What is 'checkpoint' status?

[Helen0]

Did anyone get an answer to their queries about what 'checkpoint' means against a pending reservation? It's not listed or explained anywhere on the Help pages.

I have a guest who wants to book but I can't either accept his enquiry or pre-approve him because the dates are blocked in my calendar. They are blocked by that guest's pending reservation! On the calendar it says pending verification, but his profile says he is fully verified.

What can I do to resolve this circular problem? Needless to say, there seems to be no way of referring it to Airbnb, all the email and phone numbers seems to have disappeared and my last several enquiries, sent over the last few months, have all gone un-answered, so I am not exactly hopeful that they will spot the problem and sort it out for me!

It's getting a bit ridiculous that you can't even contact Airbnb to make a booking 😞 

Anyone have any advice?

Helen

[Lawrene0]

Me, too, @Noemie4 . A popular weekend on my calendar has been blocked for 10 days now (!) by a guest with "checkpoint" status. If nothing else, I wish there was a limit on this. I thought there was, but apparently not.

[Kevin-and-Tamara0]

You can contact AirBnB to have the request  cancelled and your calendar unblocked - or at least that's what Gajendra P just told me.  The whole thing seems like a **bleep** show of a mess.

[Tracie1]

We have just had a situation where we wanted to withdraw pre-approval rather than wait 12 hours for verification.  Per Airbnb policy, I cannot withdraw pre-approval even if my property is no longer available once verification starts.  I have been told I have to wait the full 12 hours until the reservation goes through and then I can cancel it - that could be at 2am.    It's now after 10pm.  I'm very frustrated that I cannot withdraw the pre-approval and thought I could do this at any time.  It's not a very host-friendly practice.  I won't be pre-approving any more same day bookings in the future.  

[Robbin15]

Same thing just happened to me.  How long did it take you to get it cleared up @Tracie1 ?

It's completely ludicrous!  I had approved another guest and they were about to book and all of a sudden my calendar was blocked with this "checkpoint" guest.  AirBnb acts like they don't even understand why this is a problem and why it is unfair!  This is a desirable, long holiday weekend that is now blocked for God only knows how long.  One person in this thread said 10 days?!   Even worse, the checkpoint guest only wants 2 nights - the other guest ready to book wants longer.  I actually had 2 people pre-approved and waiting who received the message that the dates are no longer available.   It makes me want to reach out to them directly if AirBnb is going to do me this way.

It's not the person's fault who put in the request and has blocked my calendar, but it makes me not want to rent to them now.  Even though Airbnb is totally to blame here. So freaking frustrating!

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Robbin15 Bookings are clearly like buses. You don't see one for a while and then 3 come along at once!

The reason its not strictly unfair is that the one guest actually booked your property (albeit missing something to allow it to confirm) whereas the other two were just waiting.

At the end of the day if you want more control switch off Instant Book.

[Mark1340]

I can confirm that this status is tied to "AWAITING VERIFICATION" which is what one of mine is at right now.

[Quan102]

Hi checkpoint status means that Airbnb is trying to verify your guest's identification. 

[Mike2006]

I host a property and just made booking for my holiday, same as you guys and AirBnB couldn't or wouldn't do anything. I would be very embarrassed if this happened to my guests as well as disappointed. I suggest that you have your property listed on other platforms which are run by pros. AirBnB take very large commissions, bit of service would be good. They employ very few people and just have a computer system, they must be making heaps from chumps like us.

[Carla1088]

I’ve just had this come up. Unusual that Airbnb wouldn’t have this at least listed in the help pages. Surely a better system would be for guests identities, payment methods etc verified before they can book anything. It seems silly that hosts calendars get booked up and therefore miss potential bookings due to dodgy guests. By the same token, this particular guest has no profile pic, no profile info whatsoever and I don’t feel comfortable accepting a booking like this that has dodgy written all over it.

[Deirdre2]

I have a "checkpoint" reservation showing only on my calendar for check in TODAY.    The "reservation"  does not show in upcoming reservations, I received no messages notifying me of a new reservation and I cannot message the guest, "Richard".  A call to airbnb was basically useless.  After being shunted to a "self help" link on the first call, I called back and spoke to an agent that said she didn't know why I received no notification or why I was unable to message guest but that she would "keep an eye on it". 

I am leaving town this afternoon and need to get this settled no later than 1pm. 

Now what?