As publicly as you can! The more noise you make the faster a response.
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I would take ALE to small claims court. And supeona your guest as a witness for youself
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LOL! A total waste of time. Such a case has NO STANDING whatsoever. The actual “contract” is with Airbnb, not ALE. ALE is a merely an authorized 3rd party payer who had full authorization to act on the guests behalf as they saw fit. Unlike most here, we actually have done business with ALE.
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@Nearthesea all you can do at this point is demand that Air IMMEDIATELY releases your calendar. Be very firm the next time you speak with them. It is NOT ACCEPTABLE that they hold your calendar for 1 minute longer for a guest who has moved out!
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In parallel to this, absolutely post DAILY on Air’s Facebook and Twitter pages. This will get the attention of higher level people who escalate and fix it.
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Or … you can sit on it, be meek, and let Air crap all over you while you are like “oh gosh should I really post it publicly” and keep losing money.
Strongly and totally disagree. As I said, I would take them to small claims court. The contract with ABB, was separate from the promise from ALE to pay after those “long negotiations”. Sorry, but I feel this one is ALE either breaking a commitment, or the OP is wrong and does not know what ALE said. But if ALE said what the OP is stating, then it is time to haul ALE into a court. ONLY THE judge can decide if it is a waste of time. I dont think it is.
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I also feel that fault is with ALE but feel that Airbnb should be responsible to cover us because they took their credit card and the ultimate contract was with them. If they aren’t able to get ALE to make the payment they should be responsible because they accepted the contract. I have posted on Facebook just now but the response seems to be a bot. I’ll keep you posted if any progress is made and so appreciate all of your suggestions.
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Good luck with that. There is no way Airbnb will pay you out for this booking. If a guest’s payment fails, their position is always "Sorry, we were unable to collect payment for this booking.
This has happened to hosts even when the guest has already stayed, or is still in residence. Airbnb just says “Tell the guest they have to leave.”
What Airbnb should do and what they actually do are mutually exclusive.
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You may very well “feel that fault is with ALE”. I also “feel bad” for you. I dont know what “contract” you think was accepted by AirBnb, but the chances of them paying you for a monthly booking that they failed to collect and moved the guest out also, is very very thin. So if you “feel” the fault is with ALE, and AirBnb will also likely “feel” the fault is with ALE, then as I suggested you should go after ALE. It would be easy as pie to file against ALE in Small Claims Court. I hope someday you get paid, but the guests are not even in your property, so it is highly unlikely that AirBnb will pay out. Wishful thinking. Anyway, good luck. Keep me posted and hopefully prove me wrong.
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I have never filed a small claims before but will definitely pursue it. I also sent a message to State Farm for what it’s worth. I don’t have high hopes but can be a persistent bugger!
@georgygirlofairbnb You may wish to get more familiar with contract law and the Air T&Cs. There is no contract with ALE. The host has no standing to bring suit. It is an Air booking, so Air T&C’s apply. The host LEGALLY AGREED to abide by those (first do X, then file arbitration, etc).
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Your umbrage is warranted. 
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The Insurance company ultimately pays but not directly and are not party to the booking in any way. They are 100% isolated. On the bright side, insurance stays can be great. We would do them all year long if we could (direct only).
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Any update on your locked calendar?
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Can we just agree to disagree without you suggesting I am unaware of contract law and the T & C’s? For the worthless record…I don’t practice law, but I actually was #1 in my class in Law School in Contract Law, so I must have some legitmate interpretation skills, even though my logical analysis brings me to a different conclusion than yours, and suggests a different process or avenue to collect. The Host negotiated directly with the insurance company and the insurance company broke a promise maade directly to her, which she relied upon. She lost money due to relying on getting paid from the insurance company. The Air deal was with the guest, and not the insurance company. I believe that taking the insurance company to small claims court may get her paid. So be it.
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Airbnb Support1:19 AM
We regret to inform you that we have reached out to your guest, XX (the guest’s name, not ALE) for reservation HMKSKMJMTD because we have not been able to successfully process their full payment.
It is possible that your guest is unaware of the payment problem and may need to simply call their bank. Airbnb has provided your guest with additional information and instructions to pay the balance due. With the cooperation of your guest, we can work to collect the payment so everything can go as scheduled.
Unfortunately, if we are unable to collect the payment for this booking by 9th April 2021, we will have to cancel the reservation for lack of payment. If the reservation is cancelled, your calendar will be unblocked, Airbnb will pay you up to the cancellation date, and you will be free to book with new guests.
IMPORTANT: If you wish to provide your guest with an extension to complete the payment, please reply to this message directly to confirm.
