Checkpoint and verification progress of the guest close to the check-in

[Andrea39]

Hello,

This issue is starting to be always more frequent that a guest sends the booking request but her/his credit card or documents are expired and the booking goes on hold.

The guest has 12 hours to update her/his credit card or documents.

This could work if the booking reservation will be for the 2 weeks away at least, but it can NOT work if the check-in is the next day.

I'd like to propose to Airbnb to give 2 hours maximum to the guest to update the data and in the meantime to allow the host to cancel the booking request anyway in order to keep the unit available on the market.

My last very unpleasant experience has been with a guest who sent the booking request the day before the check-in.

The credit card was expired and Airbnb allows her to update the data in the next 12 hours.

Because I manage 12 units I found out that her boyfriend in the meantime was looking for better deals.

I asked Airbnb customer service to contact her. They called her several times but she never answered.

Once the 12 hours passed and the booking request expired she immediately updated her data, after 3 minutes, wrote to me she was sorry about that and she asked for a better deal because at that moment there were only few hours left to the check-in...

The host can not be hostage of a disonest guest because in this case we lose both: the host and Airbnb of course.

Hope this issue will be solved very soon!

Greetings from Rome.

[Brian2036]

@Andrea39 

I would be very suspicious of anyone who attempted to use an invalid credit card.

It sounds like they were attempting to perpetrate a fraud right from the start.

 I hope you didn’t offer a discount. I would be tempted to tell her that you have someone waiting who’s willing to pay 10% more, but of course, to be fair you will honor her original offer.

[Pat271]

The solution to this is simple. Airbnb should not block the dates until an accepted booking occurs.

Airbnb does this to make things easier for the guest. If there is a payment issue when guests attempt to book, it gives them time to rectify it. I can understand this from the guests point of view, as it can be frustrating to having dates become unavailable after just a few minutes of trying to get it right, and having your booking yanked out from under you. As a customer, I’ve had this happen to me on other sites.

On the other hand, it does a greater disservice to the host. Having a date blocked for 24 hours can easily cause the loss of hundreds of potential views and/or bookings.

However, I’m pretty sure that while sitting around the conference table (or these days, a Zoom call) deciding on function, the usability team is more apt to favor the convenience of the guest over the revenue of the host.

[Cave0]

This is a pretty regular occurrence but, as with many things Airbnb, it's intended to allow Airbnb to encourage the guest to complete the booking and nothing to do with what the host might wish for.  All well and good if they do but the hosts loss if they don't since nobody else can book whilst this farce is in progress and the host can do nothing to clear the calendar.  I am not sure how it can even be legal since most contract law requires an offer, acceptance and consideration to form a contract and clearly if there's no payment there's no consideration, yet the host it held hostage by Airbnb in a "contract" that's not a contract at all.

[Sarah977]

@Andrea39  Hosts calendars should certainly not be held hostage while guest's payment or info needs to be approved.

That said, as Airbnb seems uninterested in doing that, the solution for the host is to require advance notice. Mine is set at 3 days. Not necessarily enough time to get rebooked, but at least gives you the chance.