Guest can’t change payment method, Airbnb no help.

[Natalie243]

My guest is frustrated because the 2nd payment on their reservation keeps getting kicked back. They have deleted the payment info for the old card and added new info, but it won’t charge the remaining balance to the new card. They have tried purchasing a gift card, and that didn’t work either. They have contacted Airbnb support 5 times and no one is helpful. The last person even hung up on her! Her reservation is coming up, and because of airbnbs incompetence in helping them, they are likely going to push for a full refund if they can’t get the second payment to process. Please someone from Airbnb help. 

[Dave-and-Deb0 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Natalie243 

They can change the payment method for an upcoming payment following the steps outlined in this Help article: https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/823#section-heading-2-0

If they purchased a gift card and want to use it as part of the second payment, they would need to pay early and use the gift card as the gift card cannot be used for the scheduled second payment.  

If they see the option to apply their gift card credit now to the final payment, their final payment will be charged immediately (ahead of schedule). It's only possible to apply a gift card by clicking on "Pay ahead of Schedule" currently.

They should use a computer or their mobile browser on their device. On the App, this option isn't available yet. If the gift card balance doesn't cover the entire remaining balance, the remaining amount after the gift card balance will be charged to the payment method they used for the initial booking.

David

[Helen744]

@Natalie243 as long as your card is available then there is no reason that the funds will not be drawn on schedule. check emails as to when this should occurr..H

[Lesley535]

I wonder how your guest got on in the end, Natalie? I've had the same thing happen to me when trying to pay the balance due on a booking where the reservation has been made on a different card to the one I wish to make the balance payment on. I have spent ages this morning talking to both Airbnb and my credit card company. They lay the blame with each other.

However, I think the credit card company is right as they are giving me the security code (one -time passcode) to enter on Airbnb's website and it is Airbnb's website that is not allowing me to complete entering all the digits. I've done this so many times and it just doesn't work. At no point in my discussion did Airbnb tell me that I'm not allowed to change cards for a single booking but I get the feeling if I hadn't tried to change the card it would have allowed me to pay. 

There is also an error message that appears as follows:

"Unfortunately, a server error prevented your request from being completed. Airbnb may be undergoing maintenance or your connection may have timed out. Please refresh the page or try again."

Perhaps this is simply a bug in their system. Not sure what's going to happen come payment day...

Any answers anyone, please?

[Joelle43]

Hello @Lesley535 

According to the link below and from what I've understood, you don't seem able to use two different credit cards to pay for a booking reservation:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/444#:~:text=Unless%20you%20have%20Airbnb%20credits,Did%20this%20...

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2143

[Lesley535]

Thank you so much, @Joelle43 . That is so helpful! I can't understand why it doesn't make that clear while you are trying to pay the balance instead of keep rejecting the security code and certainly the helpdesk staff, or at least the one I spoke to, seemed unaware of this rule and I was struggling to find help online until you provided me with those links.

I wonder what happens if your initial reservation payment is made on a card which expires/is lost or stolen or maxed out at the time of the final payment.

Anyway, that scenario doesn't apply fortunately so I have now changed the card back to that on which the initial reservation was made so hopefully that should go through on the final payment date.

Thanks once again for taking the time to help me. Much appreciated.