Awaiting Payment ABUSE!

[Robert973]

There's a problem that comes up frequently, where a potential Guest books a room, but does not have a valid form of payment. When this happens, AIRBNB's current policy allows the potential Guest to block the dates of the Host's calendar without offering a good faith payment that complies with the Cancelation Policy.

They can hold dates and block up the calendar, right up to the Check-in date, EVEN LATE IN THE DAY WELL AFTER CHECK-IN TIME, and then, suddenly cancel without any consequences. Normally, they should lose their first day's payment and half of the following days, but it's a loophole that can be used to avoid any loss in accordance with the Cancelation Policy.

This frequent scenario causes harm to the Host, whose calendar was blocked by the potential Guest without any responsibility or loss. I believe AIRBNB should never accept any reservation without payment, or at least, never do so within the 5-day period immediately before the Check-in time. This would comply with the Cancelation Policy and protect the Hosts from such abuse and harm. I hope they'll consider adjusting the Policy, as such.

[Nanxing0]

My experience is that when there's an "awaiting payment" reservation for same day or next day, I wait for a couple hours and then contact Airbnb and tell them that the guest is not making the payment and request them to cancel it. Usually the CS representative will make an attempt to contact the guest, and if that's unsuccessful, they will do the cancellation. 

My guess is that if a lot of hosts make this effort to call Airbnb when this happens, it might raise their concern and get it resolved as they don't want to receive tons of calls for this same issue. Just my guess.

[Fabian835]

Totally agree. Sometimes I think it is just to bother. You can just place a fund less credit card and Airbnb will block whichever accommodation you want to block for 24 hours these will cause a loss to the host and Airbnb doesn't care even doe they are loosing money at the same time. If the payment doesn't get through at the moment then they shouldnt block the property. 

[Nicolette61]

This is becoming an issue way more often now than ever before! I think we need to get a petition ready to address this issue. I have had 3 of these back to back now within 3 days. I believe if the payment doesn’t go through the date should not be held. It’s a very simple resolution. There is not a single hotel that would allow someone to hold on to a room without paying and without penalty.

Of the 20+ times this has occurred only 1 guest has ever updated their payment. That’s ridiculous. The numbers are growing of this occurrence. Especially for last minute bookings . These typically occur for the day of checkin .

i have had success getting Airbnb to retract the request without penalty, however this takes precious time that is really unnecessary if they would just change the programming to the site or even allow the host to cancel the booking straight from their end without penalty.