NEW MEMBERS DIFFICULTIES WITH BOOKING

[Rosaleen3]

Hi All

this month I've had two guests who are new Airbnb members . Both struggled with trheir verifications after their initial enqiry .

In both cases I blocked the dates for the guests , while they figured out how to set up their profile .

One guest got everything sorted and her payment came through Airbnb in the usual way .

The second guests enquiry remained on the system, and her message thread remained open, but when she turned up her payment had not gone through Airbnb .

This is an akward situation, I dont want to breach the Airbnb rules, but I also dont want to miss bookings .

How should I resolve such a problem in the future  ?

thans for any advice 

Rosaleen

[Robert78]

So, you mean your second guest "turned up", even though they never formally finalised/confirmed their reservation after completing (?) the verification process and it remained in the "Enquiry" phase; you never received a formal confirmation for this guest by email from Airbnb; and you didn't receive payment?

Need some more clarification on this one 🙂

[Rosaleen3]

you'reright, I did not get a confirmation through Airbnb ,  but the guest was very keen to book , so I blocked the days out for her .

She knew the address as they were visiting family in the area, and had already established that my space was very close to theirs.

[Robert78]

@Rosaleen3 Did the second guest pay you?

[Helen3]

How did they turn up if their payment hadn't gone through and the booking confirmed - they wouldn't have been able to see your full contact details?

If your guest is having problems with setting up payment, you should ask them to call BNB and sort this out.

[Rosaleen3]

Helen

thanks for this good advice.

Guest  knew the address as they were visiting family in the area, and had already established that my space was very close to theirs.

Do you know who new members  should call when they are having trouble with their verifications ? 

 In both of these cases I probably had 10-12 messages from the prospective guests before they got things sorted out for themselves . ( well in one case they did !) so it wuld be easier to send them a phone number for Airbnb .

[Helen3]

@Rosaleen3 you are a well established host with mutiple listings, so it would really be beneficial for you to become more familiar with how BNB works so you can help guests with problems and protect yourself.

Usually a guest has problems paying if there is something wrong with their credit card - for example,  it is expired or not enough money in the account, or BNB doesn't accept cards such as Amex. Although sometimes much more rarely there is a technical glitch.

As you know you shouldn't be letting a guest stay unless they pay through BNB as you lose all protection.

All the ways to contact BNB are in the first post under Community Help - do keep them to hand.

[Rosaleen3]

To everyone who has responded, thanks for the useful advice.

In both cases these guests were new , and registering for the first time, and also genuine.

Both were having problems with the verifucation process rather the payment. 

I have now located the tAIRBNB elephone number for them to call which i will keep to hand for future reference. 

I can see its best not to  engage, but one tries to be helpful, not just because its business, but because that level of care begins in a way with the early enquiry. 

However ,lesson learned, and next time I'll let them sort themselves out before I engage

[Babs0]

I can see why you would want to help them out, @Rosaleen3! But there is ony so much you can do! There is a very helpful thread on this Community Help on how to get in touch with Airbnb in different ways and with a lot of phone numbers for different countries. 

Myself, I wouldn't block dates off for people who might want to book. By doing that, you are probably making it impossible for them to book anyway. And you are msising out on other (paying!) guests who are looking for a place like yours. And think of it like running a business: why would you let people in that haven't paid through the system? Could only get awkward if they don't want to pay... What are you going to do then, while they are already at your home?!

Good luck with hosting!

Babs

[Ariane7]

I have had a similar problem with a payment that never went through and airbnb explained that if there is no booking number then they have not paid. In my case the person had tried paying with an expired credit card they had had while living abroad. So instead of clicking on 'yes' I want to block these dates while I wait for the payment I clicked on 'no' and later was told by the girl that she never had any intention of booking with me, it was her way of having 'fun'... There are a lot of crooks out there so be careful, I always ask guests to sign a written contract with a piece of ID, because otherwise you really don't know who you are letting into your home.

[Louise47]

@Rosaleen3 If they have not paid bnb then you will not get paid. I would tell them to go away and fix it before knocking on my door. Do not be that desperate for booking that you will take anyone because in the long run you will lose out.  Get tuff and start telling people to sort their own stuff out. Your not there to hold their hand while they try and sign up.  While your wasteing time with them your loseing out on other great guests.  Good Luck in the future.

Louise

[Lyra-Marvella0]

I'm one of those new members having difficulty with bookings. I tried so many times, as suggested by a member I cleared my cache, I changed and used a different browsers but everytime I click the "confirm and pay" it doesn't work. I put in the details- changed the details but it still won't proceed to the next step. I would like to know what I did wrong because its like I hit the dead end of the page. I'll be arriving at my destination in 5 days and I really want to book using airbnb. 

[Eduardo111]

Hy Lyra, I am Eduardo from Brazil. What kind of payment are you trying to access? Usually some payments differently of credit card could offer problems..