Learning something new: Partial payments and resolution center requests

When someone uses the partial payment option you can’t send any requests for payment for additional services via the resolution center. I just had someone contact me about staying with 3 dogs. I told them fine and that they should go ahead and reserve and I’d send the request for the pet fee via the resolution center so they don’t have to pay Airbnb fees on that part. They reserved, I sent a message saying I’d be sending the request and then I got this message:

As a result, I suppose I will stop trying to save them a couple of bucks on the pet fee. If I send a special offer with the pet fee included and they accept we are all done. No extra steps for me. ( Right now putting reminder in my google calendar that they owe the pet fee) No remembering later they haven’t paid the pet fee yet. Or we just blow Airbnb off and I get them to pay me in cash or via Pay Pal after I get their cell number and can text them.

My other observation about this is that I’m a little surprised that Airbnb offers a partial pay option of such a small amount. The guest’s total would be $62 for a stay less than a month away. I understand living paycheck to paycheck but…really. And as usual, we hosts are the ones who “pay” for this since the room is now saved for her, her mom and their three dogs during the first Saturday of spring break for some relatively small amount. I looked on the Airbnb site but of course their terms of the program are less than transparent.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1696/pay-less-upfront-terms

On a different topic, in poking around Airbnb looking at what was going on I discovered a pending payment for a reservation in January. The stay was without incident, no resolution requests, no problems and mutual 5 star reviews were posted. So I called, of course the CSR can’t help me and the case has to be “escalated” to another team. No one needs to tell me I should check my payouts but with so many one day and back to backs it’s easy to have it slip by me that I’m missing a payment.

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This is scary. I too have my share of quick stays and flips and am guilty of not following up and making sure I’m paid. Curious to see as you have a current issue and called CS if they have plummeted your listing in the search rankings until it’s resolved?

This is for a payout in January so I doubt it would affect my search rank all things being equal. You have to remember that in every way I am Airbnb’s dream host. Instant book, flexible cancellation policy most of the time, no prior recommendations by hosts, few cancellations, few calls, lots of bookings and 5 star reviews. I must turn at least 100 people every year into happy Airbnb guests based on their stay at my place.

However, if I’m wrong I’ll report back. I’m following my account closely as I experiment with some things this year.

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I’m not sure what this means?

Yes, please do, report back on other experiments as well!
:smile:

Some people only use instant book with this requirement r

Got it. I misunderstood. I don’t have this requirement set on instant book either.

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I encounter this when I need to charge for an extra bed set fee. I have folder for each guest and make a note of it and send payment request a week before they check in. In July when I have to start collecting taxes I plan on using this system too.

t’s an added layer of work for me but so far I haven’t found a work-around.

Also, when I discover that they partial paid, I send them a message letting them know that I will send them the charge a week before check in. I tell the guests that until the fee is paid, I do not release the door codes which helps with getting it paid and also by sending them a message weeks or months ahead its in the message thread for documentation.

To my knowledge I’ve never had a partial payment guest before as I’ve never seen this. It must be because I have short stays and low prices. As I said $30 hardly seems like an imposing amount but if you are trying to make it to the end of the month and know the good places for spring break week are going fast you do what you have to do. I never send codes until the day of check in, sometimes not until just before 3 pm to prevent early arrival.

My workaround will be to send a special offer or to collect it in cash.

I heard back this morning on the missing payment. It has been released to me today and they said “The delay was caused by a system error not collecting a guest payment.” They also, to my happy surprise, provided a coupon code for $30 that is good for a year. Unlike some here I travel using Airbnb and such a code is as good as cash to me. So if this is standard procedure when they mess up, I can tolerate it.

I suggest everyone check their Pending Payments periodically if you are lax like me about checking them as they are due.

I got three reservations yesterday, one last night after I called CS about this issue. I checked my listing for this Friday (because I checked it for that date yesterday) and I’ve moved up several spots to #1. Some of the folks ahead of me have gotten booked out. So my conclusion is that I didn’t drop in search. I can see why they would drop a host in search if the host had an issue but since this was their mistake it makes no sense to dink me in search. If they were going to dink me maybe it was in late January when I called to cancel an IB and was somewhat angry on the phone with the second CSR I talked to. I can totally see a host yelling at a CSR and then getting dropped to page 15 in search as a result. LOL>.

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Just tried to get this option on a reservation that I know I have to bill. There’s no option for special offer. Probably because I do IB.

Right, that’s on inquiries. I ask people with dogs to message me first and about 70% do. Then I have the special offer option although I’d been using resolution center to save them a little money. After they reserve there is the change or cancel button and you can change the price there can’t you?

I can’t recall all the techniques I’ve used over the years; what I do know is that I’ve never before been stymied by the “this reservation isn’t fully paid for.”

Perhaps the option is their initially but when I went into the reservations that I know I have to bill but with split payment I wasn’t able to get that option but I’ll keep an eye out on it when I get the next one. I really don’t like to have to keep track of this. PIA

Meaning it’s not visible or meaning when you click on it, it won’t work. I just went to my partial payment (which isn’t the same as split payment…are we discussing the same thing?) reservation from yesterday the “change or cancel” button is there and when I click on it it looks like I could change the price. But I’m not going to click continue and have it send a notification to the guest. I already told her we’d take care of it later.

I didn’t have an option to send a special offer. I could change or cancel the reservation but a month after the booking I don’t think I’d want to modify a reservation. Perhaps if it’s right after they book it might come in handy.

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I just found out this week that if a guest does not pay the 50 percent remaining balance a week prior to check in then Airbnb cancels the booking. Had a guest do this and plead to stay even though I told them I was booked. Really dumb idea as I’d already sent check in details

I come across it frequently as I also charge for dogs via the resolution centre. I add it to the housekeepers spreadsheet highlighted in red so I know that I need to remember to follow up on it. And yes, it’s a pain not knowing what the date is that you can charge for it and it’s another layer of work for us.

I don’t send check in information until the morning of the stay at the earliest to discourage early check ins.

I’m assuming I don’t see if often due to my rates being low and stays being short. I have a stay upcoming the first week of March and I booked my Airbnb and paid in full back in November. But I guess that’s dumb. I could have paid half, held the place and then paid this week. And it’s a moderate cancellation place and up until a couple of weeks ago I didn’t know if the trip was going to happen at all. So it was dumb to tie up my money all that time. One of the criteria for the upcoming superguest program should be “pays for stays at time of booking.” Another should be no canceled stays. LOL.

How are you determining your rank in the search? What are you searching for?

Using a Chrome incognito window I searched for my open date (today) 2 people (my max), private room (my designation at the time). On this particular search that’s all I entered. Now I should search using “entire place” to see if there is a change.

I know I’m always ranked high in the search because I’m booked out about 85% of my available days. Here’s my calendar last May. I blocked 2 days for rest, 3 for a friend’s visit and the rest were booked. I don’t need to check to know that my ranking is high.

I opened up the incognito window and went to Airbnb.com. It says
“Book unique homes an experiences.” and it has a couple search fields

WHERE
CHECK IN
CHECK OUT
GUESTS

Are you typing in your city name in the where field?