Awaiting Payment

[Diane53]

My guest was really chatty until I accepted his booking then it came up awaiting payment and I haven't heard from him since. 

I have asked him to either pay or cancel the booking but still nothing.

In the meantime my apartment is closed for 24 hours. 

Airbnb really need to change this. 

I am unfortunately stuck with this as Airbnb give me no options to cancel the booking which is in a few days time.  

From now on I will not approve requests with arrival dates less than 30 days.

[Marzena4]

There are worse things to come for you then, @Diane53: if you keep rejecting guests, your response rate will drop. And there is something worse than waiting 24h for payment - waiting 72h for split payment... 

[Diane53]

Marzena.  I am not going to keep declining the requests.  I am just not going to use Airbnb at all.  I have already blocked off my apartment

I hardly get any bookings from them anyway so its not really an issue.  I don't like the cancellation policy either.

I did 35 weeks with booking.com so far this year and very little with Airbnb.

[Fred13]

"I have asked him to either pay or cancel the booking but still nothing."

Usually the host doesn't have to prompt the guest about the pending payment, since it will either go through or not.

I see it is all a moot point, since you are eliminating your listing from Airbnb.

[Rich-and-Lori0]

Airbnb should warn us if a customer is in "Awaiting Payment" status so we have the option to decline.  I've got paying customers who want the room tomorrow and it's now blocked off with no way to cancel.   What if she decides not to stay?!!!

[Danny113]

I had my first one today. The person needed a room within the next 2 hours, and I said yes since it was available. The awaiting payment came up and he asked for my address. I told him the address is available once he processed the payment.

I believe the customer should have funds available when booking, not block my spot for actual paying customers.

[Sarah977]

This would seem to be to airbnb's detriment as well as the hosts. If a potential guest doesn't have their payment method set up properly or their credit card is maxed out, and the host's calendar is blocked and can't be rebooked on short notice, airbnb loses their fees for that booking as well. I'm kind of surprised they let this happen.

[Jorge721]

We've been badly affected by this too. Why are we not notified as hosts first of the circumstances and be given the chance to take the risk? It is one thing to give someone 24 hours to modify their form of payment if they are booking a month in advance, and another to do it when it's a same night reservation. Anyone can make a 5 day reservation, 6 hours before midnight and next thing you know the room is hostage for 24 hours... they never book, and you lost potential reservations because the room was on hold for someone who never had intentions of paying... and then what's worse when you get a hold of the person, and you ask them if they intend to fix their payment information, they don't respond, or respond that they're afraid to cancel because they're afraid of being charged anyway... so the only losing is the host.