long term guests payment was declined person still in house

[Melissa85]

I have a long term guest who stopped paying. Airbnb should collect full amount at time of booking even if it's a large sum.
Having the guest get into the space then cancel their credit card for incremental payments is a problem. I have no idea how to make them pay? Is canceling my only option? what if they don't leave?

[Claudia248]

I think that the only way is to do separeted bookings of 29 days at a time... and go on repeating it for as long as guest and host want to

After all guests always can cancel their credit cards and stay for a long time in the house saying they don't know what is gong on, for instance...

[Crispin4]

This happened to me.  If a guest books, for example, for 4 months Airbnb only take the first month, they take the remainder on a month by month basis so if as happened to me the guest cancels their card during the first month you are stuck. Basically you are on your own. Airbnb will pass it on to a resolution team who will not do anything and you can not contact them directly.  

[Omri10]

That's what's happening to me as well unfortunately, even though there are clear terms in such cases, airbnb just sent an email on the first day of the next month stating that theres a problem collecting the payment and that theyre not liable for it while in the meantime the calendar is blocked and I'm loosing money. They should invest more in their hosts and invest some of theyre major income in the resolution center efficiency. One more suggestion would be to collect the amount for the next month 10 days before so in case theres a problem with collecting the payment the owner will have enough time to find a substitute to minimize his losses. Anyway waiting for a week already for someone to get back to me and it looks like theyre just trying to avoid it...

[Jason647]

Same happened to me recently but thankfully payment went through.  It's a big problem on long term reservations that puts all the risk on the host unfortunately.  It's not right for Airbnb to do this, they need to be collecting the full amount on bookings or simply do not accept bookings more than 30 days or require 2 separate ones.   Your idea of collecting 10 days after to give time for host to make other arrangements is good because as it stands now its all lastminute on next month payments, which i do not understand why airbnb does this, its not in their own benefit.  They could simply initiate the charge 10 days before to ensure, its simple to do on their end..and it would better protect host.  Most importantly though no matter the method is to secure some sort of payment/deposit before hand.  I always assumed they did this and only release it 30 days at a time but found out the hard way they do not.  As it stands now with current airbnb policy on this, the host is left holding the bag on the second payout if anything goes wrong.  After hosting for so long my trust in Airbnb to protect host against fraud and risk of potential bad guest is nearly gone.   I think in light of this poor practice by airbnb, host should alter the bookings as a request change and require a 2nd booked or other method to manage their risk on long term bookings.

[Skylar0]

I'm dealing with the same issue.

[Sunny99]

I am unfortunately one having the same issue. Don't know if I can cancel the reservation and go through court eviction?

[Linda108]

If there person in your home has been living there for over 30 days, more than likely they have the rights of a tenant.  In these times that might include a restriction about eviction.  What has been your communication with this person been like?

[Callie-Ann1]

I'm going through this very thing with a guest in Palm Desert. We are in Canada and do not have the option to fly out to personally evict them. They have been there for two months on a work trip. There have been a couple of different employees in our home, with the most recent employee since Friday. That was when the payment was due. I have been unable to connect with this person to collect payment. 2 emails and 2 phone calls and have heard nothing.

[Linda108]

It must be a very helpless feeling during these times with restricted travel, @Callie-Ann1 .  As a remote host, have you considered a co-host or property manager?  In my city, La Quinta, a local contact person is required.

Let me clarify your situation.  You have guests that are changing from the original booking guest?  Is the booking through a business account with a registered booking agent?  If not, then the reservation ended when the registered guest left and Air BNB cannot help obtain payment.  You would need the guest to have a profile and set up the booking under their profile.  If the current guest is not registered then this person is trespassing and you need to strongly word that the police will be called to remove them from the property.  Meanwhile you need to identify a responsible person, like a property manager as the police are not going to take a phone call request from you.

[Helen3]

Difficult to comment based on the information you provided.

If you are in a situation where a guest is overstaying when you wouldn't need to cancel the booking if there reservation had finished.

What did Airbnb say when you spoke to them about it @Sunny99 

If they have exceeded their stay and this doesn't give them tenancy rights, then you should just be able to go there, enter the property and ask them to leave.

[Cormac0]

@Melissa85 

If there not budging disconnect all the utilities as they won't pay these either and you'll have to foot the bill for these as well.

That should get them moving quickly as they'll realise your not a sucker!