Indent a guest a pre approval. Initially they said when they tried to book they were informed the ate was not available.
I thought that weird and checked and found the date blocked off for aome reason and unblocked it, and told them to try again.
Now I see on my calendar that the date has the words “pending verification” on it. The guest is also silent.
I have not requested my guests to verify ID and have confirmed this setting.
Anyone know what is going on?
Not sure I understand, but I think I do.
The guest will not be able to book without having ID verified. This is a relatively new airbnb rule. They are probably in process of getting that done -
At least, I think this is what’s happening
I’ve noticed this. Surly it’s a good thing just in case anything happens you have some traceability.
It does take a while though and they should explain this to the guests when they set up accounts. I don’t know if they do somewhere but they should make it very clear.
I had two latest.guest.newbies texting. messages all day.panicking about their stay although relentlessly trying to reassure them and explaining what was going on was.not me. They even sent several messages to call and email and obviously couldn’t as it was all hidden.frustrating😐
Yes, I’ve been through this, too - hang in there!!
Yes to the above answers AND it’s apparently a pretty glitchy process atm. I recently had a guest having a very hard time with it. Had to call admin on her behalf.
Thanks everyone.
The guest was finally able to confirm. It appeared there were two issues that coincided.
- AirBnB now requiring guests to verify their own identity
- The Airbnb site was having major difficulties and even went down worldwide during that time period so verification was not happening/ severely delayed and I had to ask support to step in.
Thankfully it all worked out in the end, and the happy guest left this morning!
2 Likes
Well here’s a new twist on the new verification thing.
My inbox showed no pending requests.
So I was going through the help panel working towards emailing customer support to deal with a different issue, when the help system asks me if my query is to do with a pending reservation today from someone for 3 nights!
Pending reservation? I go back to check I wasn’t seeing things, and yes I have no pending reservations. But I go to my calendar and it’s blocked. And when I duplicate my steps in the help system, sure enough the pending Vincent for 3 nights is still in the system (but apparently hidden from me pending verification by the guest)!
So it would appear some poor sod is awaiting verification and has been for hours ( in relation to a booking that was to start from tonight (and it’s now 1:30 am where I am) so clearly they are out in the street or have found alternative accommodation.
Meanwhile my calendar remains blocked and I can’t accept any others.
What was even more irritating is that since I knew there was a pending and imminent reservation (which the airbnb system was hiding from me until the guest verified their identity) I went around getting the place ready, never being sure whether the guest verification would eventually come through at the last minute. Checking my phone and ipad every few minutes and listening out for that little trill that accompanies an airbnb notification!
Nothing!
Well as it is, the reservation has not come through, my calendar remains blocked for the dates (including yesterday as we’re now past midnight), and I’m going to bed!
Ha! The glamorous life of an airbnb host!
1 Like
Aquatic! Wow. That’s glitchy and bad. You’ll get penalized if you didn’t answer the poor sod but also you can’t get any other bookings? they recently blocked my calendar when it was a mere inquiry! Apparently now you have to Reply, Pre-Approve or Accept to clear it off your books!
Glad for the ID verifications. It will keep the bad riff raff out. Or at least we hope it does!
Kona the weird thing is I can’t reply pre approve or anything because airbnb haven’t even let me know there was a pending request, and I only found out because the help system “let the cat out of the bag” unintentionally.
I suspect we don’t get punished in those circumstances where the guest verification is not complete, as we haven’t been advised of anything and can’t do anything.
I do feel for the potential guest though.
It would probably also be good if the system at least informed us that there is a reservation pending verification for this period, so at least we have a heads up. I have a number of calendars so it’s not practical for me to keep scanning them to see if any have been blocked (which I now know means there is probably a hidden reservation request pending verification)!
Aquatic, you don’t have other calendar sync’d right? such as Wimdu or Flipkey?
Hey!
Nope. Will look onto that though! Thanks
I once had a FlipKey guest walk off the property (jerk–long story) and when I tried to open the calendar availability again for that period across all the booking platforms, (Flipkey and Wimdu) it would simply not let me. I even took the flipkey account offline and it still would not let me unblock the calendar because they had been sync’d and continued to be sync’d even when I removed the syncin’g code! Very frustrating…
[ I intensely dislike Flipkey but greed keeps me on their site. 
Just make sure the guest REALLY understands what they are getting because the site tends to attract very unsophisticated travelers, or the type that doesn’t trust AirBnB and thinks that FK is better because it is affiliated with silly Trip Advisor!]
I am having a similar issue, I pre-approved a booking and it blocked the calendar with pending verification. My guest said she has a bad webcam and can’t complete it, but now my calendar is blocked and I can’t accept any other bookings and I had other enquiries on these dates, anyone know a solution how I can delete it? I’ve declined her request but it just stays there
@Cleo_Cunningham According to my experiences, Airbnb gives the guest 24hr to verify their IDs. At the same time, they block your calendar for this period of time. If it is a last minute booking, I know how frustrating the situation is.
I hope your guest would end up verifying their IDs and completing their reservation. Because other option (guests booking somewhere else) is one of the possibilities.
All the best
2 Likes
I have this notification today:
My calendar is blocked waiting for a payment verification. Luckily it’s a reservation for August.
Alerts (1)
Awaiting payment confirmation from William.
Yeah I had Sunday blocked all day from lunch. Was annoying because they didn’t book. I was hoping for last minute booking but they blocked the whole day. Booo. Haha atleast i got a day off. But would of prefered the money.
@Paul_Janaway
His booking is approved but not his payment method, I wonder how long they wait for him to fix his cc.
Ah right. Yeah I was waiting for the user to validate their ID. Surely they should block them from booking if they aren’t validated. But no they block your calendar for 12 hrs. Bit of a pain really.
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I have tomorrow blocked on my calendar under ‘Pending Guest Verification’ . the is no Pending requests on my host home though and I don’t required verified ID for my guests on IB, I only require good recommends from other hosts. How come guest who don’t have the green checked symbol for Verified ID can still book but the thread here says Airbnb require ID verification from all guests? Has it changed since last year?
I would imagine it is blocked only because of payment but no because of ID.
So, does it still take 12hours for the guest to complete verification in that case of blocked calendar?