Reservation requested by a guest, but payment not finalized

[Sonya49]

Hi there, I have a guest that has requested to book a parrticularly busy weekend in August, but "does not trust the AirBNB app with her credit card info".  I emailed back saying it works well and I've heard of no issues.  I then get a reservation request from her for that weekend. I accepted. A message pops up that she has not finalized her credit card details and that she has 24 hours to do so or she is cancelled.

This irritates me, as this weekend would be a busy one and would probably be booked but now she is tying up my calendar and apparently I cannot cancel her. I've emailed her asking her to either finalize or cancel, but no answer thus far.

Comments? Suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[Emiel1]

@Sonya49 

You will have to wait until she finished payment (or until time limit for that expires). She can not cancel.

Best regards,

Emiel

[Sonya49]

An Thanks for your reply. I can't cancel her can I? Before the payment is finalized?

[Emiel1]

@Sonya49, I think the option to cancel is not available for this 'pending" reservation.

Regarding the guest: I experienced such situation before, the  guest messaged she changed her mind during "payment time". I ask to cancel, she said she did, but nothing happended and had to wait until expiration before dates became available again.

Airbnb should create an escape route...

Best regards,

Emiel

[Sarah977]

@Sonya49  Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about this. Guests have 24 hours after booking to complete payment. Even worse is that they can cancel penalty-free within 48 hours, so there is the potential for them to tie up your calendar for that long.

No, you don't want to cancel, ever, unless it's unavoidable and in that case you'll want to contact Airbnb to tell them why you're not comfortable with the booking, and hopefully it's a reason Airbnb accepts and doesn't penalize you. If you cancel a reservation they don't agreee to do as a "neutral" cancellation, you'll lose your Superhost status and won't be able to be eligible for it again for a year.

Your guest does have a legitimate concern. I had a guest who has used Airbnb a lot and at some point her account was hacked and false charges made to her credit card. She told me that now, although she does pay for her bookings with a credit card, as soon as her stay is over and the reviews have been submitted, she pulls her credit card info from the site until the next time she wants to book.