Deposit to hold the dates

[Bob39]

A family wants to stay for a week in May. They stayed last year and they were good guests, so I want to host them again. However, they don't want to pay until May. Is there a way to collect a deposit now, to hold the dates for them, then they can pay the rest of it in May? I would make it clear to them that any deposit they pay now will be non-refundable no matter what. I don't see a way to do this in the AirBnB system.
Thanks for any replies.

[Kelly149]

@Bob39 look up matthew’s recent post about the Pay Less Up Front rollout. You can’t do anything about it but the option may be offered to the guests during checkout. 

The enforcement of any cancellation policy thru abb is considered to be dubious at best by many hosts

[Bob39]

Thank you for your reply Kelly. I guess "Pay Less Up Front" would be somewhat of a solution to this. But what would be better is a "hold the dates" fee, which would be non-refundable under any circumstances. It wouldn't be dependent on my cancellation policy.  And I would get that payment now, not in May, and I would keep it, even if they never make the full reservation. It would make those dates unavailable to any other potential guests, up to a point, say 14 or 30 days before check in. That would be their cutoff date. It would apply to their reservation when they finally do make the reservation. If they haven't made the full reservation by the cutoff date, they forfeit the "hold the date" fee completely, and the dates open back up to any guest. That is what I would like to have, but apparently it's not possible with Airbnb's current system.

[Kathy177]

Replied to Bob's original post instead.

[Sarah977]

Bob, it won't help this time, unless you have their personal contact info, but I always get my guests' personal email address after booking simply because I need to send them a hand-drawn map to my place, which isn't easy to find the first time.

Then, when I have a stellar guest (I host a room in my home, so I get to know them fairly well) who I would love to host again, I tell them before their departure that if they ever want to come back, they can just email me directly, without going through any booking site.

I keep their email address in my email contacts list, so if they email me directly in the future, it won't just go into my Spam box and perhaps not get read for awhile or ever.

[Bob39]

Thanks, that's a good idea. I'll ask them if they still have my phone number.

[Fred13]

Bob,  I also deal with many of my guests 'direct' in different forms. On many occasions, I lock some dates for them, and when they are ready to do their booking through Airbnb (meaning they can financially), they let me know, I unblock the dates and they instantly book. With repeats I now do not bother with deposits.

   Now that there is that 'Pay Less Up Front' it will undoutedly lessen the need for the above-mentioned weird moves, but that is how I did it many times in 'the old days'.

[Bob39]

Thabk you for the reply. My understanding of the "Pay less up front" option is that it still could be refunded to the guest, at least partly, if they cancel.

This guest is asking me if I will hold May 23-30 for her, without any financial commitment on her part until May. That includes te popular Memorial Day weekend. If I could get her to commit some money now, say half of it, as a NON-refundable deposit, I would be willing to hold those dates for her.

[David126]

You have their contact details, up to you what you want to do.

[Bob39]

OK thank you.

[Kathy177]

Bob, this is exactly what I am looking for -- a "hold the dates" fee that would make the dates look blocked to anyone else other than the person who paid that fee.  I have a regular guest who books 3 or 4 night stays twice a month. She doesn't want to pay for all those stays at once, of course. I block all the dates and then we do this little dance with her alerting me so I can unblock and then she books. But this month, almost as soon as I unblock her dates, I get another request to book before she has time to go ahead and book!  I had to decline 3 requests this time, because she also had an issue with her credit card so couldn't book right away. Anyway...now I've gotten a notice from airbnb that my listing could be put on hold for declining too many times!!  Yikes.

Seems weird to be punished because my listing is so popular!

The "Pay Less Up Front" could help a little with that, I suppose, but I really don't want to take less for my place!  Besides, for her multiple stays, I'm sure the cost would still be prohibitive to pay for all those stays at once. 

Is there a formal way to request a feature from airbnb?

Thanks much and happy hosting to you.

[David126]

@Kathy177

With a regular guest why are you using AirBnB at all, why not do everything direct?