We apologize for any inconvenience this issue may cause you. If you have any questions or concerns, please let us know and we will be happy to assist.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
This is the latest correspondence I received. Patient and understanding - not. They refuse to have a specialist contact me directly. They know this has nothing to do with the guest contacting their bank. It does say that Airbnb will pay me up to the cancellation date, which is interesting, because don’t they generally pay in advance? I still have not had them open my calendar because I don’t want it to be me who makes the cancellation.
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Look, with respect, we have actually worked with ALE and understand that process. This is not “we interpret it differently”. You are looking at this from incorrect info / assumptions and giving legal advise based off it. For example what you wrote here is simply and blatantly wrong:
- The host did NOT negotiate with the insurance company.
- There would have been NO communication between host and insurance company
- There is No Contract with the insurance company here of any kind.
- This is not about “belief or feelings”. The host literally has no standing of any kind to bring suit against the insurance company.
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ALE is a 3rd party authorized PAYER. The booking and contract (agreement) is between ALE and Air. Not ALE and host. Why? Because this was an AIR BOOKING.
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The host lost money (and is continuing to lose money) because this was an Air booking.
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This sounds great. I would not bank on it. It would be impressive if Air did cover your losses to date. But that still screws you - as your calendar is blocked.
You’ll lose money for future bookings that can not be made. At least you have that in writing.
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Did you post on Air’s social media pages? In parallel to this - time to take direct bookings and list on other OTAs. Who knows when this will get resolved …
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You are confused. You want them to open your calendar!!! They are saying they will make the cancellation, not log it as a host cancellation. There are guest cancellations, host cancellations and “Admin” i.e. neutral cancellations. What is sounds like they are offering is an admin. cancellation
Just tell them that yes, you want your calendar opened with the assurance that this will not be registered as a host cancellation.
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Agreed. This forum has so many amazing helpful hosts. Much appreciated! I’m calling Airbnb now to get my calendar opened up and to try to explain to them that my actual guest was not the one who is responsible for payment. He is in a bit of a panic as today he received this, which he forwarded to me:
Hello XXX,
I hope this message finds you well.
We are reaching out to you regarding your reservation HMKSKMJMTD with XXX. It looks like your payment in the amount of $17,794.65 could not be processed.
Please use the following secure payment link to pay the balance on your reservation:
Make sure that you are logged into your Airbnb account when trying to access this link. In addition, please note that the link may not work on a mobile or tablet device.
[IMPORTANT] Please correct the payment issue before 9th April 2021 to prevent a cancellation of your reservation. If your reservation is canceled, we will not be able to reinstate your reservation and you will need to rebook if you would like to continue your stay.
Please note that your account may be temporarily deactivated if we are unable to collect the outstanding balance on your account.
As a friendly reminder, do not use the Resolution Center to send or request payment for the cost of your reservation as these agreements may be canceled. Additionally, all payments must be made to Airbnb per our Terms of Service. Offline payment is not considered safe practice and may result in deactivation of your account.
Please do not hesitate to let us know if you have any questions about the balance due on your account. Thank you for your attention to this matter and your continued business.
Best,
I told you there was something odd about this booking appearing under your guest’s profile rather than the booker’s. That isn’t the way it usually works.
It sounds to me like you and the guest need to join forces and decide on how to proceed. You have both been screwed around, by both ALE and Airbnb, it sounds like.
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It sounds like your guest needs to get on State Farm to pay this damned bill! Why the F did was he foolish enough to have it booked in HIS name?
Just to give you all an update, below is the latest communication from Airbnb. They still will not unblock our calendar, no matter how many times I have begged them to. They will not say how long it will take and what will happen if they are unable to collect the funds. I told them to make an admin neutral cancellation and they insist that this is impossible.
This is Ralph, one of the Senior Support Ambassadors of Airbnb. I hope you are doing well and safe.
First, I would like to apologize for the delay in response as we are getting higher volume of inquiries now than normal.
I am writing in reference to your reservation HMKSKMJMTD with Andrew and I would like to let you know that we are still communicating to your guest and the Third Party Booker to collect the remaining payment for your reservation.
Our Collections Team is doing their best to have this payment processed, we would greatly appreciate your patience and understanding while we are working on resolving this matter.
Best,
I would tweet and post on Facebook daily:
We will never accept insurance-paid stays again. Despite repeat requests, Airbnb has kept our calendar blocked for x days, without payment, due to a dispute between State Farm & its agent over allowed lodging payment. We (and our homeless guest) have no control over this.
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They put in writing to you a commitment for April 9th. They broke it. Stand up for yourself.
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You have been advised many times to post daily on Air’s FB and Twitter pages. Since you don’t comment about it, we assume that you have not.
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Perhaps you will decide that losing money during your high season is more important? In your shoes, we would do the host cancellation, get new bookings and move on.
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You MIGHT be able to get lost funds through April 9th later on - maybe - if you post daily on social media. But since you don’t want to do that … good luck to you!
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