Down Payment for Reservation

[Patrick273]

I'm completly confused and can't find any answers to a bunch of questions I have..... If a booking is marked in green as accepted does this mean they have paid.? or is the booking blocked but without any payment thus running the risk of losing other possible booking if the client decides not to go ahead. Thanks for any help

[Andrea9]

@Patrick273

Go to Your Reservations section, and if it says Accepted, then payment has been made. Sometimes it takes a while because a guest still has to upload their profile ID or has payment other than a card which takes longer to process. But once you have Accepted its offical, Airbnb has the money. 

The only thing to be careful about and was going around for a while with criminals, was same day-day bookings with a stolen credit card. It takes the bank 24h to inform Airbnb that payment isn't valid, so if you accept a payment for the same day without requesting verified ID for guests and not doing ID check yourself (which criminal would want that!), then they have a great chance of stayinhg the night and disappearing before the fraud is noticed. And some have even used that time to rob the place.

So common sense and vigilance is advised. Nobody would think of simply handing over their car to a complete stranger who says their name is XX without asking for proof. Which is what a lot of (inexperienced) hosts do with their property. 

[Annette33]

@Andrea9 , I think "acceptance" is done by the host, yes, but what really counts is the "confirmation" by Airbnb: only that step means that the money is in place, collected by them, ready to get paid out to the guest the morning after arrival day. Usually the two go hand in hand, with the confirmation happening in an email a few minutes after the acceptance by the host.  But if there is a problem, there will be no confirmation, or confirmation is pending. 

It sure is confusing that Airbnb uses the terms acceptance and confirmation interchangeably, so yes, like you say in our transaction history they call a confirmed booking "accepted". I was just going back to the steps before, where there is that crucial difference between acceptance (done by the host) and confirmation (done by Airbnb). 

As host, @Patrick273 , look for that confirmation email by Airbnb, something like "booking is confirmed for Jane Doe...". It has confirmation nr. etc.. and when that is in place, your calendar is marked for those dates in green with the picture of that guest, meaning alo is ok. you have a valid booking.

[Andrea9]

@Annette33 @Patrick273

It's true that on the booking page the expression Confirmed is used.

I personally prefer going to the Reservation oversight to be 100% certain because it unmistakeably also shows me when a booking is still pending or even so-called Cancels where a guest had to request booking more than once to finalize booking process, or even when somebody requested to book but cancelled it midway so that there's no message history to look at. Probably subjective, though that uncluttered reservation list is as clear as it can get.

[France21]

Does it mean that Airbnb keeps the funds until the date of the booking and the host does not received anything until then?  I have a reservation in green "accepted" for August 2018 but in my dashboard it says that I will receive the payment in August only and I am worried that the guests might change his mind. Did the guest paid in full?

On Homeaway, I receive 50% of the money at the time of reservation and the other 50% the first day of the booking.

[France21]

Does it mean that Airbnb keeps the funds until the date of the booking and the host does not received anything until then?  I have a reservation in green "accepted" for August 2018 but in my dashboard it says that I will receive the payment in August only and I am worried that the guests might change his mind. Did the guest paid in full?

On Homeaway, I receive 50% of the money at the time of reservation and the other 50% the first day of the booking.

[Andrea9]

@France21

When a booking is 'Confirmed" it has been paid for.

Airbnb releases the funds to your account or whatever method you chose 24h after check-in.

So if you allow bookings a year or more in advance, that's how long you'll have to wait.

And no, it doesn't always feel fair, esp. if a booking has blocked the calendar and is then cancelled shortly before 😞

[Kate157]

Also, @Patrick273, if for some reason there is a problem with your guest's payment, Airbnb will notify you. This happened to me this week. I could have cancelled the booking, but I decided to give it some time, and sure enough, the guest and Airbnb both emailed me to say everything was straightened out the next morning. So you do get notification if there is a payment problem.