100% payment request

[Sarah3431]

A few guests attempting to book have informed me that Airbnb are now demanding a payment of 100% upfront to book instead of the 50% now, 50% later option. 
Has anyone else had this issue?

[Charles224]

@Sarah3431 , I have always experienced 100% prepayment when using the platform.

This is from an Australian user's viewpoint. 

Perhaps everyone is on the same page now?

Cheers, Charles

[Sarah977]

@Sarah3431  They recently did away with the 50% up front option.

But this is not a host's problem. If a guest doesn't have enough $ to book your place with 100% up front, that is their problem. It's actually much better for hosts for those split payments not to be allowed- sometimes hosts have had guests come and stay, then Airbnb tells the host that they failed to collect on the second payment.

And that option was never available to all guests for all bookings- I don't think it was an option if the guest booked close to check-in, and it may not have been offered to guests who had had payment issues in the past, or other criteria in the algorithms.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah977 

They recently did away with the 50% up front option.

That cannot be right. I am having guests booking on a 50/50 basis. Further, guests have abandoned bookings because they were only presented a 100% payment option. Abandoned bookings are not good for hosts and failure to collect any balance payment is the fault of Airbnb. Airbnb need to sort out their agency on that... Their service fee should be donated to hosts on their failure to collect payment as they are supposed to do, and is the reason they are collecting their fee in the first place.

[Sarah977]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0  I absolutely read on one of the Airbnb Updates a few weeks ago that the pay-less-upfront option was discontinued. I wish I had screenshot it, because now I can't find that and in fact they just came up with a new update on it May18, and it says the new terms supercede the old ones, so I think what I read has been "disappeared."

So yes, it appears that it is still an option, but it isn't offered in many cases, for instance, when the booking is less than 14 days from check-in, also says it's not  offered on long term bookings.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Sarah3431 

On the same day, and for the same booked dates Airbnb both presented a 50/50 option as well as only a 100% payment option for a booking of 12 weeks into the future.  So either, for a 'tech' company they can't get their act together - or they are discriminating against some guests for some reason? Either way, it's not good for bookings when a booking is abandoned for any reason.

Short of asking guests "How did you pay?" there seems little way of finding out the real facts as even through this CC,  Airbnb official policy is never discussed by Airbnb. If you're lucky, you may be pointed to an interpretive "Help Article" which is an Airbnb 'spin' on what they think their Terms or Policies should mean, and how they think they should be implemented, but thats never definitive.

then Airbnb tells the host that they failed to collect on the second payment.

That second payment problem, again. Airbnb absolve themselves from any responsibility for that and expect hosts to continue to provide their accommodation "as though payment was made". What sort of 'Cuckoo Land' do they believe we exist in? If ever there was an example of 'collusion with guests' - this is it! Their pursuit of off-piste policies removing man hours from  providing a fully functioning, glitch free platform is just negligent. There needs to be a way for hosts to check payment is made by the guest before ever allowing them access to their accommodation or handing over keys. 

@Stephanie 

Please can add these questions to the outstanding list to 'whoever' and get a response:

- What are the official Airbnb payment options regarding bookings and what are the incumbent booking criteria that affects those options?

- And, why after all this time has there never been a way for hosts to find out whether guests have fully paid before admitting them to their accommodation? As a booking platform, you are fully entitled to restrict access to hosts accommodation should payment not be made - and you should do it!