Newly listed on Booking.com

Hi @sylvainbg,

Such as?

I will soon try outswitch when we are done to make our website.

I marked card invalid on some guests when their story did not add up. One booked the last minute, and i forgot to change rate and it was very high comparing to other lisitings in the area. Like outragious high. But he still books.
Then he says, his son is coming. I ask how old is son? He says, 19. I say, no 19 is less than 21, i cant have anyone under that age. He says, its 6 people and all of them but his son is over 21. I did not want them in my house under any condition, and i tell him, the credit card did not go through, which i did not even process. He sends me a different credit card from different state. I say again, its not a good card. He send me another from a different state.

So, 3 cards, all from different states. So, i tell him, no, you sound like you are doing some scam. I am cancelling your reservation. Next day, he books with my friend and she does not know who he is, processes his card and it goes through for 2 K. SO, she tells me that this guys booked , and his name is Brandon Lee. I say, wait a second, it sounds very familiar, let me go check my reservations. ANd in fact, it was Brandon Le who was trying to book my house.
I tell her to not let him in, because i am sure there is something fishy here. She says, she cant say no to 2K, and lets them in. SO, they move in, non existant communication with my friend. They dont pick up phone, they dont answer text messages or emails. Hush-hush. Her neighbor/friend tells her, its not a peep from them, only they have many many visitors, like cars are stopping by every hour, different cars.
My friends gets very panicky, she thinks they are selling drugs from her house. Then the day they had to check out, her bank calls her and tells her that 2K were charged back as the card was stollen, and this is how they paid for reservation.My friend calls police, but of course police can not do anything about it. My friend says, i have cameras everywhere, you can even see their faces. Police says, yes, but the usual version is that a friend of a friend paid with his card, and we dont even know who it is.
These people know exactly how it works, and how to steel and how to book, and how not to get caught.
I had people staying with me, in my own house and then claiming that they did not know about charge.

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Hi @Yana_Agapova,

Thatā€™s a very interesting story. Was this on booking.com? And was it someone elses place, not yours?

One important part that Iā€™m missing is what made you suspicious.

I must be missing something. What is bad about a 19 yr old son? Did you have only over 21 in your rules? And was that the only thing you didnā€™t like, or were there other things? The multiple card from different states sounds bad, but it seems you were already suspicious at that point, since you wrote:

Incidentally, what does Airbnb to protect against things like stolen credit cards? I suppose they handle the payment end, but do they take full responsibility?

Yes, it was through booking.com
Well, he booked the whole house for twice more than it should be. Because i forgot to change my daily rate as the house was pretty much booked on Airbnb and VRBO, and i totally forgot about booking.com and never adjusted rate from high season.
Same day booking. Thats a big sign of possible fraud.You dont book the whole house for 6 people without previous at least short discussion. There is also a 500$ security deposit, and 200$ cleaning fee. Was not a problem with them. Thats ALOT of money to pay for a property like that and off season. He also messaged me that they are on their way. You see , how its all weird. He is booking for his son, who is obviously very young, and its not a hotel, its a private house.
O, and onemore thing i forgot to mention. I asked him to present the ID upon check in. And ID has to match name on credit card. He said, no, he is booking for his son. I said, well, does son has ID? He said, he is not sure.
everything was so not right

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AIrbnb is the best platform out there when it comes to payment. They protect you a 100% and if someone disputes charges they handle it, not us. We are still getting paid

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Hi @Yana_Agapova,

Ah, I see. Thanks for the clarification. I guess the key is to ask lots of questions. And then decline the credit card if necessary. :slight_smile: This forum is so educational. I donā€™t know what I would do without you folks!

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Air told me they do not verify the credit card. But if someone were to use a stolen card then Air will only take responsibility if I have already been paid. But if the true card holder reports the card stolen before the reservation, then Air will only reopen my calendar.

How they dont verify card if they are the ones who take payments? ANd i thought name on a card needs to match the name on ID, no?

They told me they donā€™t verify it at all. It does make sense since sometimes a spouse, significant other, parent, or another person in the group might be paying. They would most likely lose out on a lot of bookings if the card holder had to be the same person who needs to creat the Air account.

Flipkey also confirmed that they do not verify the card used. But they told me if there was a chargeback that I would be held responsible (even after payment was received).

What about using the new option that booking take care of the payment?

First-time visitors from poor countries are often asked to prove that they have valid hotel and airline reservations before they are granted a visa to visit the US or Europe.

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Iā€™m not sure what you mean. What new option is that?

Basically you can let booking charge the client upon your terms and booking is tranfering you the payment .

What about making a copy of the client passport when they are check in when the think it can be some problems

Sure, one can do that. But ideally one wants to spot problem guests before they arrive.

Not always possible even with air bnb

Hello Cabinhost,

Thank you for your posts, they are always a pleasure to read. Iā€™m impressed about your ability to sync manually. How many properties do you have? I ran into issues already with 2 listings on 4 sales channels and built my own software to automatically ensure prices are synced to those on my airbnb account and that the availability is always the same on all channels. As it turned out, the project was way too big to have as a hobby, so I now work full-time on it with a staff of five. Let me know if you want to try, it would be great to hear your feedback!

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I only have one listing but will have another this year. I donā€™t think I would be a good candidate because of the way I take reservations.

For exampleā€¦letā€™s say I have the month of June open with a 3 night min. stay for all days. Then letā€™s say I receive an inquiry through my own website for a 7 day booking. I need to go to the Booking.com calendar (because it is instant book) and close off that week BEFORE I can continue the other reservation.

I have to get a scanned contract back from the guest, and then issue an invoice. I donā€™t want a booking.com guest instant booking part of those days. However, I will leave the calendars open on all listing sites that are not instant bookā€¦that way I can still entertain other inquiries while the guest is completing the reservation processā€¦if that makes sense.

Cabinhost I am on booking, VRBO and Air and keep a normal paper calendar to keep things straight and do what you do override booking dates first. It is a pain but I have managed so far.

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