We do not have instant booking as an option. A guest has requested to stay the night, which I approved but we are awaiting payment. Todays date will remain blocked for the next 21hours now unless this guest cancels her request to book or makes payment. There is a snow storm here and the highway is closed so think that we will get other requests to book if this person decided to cancel but she is sitting on the fence. Is this an complaint of others or just me.
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Not sure about that specific case, but it’s a common complaint among hosts that pending reservations can block the calendar for up to 24 hours.
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Wow hey!! I am sitting here thinking that I could be helping out another stranded traveller if this person is actually wanting to book or too lazy to cancel. I don’t really think this rule is all that fair to hosts at all.
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It’s definitely not only unfair to hosts, but to prospective guests who may want to book. But that she is “sitting on the fence” is likely not the case. “Awaiting payment” often means the guest booked before they bothered to upload their payment info, so it takes Airbnb awhile to verify and charge them.
This is a bad policy on Airbnb’s part, and I don’t know why they don’t realize it. If her paynent doesn’t go through, leaving you with an unbooked night you likely could have filled, Airbnb loses out on a service fee, too.
Guests should not be allowed to IB or send requests until a few hours after they have uploaed their cc info.
So with the highway blocked, would this guest even be able to get to your place? If not, maybe you should message her and point that out, strongly suggesting that she withdraw the request.
Alternatively, you could call Airbnb and ask them to cancel the request and unblock the calendar. I did that just recently for a request where the guest did not meet my one requirement, but wouldn’t withdraw the request. Airbnb looked at the message stream, and cancelled the request, opening the calendar, with no penalties to me.
I don’t know if they would do that for an “Awaiting payment”, but if the guest wouldn’t be able to get to your place anyway, they might. Worth a try.
(Also, please send Airbnb feedback about the “Awaiting payment” BS. I did and the more people who do, the better.)
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Something similar happened to me once but it was awaiting ID. Airbnb was no help and the end result was the guests making a cash payment to me once they arrived. I circumvented Airbnb by sending the guest to Rover dot com to book their dog for one night. That gave them another way to contact me and my address. Typing “look for me on rover for your dog’s care for the first night.” This was after a couple of messaged that Airbnb could see when I called them for help. When they said they couldn’t help me I just cut them out. You probably don’t have that option. It sucks when it happens for us. But I can also see it sucking for guests who think they have a place and then for reasons that are sometimes beyond their control, they don’t and Airbnb didn’t give them much time to fix it before letting their room be rebooked.
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I messaged the guest to let me know if she wanted to continue with the booking or open it for other travellers. She then responded that she was committed to taking the suite and the payment went through. Maybe there is a lag in the time that they request to book and then put in their CC info?? The guest is fully aware that they are allowing people to get to my road as the Ministry is escorting people to our road as the accident it near it and they realize people need to get to their homes. Not sure when she will even get here. She only has snacks with her in the car and unable to get food. I offered her supper although it is a spicy meal being offered and she declined our offer. I did put together a cheese and fruit tray for her when she does arrive. They have been waiting to get through for quite some time. I certainly do not want to leave anyone out in the cold but this awaiting payment this is B.S. I did text with Airbnb and stated that I want my complaint on record and that many of us on this forum are of the same opinion…it is not fair!
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I think there is a lag between when the guest sees that the booking is confirmed and when the host sees it, although why that would be is a bad tech mystery.
Had a guest a couple of weeks ago whose request said awaiting payment, so I messaged him to alert him to it not being confirmed yet, asking if he had uploaded his cc info yet.
He said sorry, then a short time later, he said it was all done and showed as confirmed on his end. But it still didn’t on mine. That was pretty late in the evening, and I went to bed. When I checked in the morning, it said confirmed, so I have no idea how long that lag actually was.
I know that when a guest already has their payment info in place, my accepted requests show as confirmed immediately. This is how all requests should work.
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