Invoicing work around?

[Inna22]

With the new split your payment in installments feature I cannot invoice guests for extras (in my case early check in or late check out) until they have paid in full. Airbnb does not allow any extra invoicing until then. Does anyone know a work around? Once someone asks for an extra, I want to invoice them, get it paid and not worry about it anymore.

[Allison2]

I'm afraid you're going to have to hold your invoicing until after the second payment is collected. I think they do that 2 wks before arrival.

I just made a reservation last night and was disheartened to see that the split payment is the default now. You have to click a box at checkout for it to run through as a single payment.

[Inna22]

@Allison2  I wish they gave us an option to modify the reservations to add the extras, not just the date/price

[Allison2]

I'm sure it's just a simple coding fix to pay immediately for any additional charges, but they send their coders off on the next stupid initiative before fully implementing the first one.

I imagine Airbnb doesn't want to deal with the ugly payment situation that crops up if services/dates are added between the first payment and the second. It could leave them in a situation where they don't have enough payment collected to cover a strict hosts' cancellation payout.

(ie. if someone booked a stay for $400, pays $200 up front, then a few days later adds a day so the payment is now $600 total. If they don't collect the extra $100 at that time and the payment fails or the guest cancels Air doesn't have enough to pay the host 50% and would need to pay the $100 out of pocket). They just made their lives easier by foisting the problem off on hosts. Sounds like a familiar refrain 😉

[Inna22]

@Allison2 I agree. I can not see how this is a difficult fix. And will save them so many phone calls from hosts on how to charge pets, breakfasts, bikes, etc

[Kelly149]

@Inna22 but you do want to change the price even if you don’t want to change the dates, right? Wouldn’t Adjust work for that?

i read once that you could only “Request Money” once per reservation so I’ve never wanted to do it early but instead save it in case there was some damage or add on at the end

[Inna22]

@Kelly149  Yes, I have read the same thing and so far have not had an instance where I got to test it. I assume my only other extra would ever be a damage claim and I would imagine they would let me file one regardless? Although as we all know, I should not expect anything of Airbnb. If I adjust the price, then they pay taxes and service fees and in Chicago just the tax alone is 22 percent 

[Kelly149]

@Inna22 Well, 22% is not nothing but here EVERYTHING attached to a stay is taxable so that isn’t a problem here. 

Good luck finding a solution 

[Inna22]

@Kelly149wow! I did not think there was a place worse than chicago as far as taxes. 

[Kelly149]

@Inna22 @Well the state HOT is only 6% 

but it’s added to EVERYTHING 

[Lisa723]

@Inna22  @Kelly149  @Allison2  FWIW I have definitely requested money more than once for the same guest. It's no problem, except you can't make a new request while a previous one is still open. You can however cancel the open request and issue a revised one. Re. Inna's original question, my only "work-around" is to revisit all reservations seven days before check-in and request any additional (pet, in my case) fees. It's error-prone and inconvenient. Airbnb is not living its best life.  🙂

[Inna22]

@Lisa723 now that you mention it, I have done it before- cancelled one request and sent a new one. And yes, I revist all my resos about a week before. I would rather collected right away for two reasons: 1. extra revenue, want to do it while they are ready to pay 2. always worried that I promise someone a late check out and then promise the next person early check in and double book or refuse someone a late check out and early check in will never pay. All of these are not a big deal and are a matter of extra note taking. But wouldn't it be nice to just have that feature handy.

[Lisa723]

@Inna22 it sure would.