Payments - How They Work: A Community Help Guide [UPDATE]

[Dave-and-Deb0]

There are many guests and some hosts who do not understand how payments work on Airbnb.

When you make a payment on Airbnb, all monies are held by Airbnb and is not released to the host until 24 hours after the guest has checked in to the listing.  This is in case of a fraud listing but also so Airbnb can take care of the guest in case they need to enact the Guest Refund Policy (https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/544/guest-refund-policy).

Short Term Reservations (1-27 nights)

For all reservations that are 27 nights or less, your payment method is charged for the total cost of the reservation once the reservation becomes a confirmed booking.  This payment is not released to the host until 24 hours after you check in to make sure everything goes smoothly.  You will need to pay the entire amount using only one payment method and you cannot currently split payment methods.

Long Term Reservations (28+ nights)

For all reservations that are 28 nights and over, these are considered long term reservations.  Long term reservations, you’ll be charged a first month down payment when the reservation is confirmed and then the rest of the nights will be charged on a monthly basis.  You can find this information in the following links:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/92

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/884

Security Deposits

Many people think that the security deposit is added to the total of the reservation, and this is NOT the case.

Airbnb does not charge the deposit UNLESS the host makes a claim within 48 hours of the guest checking out.  Here is an article indicating this: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/140

So essentially, if a guest complains they did not get their security deposit back, there is no security deposit to refund as they were never charged one.  If they insist, send them to www.airbnb.com/trips then click "View Receipt"  and they will see that there is no charge for security deposit.

Split Payments

A common question that many guests ask is, "Can I split my payment by paying half now, and half later" or, "Can I pay using two credit cards" or "Can I make a deposit"?

Unfortunately at this time, you cannot split payments and Airbnb does not take deposits. The total booking amount needs to be taken out of one payment method. Please check out this article for more information:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/444

One way around this is asking the host if they would allow you to book half of your dates now and pay and block off the other half so payment can be made later.  When ready to pay for the second half, the host would unblock the dates and then you can book and pay for the second half.  This would however require a trusting host.

Can I pay half now and half later?

The answer to this is yes and no.  Recently, some people are being offered to pay half now and the rest later but this is if they meet certain criteria and it is not made public.  You can however find the terms of this here: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1696/pay-less-upfront-terms

Brazil Payments

Also, in Brazil, they do allow guests to pay in installments.  You can find more information here but I have also used Google Translate and you can see the information below. (https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Ajuda/Reserva/m-p/99129#M2974)

[Nina152]

Its strange but I have not recieved a payment from a guest that checked in 11 days before....The payout is shown  to be made but no money is in my account yet.....the same for my next guest that s checking out today.....Does anyone have  such experience?

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[Jane368]

I have been chasing Airbnb for some time about two outstanding payouts, on my account they show as "pending", I may as well as bang my head against a wall, for all the help I have received

[Yianna1]

Hi there. I'm a new host and I already have two completed bookings. But there is no payment yet. My last guest left two weeks ago. Did I miss something. When I chose my Payment method there wasn't a message that something went wrong there. 

[Joan166]

We are in Australia and it offered us a pay half now pay half 2 weeks prior to stay option. 6 months has now passed and it is coming up for the 2nd payment, however our card details have changed since the first payment. The Air BNB system appears not to allow a change of payment detail when a card is linked to an existing booking. It is a problem in this sytem that air bnb are apparently without announcment trialling . We contact AIr BNB and after about 20 minutes of stuffing around with Supervisors they say they have now put in place that the payment will come out of the new card, however they still cant remove the old card that is linked to the booking. We are waiting with interst to see if this works, as it says if the 2nd payment cannot be processed then the booking is auto cancelled. Really air bnb if you are trialling this pay half later you need to set up your web site so the 2nd payment can come out of whatever card the guest nominates not a card that is no longer valid but is still linked to the booking for auto payment months later. 

[Kerry114]

When I tried to book a place to stay the amount for one night was just under $ 80.00. My payment was declined. Three times, and it shouldn't have been.

I contacted the card issuer. I was informed that Airbnb put a pre-authorization for 999.00 on my card. There were also two more failed attempts from Airbnb; one for every time I tried to make it work.  The first one was in the amount of 999.00. rendering the card useless due to the amount available.  So, of course, the other one's attempts of pre-authorization are there also. So I now have a 3-day hold on my card.

This is a huge issue as I see it.. both for the hosts and the guests..

[Antoinette66]

hi! I am new host from HK. Im trying to set up the payment method but it doesnt work as there is no IBAN in HSBC. I tried to call the bank and I was advise to put my account number but still came up error. What should I do? How will I receive my payout in this case? I dont have paypal account. And the only option shows are Bank transfer and Pay Pal. TIA!

[Susie114]

 HSBC accounts definitely have an IBAN and a BIC code what they don’t have is a Swift Code. I can’t get the payment system to work when putting in my details but looking at these payment problems I’m thinking of stopping AirBnB altogether!

[Jesse147]

--test message-

Hi all, Just writing a meesage to test out some things, thanks!

[Jesse147]

2nd test message, dont mind me 🙂