Strange situation that has me confused and worried about the future of my current guests stay. My guest booked from June 5 2023 through the end of this year. No issues with first payment. When it came time for their 2nd payment at the end of June the guest told me they needed the turn of the month to get paid so they could make the second payment which was fine with me. They made the second payment around July 1. For their third payment due at the end of July the guest again said they need the turn of the month to make the payment.
Today, my guest messaged me sharing a message from Airbnb to them which states that their 2nd payment (the one they made at the beginning of July) was refunded and now they owe 2 payments. I called airbnb and they said that the guests bank flagged the second payment as “risky” and so it was refunded back to the bank. 2 weird things about this: 1) i received that payout and as far as I can tell I still have it in my bank; 2) the bank got that payment refunded more than 20 days after it was paid.
My concern is what’s the stop this from continuing. My guest said they’re going to pay both tomorrow, but what if her bank somehow again gets those payments refunded some weeks later like they did already. How did airbnb allow her bank to take back the money more than 3 weeks after it was paid? My concern is that technically right now the guest could cancel the reservation and would have stayed at my place for the whole month of July for free (except for the part that I already received that payout, but I’m not sure if airbnb can just have that refunded back to them).
Airbnb is not suitable for long term bookings. You really shouldn’t have accepted a 7 month booking- a guest becomes a tenant after a month in most jurisdictions.
Not sure what is happening with the payments, whether the guest is lying and actually never paid the $, or something going on with their bank. But of Airbnb is unable to collect payments, they will claw back that money they paid you out of future bookings.
I would suggest you contact Airbnb to find out what is going on instead of believing what your guest is telling you (not to mention, this guest should not have booked if they don’t have the money on time each month). And if the payments are problematic, ask them to cancel the remainder of this booking with no penalties to you, and to tell the guest to vacate immediately before you end up with months of no payment and a guest staying for free.
I’m confused.
On the one hand you say:
Then you say:
So, so far, do you have all the money paid you?
Then you ask:
Good question! I would ask Airbnb about this. The trouble is I don’t know whether you can rely on the explanation that the Airbnb customer service rep gives you.
One thing that you might consider – which would complicate things for Airbnb but not stop them – is after the money is paid to you, you then transfer it to another account, either at the same bank or, ideally, at another bank.
It used to be – don’t know if it’s this way now – that a bank could withdraw money from an account it made a deposit into, but not from a different account.
However, Airbnb might then just hold up future payments that it would otherwise owe you. But if Airbnb has some discretion, and cannot withdraw money paid you (because the money’s not there) it might exercise that discretion in your favor (i.e., not refunding the guest’s bank).
One thing you probably don’t want to do is change the account to which Airbnb is taking payments because there have been reports on this forum and elsewhere that changing accounts, which Airbnb must verify, can slow payments by months, maybe several or even many.
Good luck and I do think that when accepting a tenant your rules should state, and your procedures should follow your rules, that acceptance depends on a satisfactory background check, a security deposit of [fill in the blank, say one month’s payment – and many states have special rules about security deposits (e.g., segregated accounts, notice of account to tenant, interest payable to tenant, etc.)] and have a signed lease. [Some hosts might require a housecleaning (and associated fee) every two weeks (real purpose is to determine whether tenant is treating property well); some Hosts don’t.]
You’ll want to get your ducks in a row if you’re going to accept a tenant again because it might not be wise to download some lease you find on the internet – your lease really needs to be carefully considered in light of the laws of your state and your property. Signing up a tenant when you were thinking guests all along is not something to do on the fly. Oh, and make sure you understand tenant’s rights in your state.
Yes, I have all the money paid to me. My guest’s bank got its refund directly from airbnb based on what airbnb said.
I’m not concerned so much about whether Airbnb can get the money back from me. I’m concerned about the fact that airbnb let my guest’s bank get their money back more than 3 weeks after paying airbnb
I did talk to airbnb. Airbnb said the payment was flagged as risky and got the payment refunded back from airbnb over 3 weeks after making the last payment.
You are still being very confusing. On the one hand you say the guest’s bank got the payment paid to Airbnb refunded to the guest’s bank account, but also that Airbnb returned the money to the guest’s bank account, and also that Airbnb said the payment was flagged as “risky”.
Either a payment goes through or it doesn’t. It sounds to me like the guest has no funds in their account to cover the payments. Airbnb isn’t going to refund money it has already collected for an ongoing booking. Why would they?
Really? That would mean your guest has gotten to stay for free.
Airbnb didn’t say the payment was flagged risky. My guest’s bank flagged it risky according to Airbnb. So the money from the July payment was returned to her bank. I have received the payout however so at the moment it is only airbnb that didn’t get paid for July. Airbnb is now requesting the guest pay for both July and August.
Ah, I see. Sort of. Sounds like the guest needs talk to her bank or credit card company to find out why they tagged it as risky. It seems like she didn’t have enough $ in her account when the payment was charged or is over her credit limit. She has to have the mobey in place, she can’t just postpone payments until she gets paid by her employer or whoever.
AirBnB will take that money back from your account in a nanosecond and you will have a person in your house staying for free
This should be a direct renter to owner situation, since it is long term and very absurd to run this month after month through Airbnb.
I would convert this to a direct booking and payment and insist that guest hand me the money on the first of the month.
Of course I would also have a signed legal contract with the guest ( tenant ) with all terms and conditions totally clear
Your guest needs to call their bank and explain the charges and that those charges will be recurring monthly as said guest is staying there.
It’s not an ABB problem unless ABB flagged it as risky, which seems to be the case unless the bank flagged to ABB to the guest.
Anyway, guest needs to call the bank and message ABB about said call.
We do also have some issues with Airbnb regarding payments. And we recognise the problems with Airbnb some of the posters adress. To me it seems that Airbnb do exactly what they want to do , when the payout seem to be stuck in their hands. They do not listen to what the customer say , they close the ticket before solving the problem , time after time. So nothing happens. We have almost 4000 USD in the Airbnb bank now , that airbnb do have problems to pay to us , but as the guests have paid to Airbnb. Lot of excuses and friendlyness - or for us right now ; svadatalk. To us it looks like prefabricated texts and writings , that the customer service are programmed to write or say.
I 100% agree with muddy’s comment!
You should really look into your state’s tenant rights.
I don’t accept long term cause here in NYC after 30 days, they have tenant rights. Even if they don’t pay, would have to deal with court.