Ever had a guest's payment bounce?

[Pete69]

Ever had a guest's payment bounce? I haven't. Just wondered how common this might be and if so what did Airbnb do? Pick up the missing tab and pay you for the fraudulent guest's stay?

[Sandra126]

Yes, occasionally. Airbnb sends you a message offering you to cancel as they have difficulty in getting the payment to clear, or to keep the reservation. You can contact the guest yourself if you wish to find out what is happening. It auto cancels after they try for 4-5 times, then you get a message about that too. Last time I rang the guest, she contacted Paypal, it all got sorted.

Hope this answers your question.

[Niel3]

Yes, I recently started a similar thread when a payment for an insta booking has bounced. I was not made aware of it a by AirBNB & only noticed because it was showing as a month old pending payment in my account info. Contacted AirBNB who are "reaching out" to the guest but I am expecting to get a "sorry we could not get payment, tough luck" message in the end.

[Pete69]

Almost always Airbnb makes their payout to me one day into the guest's stay. If it takes longer then this sounds the alarm bells and I contact Airbnb. Only one time did it take longer. Guests from Europe were staying for like a week. Finally Airbnb was able to get the payment. Must have been a currency issue.

[Pete69]

@Niel3 How did it turn out? Was it a fraudulent booking or what?

Another reason not to accept same day bookings. I find InstantBook to have no value. My weekends have been 100% booked since I started my 2019 season.

[Babylon0]

I total agree,

[Jessica-and-Henry0]

@Pete69

I had a case where the 2nd (or 3rd?) monthly payout from a long-term guest did not go thru. I recieved an e-mail on the day the payout should have been issued out to me regarding failure to collect the funds. Fortunately, the guest also recieved a similar email and it was resolved quickly so we were able to get the payout a couple days later. Unless it was the guest's intention all along, I'd assume the guest would try to find a way to make the payment if they were to find out their payment bounced. This is one of the reasons why I would never want to do same day bookings.

[Pete69]

Now you have me worried about accepting same day bookings. Am I skating on thin ice?

I thought Airbnb waited until after the guest checks in before charging their card. Does Airbnb really charge the guest as soon as they book (even if weeks in advance)? If not for the entire amount do they at least charge their card 1 cent  or something to make sure it's legit?

[Sandra126]

@Pete69, they charge, hold the funds, then pay you.

[Pete69]

Does airbnb wait until payment clears before accepting a booking? I'm wondering if requiring 1 day of advance notice would actually help protect against a bounced card payment as Jessica and Henry are suggesting.

[Robin4]

@Pete69

Without going into company accounts where various billing methods apply, in Gods ideal world, for short term reservations there are three payment options and three protocols.

A/. If a guest instant books a listing their prefered payment method will be charged and if payment in full is successful the booking will be automatically notified to the host! If payment is not successful the guest must submit a reservation request to the host and the reservation is not confirmed until payment is successful! This is to safeguard IB hosts against payment fraud.

B/. The guest makes a reservation request and once the host approves that request the guests payment method is billed for the entire amount of the booking including any fees and charges, and the guest has 24 hours to successfully make a payment or the reservation lapses.

C/.  The guest makes a reservation request and once the host approves that request the guest who has selected a 'pay less up-front' method will be charged 50% of the entire amount at that point and the remaining 50% will be taken from the guests payment method 7 days before the due start date of the stay! With this option the guest has the right to change payment methods between the first and the last payment...as long as a successful payment method is in place at each time a payment is requested!

The second part of this payment option is the problematic one because, if the guests payment method rejects the second payment, the reservation will collapse leaving the host with difficult to fill unbooked dates and the guest may well get their first payment returned.

Although, having said that, I am not aware of instances of that happening but it is theoretically possible!

I have said, 'in Gods ideal world' because I have lost access to much company policy since leaving a support role early this year, and things may have changed!

Cheers.....Rob 

[Nathaniel129]

That's strange, I just had an instant book guest whose payment did not go through, so I'm not sure Airbnb is actually placing a hold on the payment prior to booking.

[Steve143]

Hello @Pete69,

It happened to me twice, once for a reservation request sent months in advance and once for a same day instant book attempt.

I accepted the months in advance request and immediately saw that payment was pending. I messaged the guest straight away about the pending payment status. She'd also received a message from Airbnb saying that the payment was unsuccessful. Her request expired after 24 hours making the dates available again but payment went through when I accepted her second request sent a few days later.

I received the same day reservation, on instant book,  about 00:30 (12:30am) on the morning of the day that she wished to check in. I immediately messaged her about the pending payment situation and contacted Airbnb syaing that I was not willing to allow this reservation unless the payment was confirmed before my checkin time of 15:00 (3pm). It wasn't, so they cancelled without any penalty to me.

Steve.

[Letti0]

@Pete69  Some poor host is going to get a chargeback for a stay that probably happened already in the next week or two. On the 9/6/18 a pending AirBnB charge was listed it posted 9/7/18 and was charged to my husbands charge card he does not even have an AirBnB account. Bank gave me back the money on 9/14/18. Which is when they did the chargeback to AirBnB. As per AirBnB's policy the host will be charged for the amount less the AirBnB's service fee's and taxes. The 3% charged by AirBnB to the host will still be charged to the host from the original transaction as AirBnB does not reverse it. 

Sameday bookings are always an iffy thing. I have not had issues, but many have. The payment processing time is 24 hours for a credit card on AirBnB and HA/VRBO, so if the payment does not go thru the 1 day stay is over and you do not get paid. I usually recommend that the guest use PayPal as that is instant approval and will go thru without issues that the credit cards may have with the system not processing them if it's less than 24 hours to check in time, so that may be why I have not had issues. 

Payless up front is more trouble for hosts. They pay 50% upfront and when the second payment is rejected they get 24 hours to put in new payment information. If they don't put it in they get another 24 warning that the reservation will be cancelled. So now you are at 4-5 days before a booking depending on how long it took to get the payment rejected and if you have a strict policy that would be 100% due to you, not the 50% they collected. So once again the host gets screwed.