I have a guest that is having trouble paying for her stay. Which I find weird because I thought guests paid in full to Airbnb but they released the funds to us in installments.
Anywhoo, she is freaking out that she has to pay for her stay to ensure that she has " a place to lay her head." She was talking to me as if I was in control of payments, so I explained the whole Airbnb thing to her.
Two weeks later I get another panicked email from her that she still hasn’t been able to pay for the entire reservation and "please don’t give away my reservation."
I directed her to the website but I just don’t know how to help her. This is going to be a doozy of a stay. Anyone know how to best direct her?
I would just tell her to call AirBnB directly. It’s her problem to sort out, not yours. And don’t hold the room for her until she’s paid in full. If you get another booking before she’s paid, take the new booking.
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On my end the reservation looks fine. It is for the full booking and showing as her reservation for the calendar.
I’m confused. If the reservation is showing as confirmed on your end, then it should mean that she has paid for her booking. To be on the safe side, I would call AirBnB and make sure. Sometimes they block your calendar for “Pending” reservations when the guest’s payment hasn’t yet been approved. Then if the payment falls through, they cancel the booking and you get nothing but the fallout of having your calendar blocked by the non-paying guest.
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This is my confusion as well 
Good idea about calling. I hadn’t thought that it might just be pending…I also just sent her their phone number too. It is so weird because everything looks good on my end.
Could this be an unexpected side effect of the partial payment option that AirBNB has recently introduced? As hosts, we might not see which guests have taken advantage of this new feature. But the guest probably does.
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That’s what I was thinking. Just tell this newbie that you have nothing whatsoever to do with the payment taking and that she should call Air for assistant. This guest might need her hand held so heads up!
Update! I called Airbnb and it would appear that my guest used their new “pay 50% at time of booking and pay the other 50% later” thing. Which totally screws the host because if the other 50% doesn’t get paid the reservation is cancelled.
But, it should get drawn out automatically from the card the guest uses to book the reservation.
I’ve asked Airbnb customer service to give the guest a call to explain it to her, and I also followed it up with an email.
This is going to be interesting.
Do you have to approve that? The 50-50 thing. Like TA has. You get to approve that. God why do they keep messing with crap. It’s so annoying.
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Nope, we as hosts wouldn’t even know that someone has booked using that feature. I guess they are trying to make Airbnb more affordable???
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Ya know, if someone has trouble paying some of the VERY reasonable/budget prices most guests offer…I don’t want that guest in MY home. Maybe the layaway program only applies to long term hosts?
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I’m not long term. This woman is a broken record. I feel like I need to increase my charge for her simply because I’ve had so much interaction with her already. This is her latest message:
I have to go check to see what card I used as I was not planning to use same. Not paying entirety was a mistake on my part as I have paid all other reservations in their entirety. I have until 19 Jul. Please do not cancel my reservation if this does not get fix as my trip is confirmed.
I don’t know how many times I have to tell her that I don’t control that aspect of her reservation.
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