I made a reservation with a host

[Carl11923]

Can someone explain why this happens on airbnb?

I recently made a reservation and was sent a message from airbnb telling me i had 24 hours to pay for the reservation. When i went to pay, my reserved dates had already gone and this was within the 24 hour time frame given by airbnb. 

The host blames airbnbs system and airbnb blamed the host. The sad thing is that my booking was for 6 weeks and the booking the host accepted was only for 5 days. I really don't understand how a system can allow this to happen. I have contact airbnb support and after several communications, they sent me a message asking if they could call me to help with the situation and as of yet, i have still not received any call from airbnb support.

[Emiel1]

@Carl11923 

What i do not understand:

You made a booking for six weeks, how can host accept it for 5 nights ?

Useally when you make a booking and it is confirmed, then there is indeed 24 hours time frame to finish payment .

The dates are reserved on the calender and the host need to wait for the payment (there is nothing else the host can do, besides sending messages to the guest).

So i am curious how Airbnb can blame the host for the issue.

[Helen3]

Sorry you are having issues. I wonder if what you did is make an inquiry rather than a booking ? 

you say the host accepted a booking for five nights . But also say when you went to book the reserve dates had gone .

which was it @Carl11923 ? 

And what support are you looking for from Airbnb? 

I haven't seen a facility on Airbnb that guests have 24 hours to pay . Normally payment is taken on booking. 

[Emiel1]

@Helen3 

"I haven't seen a facility on Airbnb that guests have 24 hours to pay . Normally payment is taken on booking"

Some payment methods can not generate payment instantly (like a creditcard)

For example:

In The Netherlands  a common payment method used is "Ideal". After booking a guest receive a link from Airbnb and then have to use this link to make the payment (which is actually a direct bank transfer) within 24 hours. If no payment made the booking expires after 24 hours and dates are available again for new booking.

[Helen3]

Ah thanks we don't have that in the UK @Emiel1 

[Joelle43]

Hello @Carl11923 

Like @Helen3 says I think we are dealing with an enquiry situation rather than a request to book.  Did you send a message to the host with your dates?  Did they then send you a pre-approval which gives guests 24 hours to accept the reservation and pay?  Many enquiries and pre-approvals are not accepted by guests so that is the reason the host calendar's dates aren't blocked until payment is received.  So although you may feel that you have reserved the dates, in reality you haven't.

Here is an Airbnb link on the subject but maybe it should be made clearer to the guest that although they have 24 hours to accept the pre-approval, the dates are not confirmed until payment is received and if the host receives a Trip request, those dates will be lost?

https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/1357

An enquiry and /or a pre-approval do not block the dates on the host calendar which means if someone sends a Request to Book or the host has Instant Book activated, this will trump any enquiry pending unfortunately. 

I'm sure the host would have preferred your longer reservation to the 5 day stay but this is the way Airbnb have set up their system I'm afraid and we have no control over this. The first one to pay gets the dates blocked on the host calendar.  

[John5097]

@Carl11923 

It's possible the was a bug but the Airbnb booking process doesn't allow what you are describing. I've also been a host for 6 years and have never had this happen. 

It is common for Airbnb to allow a reservation to be made and give the guest 12 hours to pay. It used to be 24 hours about a year or so ago, but changed that to 12 hours in my area, so think the reservation expired in 12 hours and not 24. 

The host can't change a 6 week reservation to 5 days. There is a process to alter a reservation but host would need to send an alteration request the guest would need to approve that shows the original dates, and cost, the new dates and cost, and the difference in the total price. So there is really no missing it or misunderstanding it. 

If it was a 5 night reservation it seems more likely that this was an oversight and the guest simply clicked on the wrong dates by mistake. I know as a host that I try and automate everything possible to avoid any human error,  in particular things like programming the lock, if I have to do it manually I have to check it like 5 times. lol 

In summary there is no method for host to alter a reservation or decline or cancel a reservation after it's been accepted without the guest agreement. Host also have zero options when guest are prompted to pay within 12 hours. There are other topics that host don't like this as it blocks off those dates, and host would prefer that guest already set up a payment method prior to making a reservation.