Awaiting payment.

[Dave5]

Is there anyway to shorten the 24hrs guests have to make the payment. I have had people book, knowing they could not pay to secure days on my calendar. Then they keep on searching for other places and my calendar stays blocked (for their convenience and me maybe losing money)

[Yohann0]

I am facing the same problem guest booked yesterday and status is awaiting payment. Calendar is blocked. No reply to several messages. I have no idea whether she is coming or not. Check in time is 2 pm today, and  I am unsure whether to go through the expense of preparing my space, which includes bringing in food supplies (we are situated remotely). Airbnb must change this procedure to give hosts peace of mind.

[Mehtap2]

Yes. Recently, the number of guests who have a problem with their payment has increased. I am living the same problem with Dave as well. The "payment is awaiting" blocks the calendar for 24 hours.  Even though some guests change their mind to stay at us, they forget to cancel their "payment is awaiting" reservation, affecting us negatively.

[Julie282]

Happened to me twice in two days

[Ann-And-Fred0]

Piling on, yes, this is a problem for me.  Guest requested reservation, I accepted request, and it switched to 'awaiting payment'.  I frequently get last-minute requests, for same-day checkin well after 3 pm.  The room is now tied up until well after checkin time today and I lose any potential income.  I messaged the guest and asked them to cancel the request, but they're not responding.  I have no way to make this feedback known about them, since they haven't stayed with me I can't review them.

I suspect in this case it's a couple who both have airbnb accounts and they found a room they preferred or that responded sooner under the other person's account.  Fair enough, it took me a couple of hours to respond to the request because I was unavailable - we have lives - but I shouldn't lose today's income because these folks found something else last night.

Are you listening, Airbnb?

[Nalin2]

Happened to me too. Expected checkin is today.... and its in limbo!

[Lizzie]

Hello @Nalin2,

Nice to meet you. 

In terms of payment, Airbnb will release your payment within 24hr of the due check-in dates of your guest. It then depends on the payment method you have selected for how long it takes the money to arrive with you. Take a look at this Help Center article for more information on this. 🙂

Does this help?

Lizzie

[Nanxing0]

No it doesn't. The problem is not when Airbnb releases payment, it's when Airbnb COLLECTS PAYMENT FROM GUESTS. At least for those same day or next day reservations, Airbnb should collect payment BEFORE the guest can submit booking request. 

[Kate221]

This is definitely an issue. Dates should not be held at all, much less longer than 24HRS! It kills the ability to accept last minute bookings. I’m quite annoyed. Airbnb is focussed on growing faster than they can solve issues sadly 

[Laurie145]

I've  been hosting for almost two years, and this is the first time I've had problems with payments going through. Perhaps it's an issue with the split payment option?   I'm also  wondering how Airbnb determines the time our calenders will be blocked? It has happened to me twice in the past week. The 24 hour waiting period was not so bad, but now several days are blocked on my calender for 72 hours. 

[Bethany48]

This is absurd! It just happened to me for a booking for next week. Guests should not have 24 hours to put a corrected payment method! Airbnb should do what gas stations do- charge $1 to make sure the card is good. If the full payment fails, hosts should have the ability to automatically cancel the reservation or give the guests 24 hours to rectify it. 

[Sohna0]

Wayment, 2018 and we still haven't fixed this? Just got this from a guest so I stopped in here to see how to resolve

[Timothy30]

Hi...so now that I've googled this issue and searched this forum, I see that "Awaiting Payment" has been a problem for several years, and in the face of criticism, Airbnb has chosen not to do anything to resolve this issue.

Last night I received my first "Awaiting Payment" reservation. It was a reservation for the next day, so the 24 hour waiting period means I'd have lost the ability to rent the hosue for that night.

But more than that, a failed payment is a red flag to me, and if Airbnb would provide me the option to cancel the reservation, I would have done so. But no option is given.

In this case, the guest did eventually confirm payment. But my sense of a "red flag" turned out to be right. They were the worst guests I've hosted so far. They lied about their number of people (9 not 6), they left the house extremely dirty, they partied loudly till late, disturbing the neighbors, they ruined a bedspread, and then they refused to leave at checkout time until I informed them there would be additional charges.

Here's what I'd propose for Airbnb:

1) When a payment is declined, place the reservation on a "hold" status and inform the Host immediately (your system can be easily programmed to do this). 

2) Allow the HOST to make a decision at that point, and allow the host to cancel the reservation.

3) If the guest is serious, they can always find a new payment method and rebook the listing if it is still available.

If I call to reserve an airline ticket, and my payment method is declined, the airlines doesn't hold the ticket for me for 24 hours. I have to find a new payment method immediately or call back when I've solved the issue. This is overwhelmingly the standard in the business world. Evidence of problems with payment falls to the guest to solve, not the host.

I was lucky this time, It was only one night, and so I didn't lose out on the potential to book multiple nights. But the possibilty of this is disappointing. I love the Airbnb system, and this is my first real complaint.

Thanks.

[Taylor74]

Why is this issue not fixed yet?  I had this same thing happen and AirBnB support kept telling me my room was never booked and the dates were not blocked.  Then they showed me a picture of their database and said "see, we opened the dates back up when the guest cancelled", well that was after 12 hours and the night they were actually checking in so I had no option to rebook the room.   I just  had someone with a limited credit card test booking my room and we took pictures of the entire process on the guest and host side.  After doing this and telling Airbnb they finally agreed my room was booked and dates were blocked off.  Right now I have zero options to cancel my friend who did a test booking.  My nights are blocked from anyone else booking, the support person today told me the hold should only be for one hour.  As you guys stated it is actually 12-24 hours, its now been almost 3 hours since my friend booked and my night is still blocked off from anyone else being able to book.

[Sky13]

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2411/what-does-awaiting-payment-mean

“ Hosts replying on web will have the option to give guests a 24-hour window or not. If the host would prefer not to allow a 24-hour window, the request will be canceled penalty-free for both host and guest.”

1.  Immediately ask the guest -in writing- to complete the reservation within 1 hour.
2. Then call Airbnb support. Request that Airbnb contact the guest to complete the reservation.

3. If the reservation is not complete within one hour, call Airbnb. Explain the action taken (#1 and #2). Then recite the policy policy noted above. State you are not willing to allow a 24 hour window and you want Airbnb to decline the booking with no penalty to the host.

This works for me every time.