be trying to make alternative payment arrangements with a host, nor should you nor can you be involved in their payments. Tell them they have to discuss their payment options with Airbnb- hosts don't handle payment issues.

 

In any case, this sounds very odd- why would the local council pay for these people's accommodation?

 

I don't understand why people refer to Airbnb messages as "emails". Emails are messages that someone sends you to your personal email address.

 

 

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9 Replies 9
Marissa160
Level 10
Dallas, TX

@Anna10207  I am from the US so please forgive me. What do you mean by local council to make the payment? Like it’s a government program that would pay for housing? 

Hi

 

yes it is a government local council. 

thanks

anna 

Colleen253
Level 10
Alberta, Canada

@Anna10207  Welcome to the community, and hosting 😊

 

If this potential booking is through Airbnb, how did they come to contact you at your email address? Be wary with off platform communication. Payment is between guest and Airbnb, not host and guest. If they book, it should be through the platform only, and Airbnb will take their payment, not you. How they make that payment/who pays what is between the guest and Airbnb. All that matters is that you see a booking is 'confirmed' (meaning payment was successful) after it's made, and that you receive your payout from Airbnb 24 hrs after a guest checks in. Here is some info on payment methods you can share with this person,

 

https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/126/what-payment-methods-does-airbnb-accept

 

On a side note, you might advise the guest to familiarize themselves with the terms and conditions of the platform and to contact Airbnb if they have any questions. You should do the same, as a new host. All your questions are answered in the help pages and the various policies. This forum is a valuable resource for you, and asking questions here is perfectly acceptable, but no replacement for thorough reading of policies etc. 

 

Hello,

 

thank you very much for this information

 

yes the guest contacted me through Airbnb platform but they asked for payment to come from a different source. 

I did read through the guidance but could not see this question answered. 

thanks

anna 

@Anna10207 I would imagine that what they would have to do is just book, and then seek reimbursement from whatever source they wish to foot part of their bill. But that part of things is not your concern, nor Airbnb's, really.

Sarah977
Level 10
Sayulita, Mexico

@Anna10207  A reservation on Airbnb has to be paid by the guest. The exception to that is if a business sets up a business account on Airbnb, then they can book on behalf of employees or other users of their service. So the council would have to set up an Airbnb business account.

 

A guest should not be trying to make alternative payment arrangements with a host, nor should you nor can you be involved in their payments. Tell them they have to discuss their payment options with Airbnb- hosts don't handle payment issues.

 

In any case, this sounds very odd- why would the local council pay for these people's accommodation?

 

I don't understand why people refer to Airbnb messages as "emails". Emails are messages that someone sends you to your personal email address.

 

 

Thank you

 

yes I have just replied saying the same thing

 

thank you everyone for your help. 
Anna 

Thanks for the reply. 

apologies for the grammatical error, it came through on my email hence the confusion. I will refer to as “Airbnb message” in future. 

thanks for all your help, I have declined the trip with the reasons explained. 

thanks

anna 

@Anna10207  Oh, lots of people refer to Airbnb messages as emails, you're not the only one. Those messages you get that do show up in your email are really just notifications that you have an Airbnb message. If it's a short message, it may all appear in the email, if it's long, you may get only the first few lines. But you can't reply to them using your email- you have to go to your Airbnb inbox to reply.