@TamiS Both my issues were same day bookings. Maybe that’s where the problem lies.
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They’re doing a bad job of informing guests.
IIRC, when I booked my last stay it hat the split payment by default on a page full of other information. You had to click open the payment details to change it to “full payment now”. It was not intuitive or highlighted at all.
I’ve also had 2 guests contact me about these split payments. One wanted to know how she could change it post-booking. The other was thoroughly confused and asked for my address so she could send a check.
Their features look a lot like bugs.
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I did my Boston summer rental as a split payment. Then after a couple of months I wanted to put the second payment on a different credit card. I couldn’t switch it online and I couldn’t even do it when I called Airbnb. I literally had to cancel the card to force Airbnb to put the second half on a different card. Then at some point after that I saw I had an option to pay the second half early (it wasn’t due until about 2 weeks before the stay began) and I did that.
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This is why I thought it was important to tell the guest to call Airbnb. They will fix it only if it hurts their bottom line, and unnecessary customer-service calls hurt.
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I always found it sort of amusing when I would ride my horses in a parking lot with line or a cross walk or something at the school next to the stables I was at for one duty station! The cows were easier either it though than the horses. The horses felt they were snakes that would eat them! Lol
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Interesting! The psychology of people and animals is quite amazing sometimes.
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I messaged the guest via the Airbnb messaging platform about it. He said Airbnb hasn’t called and he had credit card fraud and had to cancel that card. He asked me to send the resolution center request again. So we’ll see if that helps. I have no way of knowing if he’s being truthful.
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@KKC:
*The guest is right up against their credit limit.
*The bank thinks the charges in different cities each day are suspicious and they can’t reach the guest to alert them.
*Airbnb sucks.
And D - All of the above
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Our most frequent guest, who usually stays with us for two or three weeks at a time, booked a few weeks and paid half right away. Before the second payment, her card had ended up compromised (by another transaction) and canceled and reissued. She called Air right away to tell them about it and gave them the new card info.
So when Air tried to take the second payment, they of course used her first card, and it wouldn’t go through. Instead of contacting her, they simply canceled her reservation and told her nothing.
I called Air for her and convinced them not to charge her anything extra. I had them call her to reinstate the reservation without any extra fees. The CS from Air was nice, but the whole thing was stressful for our guest. At least it all worked out.
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Why aren’t you direct booking this guest?
Because until I read about that here in the last several weeks, it never occurred to me that I could do that. Now I know.
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I have some repeats that book on Airbnb. They don’t ask (if they would I’d consent but I don’t want to bring it up). But there are a couple of others that I did initiate the conversation. Airbnb is always due a payment for bringing me a guest but I feel that if they keep booking with me (esp. here where there are lots of nice choices even lower priced than I am) then I’m the one doing the work to retain the guest, not Airbnb. In that case I have no qualms about paying myself the finder’s fee.
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Absolutely.
I wish I’d known this months ago when this particular guest started booking blocks of multiple weeks with us. I just texted her (off Air, of course) to tell her we can book directly in the future—and she’ll save the Airbnb fee. Woohoo!
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I had a dentist stay last year in August. After his first night… boom… the next morning 8 bookings in rapid succession for all my remaining dates available in Sept. came in. As soon as I saw that I blocked off the rest of my calendar and went and knocked on his door to find out what the heck was going on. We tentatively agreed he would just message me and book direct the rest of the dates he needed in the fall. It was more work on my part, no doubt, but I think it was worth it.
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