What happens when a longterm booking stops paying?

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

I think they're very polite so they will leave but if I didn't would I have a nonpaying occupant if I didn't pursue litigation? 

I just got an email from airbnb that the guest did not payout for the next month and that airbnb was not responsible for the payout.  I thought airbnb was some sort of insurance of payment and would pursue legal action if the host and airbnb were not paid as agreed but I guess that is not the case?

oh well - what can you do.

[David126]

No pay no stay.

I am not brave enough to use ABB for long term bookings

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

Oh I prefer longterm bookings.  But I didn't know that airbnb would not improve enforcement or collectability.  I still like it for the calendar system and the opportunity to host different people.

The only issue I have now is that payment after the first 28 days is not guaranteed. 

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Jennifer--And-My-Brother0

I also have mostly long term bookings and there was this one time when I recieved an email that my guest's payment for the next month did not go thru. I thought about mentioning it to my guest but decided I would wait 24hrs and give her time to check and address it first before asking about it. I don't know what exactly the problem was, but apparently, my guest also recieved notification that her payment did not go thru, and she handled it. I recieved an email the next day (before I even mentioned the notice about payment I recieved) that the guest's payment issue was resolved and payment to me will be processed. There may be a problem with the credit card (or payment method) the guest used to make the reservation, so the guest should be trying to resolve this ASAP - unless it was their intention to squat at your listing after the first month. 

At the time I thought about what I'd do IF my guest was not able to resolve the payment issue. Because I trusted my guest, I might have considered a separate rental contract with basically the same terms & conditions as we had thru Airbnb, but guest would pay same amount (including what she would have paid in guest service fees) to me to make up for the fact that I would not have any protection from the Airbnb platform. 

Please have your guest look into what the problem is and resolve it quickly. I would suggest that you tell the guest you will give them  a certain no. of days (say anywhere from 3 days to 1 week) to resolve the payment issue and at the end of that period, if they payment issue is not resolved (and you do not get your payout), then the guest will pay what they owe you in cash and vacate immediately or sign a separate rental contract in place of the Airbnb reservation. Technically, if they are staying without payment they are tresspassing and you will no longer recieve protection thru the Airbnb platform. 

[Jennifer--And-My-Brother0]

Thanks! It was just a credit card oversight and they are very nice people but it taught me not to rely on longterm bookings as guaranteed payments and that Airbnb will not go after the guest for nonpayment.  I changed my terms to 27 days maximum.   Anyone who wants to lock in their days can book multiple 27 day blocks I guess.   

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

Actually  long-term bookings have their own cancellation policy which is better than a repeated 27 day booking based on strict cancellation. In my opinion, YOU (as the host) should be keeping track of payments/payouts/deposit amounts along with bookings/reservations. 

Hosts are the ones that need to screen guests and make sure payout notifications arrive when payment is due AND check to make sure the money shows up in your account. I feel like hosting is a lot like being a small business owner (managing a small business out of your home) and so if you don't keep track of the money you are owed, no one is going to go out of their way to do it for you 🙂 

[Jay172]

I'm having this issue as I type. Airbnb is completely useless and contributing to the issue. I received a "nonpayment" email from a long term guest who had paid the first 30 days of a 45-day rental 3 days ago with the big side note that says Airbnb is not responsible. As you can imagine, I contacted Airbnb customer service immediately. I have since made over 10 phone calls to Airbnb over the past 3 days. The first phone call they said they would need to transfer to the Trust and Safety Department and they would get back to me. After no responses, I called again and the rep was completely unhelpful saying, it's in Trust and Safety now and there was no way to contact them except through email. When I asked for the email, he said, sorry they can only communicate through email internally. I asked to speak with a supervisor and was told supoervisor couldn't do anything either. What kind of corporation doesn't have internal communication between departments except through email? After 48 hours of waiting and making phone calls, I was told my issue was initially stuck at "normal" priority and they would escalate to "urgent." I asked them if a stranger was staying at their house for 3 days without paying, would it be urgent?? Of course it would!! I was told no case manager has even been assigned to my case after 48 hours and that it would be another 24 to 48 hours before somebody would get back to me. THIS IS SO UNACCEPTABLE!!

I have had a pleasant experience being a host since October 2017 but it's when there is an issue that separates a good company from a scammy company who only care about how to collect their portion of the fees. This issue could easily be remedied by reviewing their corporate policy:

1) I have a strict cancellation policy. On a 45-day rental, Airbnb should collect the first 30 days and then when 15 days in, they should attempt to collect the remaining 30 days. At least at that point, there would be 15 days of lead time to figure out the last payment or to kick out the guest at the end of her stay. As is, I'm stuck with an "existing" guest who is staying at my house for the past 3 days for free.

2) My guest has been attempting to pay and her account is blocked. Apparently, she has a case manager in Trust and Safety who isn't responding to her. She said the issue arose because there was fraud protection on her credit card. She tried to resolve by asking them to charge on a different credit card and now her account is blocked. And Airbnb is saying it's a "technical error."

3) No communication is possible between regualr customer service and their Trust and Safety Department. They say "As you are painfully aware, we can only communicate through email"...are you kidding me?

4) Why is the guest's case manager NOT the my (the host) case manager? I'm stuck in an endless case of she said, she said. Guest is saying she has tried to pay for the past 48 hours. Airbnb doesn't know what is going on other than it's in Trust and Safety Department and that they can't tell me what's going on other than it's a "technical issue."

At this point, I am holding Airbnb liable for any and all lost payments. When I received the nonpayment email, I asked the first rep if I need to evict my guest, and which point he vehemently said, no, we will handle it and have this issue resolved right away. It's now 3 days later and still no word.

Just got hung up on by the previous representative after waiting 20 minutes...and now I'm back to "I will call you back in 30 minutes after researching this issue..."

THIS IS LAUGHABLE AND RIDICULOUS!!

[David126]

1. Long term bookings have their own cancellation terms

2. Usually beyond 30 days in most juridictions you have a Tenant not a Guest.

3. you have a Tenant willing to pay, personally I would just take the money. Firm believer in KISS.

4. You may want to hold AirBnb liable but how would you collect?

5. As you have found out there are issues with AirBnB CS, I try to avoid troubling them as much as possible.

[Lisa367]

I don't really understand.  Airbnb only allows for 3 month stays max and you need to pay in full during the booking.  I've done several long term stays myself and I always had to fork over all the cash up front.  So is your situation a case where they originally booked for a certain time period through airbnb then the reservation ended and you agreed to let them stay longer?  in which case, what i would do is require them to rebook again for another long term stay (meaning every 3 months they need to do another reservation and pay) or kick them out, period.  business is business, no matter how polite they are.  but if they are staying in your house and its after their reservation ended then of course airbnb is not responsible.

[David126]

No limit I know of for ABB bookings, you pay monthly with a months notcie.

[Edwin57]

Had a guest that wanted two weeks then from there the guest wanted 5 months now the two weeks I did comfrim, but they really wanted 5 months the guest ask me if i can work something out of Airbnb, my replay was no to the guest , I told guest that I do everything through Airbnb only for my insurance and safety only, what happen next the guest never replay all I can said is i was likely