Suspicious last minute booking request. Your thoughts?

1

I just received a last minute booking request arriving tomorrow, staying for a week.

A young gentleman and his GF. 3 years old airbnb account. We didn’t have many messages exchanged. He straight up asked for availability, I said yes, then he proceeded to book.

9 positive reviews all over the world and latest booking was this summer. What worries me is next…

He is currently staying at another Airbnb in a nearby city. When I accepted his booking request, airbnb message popped up: “JOHN DOE has 24 hours to update their payment information or their reservation will be cancelled, penalty-free. The guest has been notified and no action is needed from you.”

This is strange. If he is indeed currently staying at an airbnb why is his payment information not completed?

I’ve had quite a few scammers trying to book last minute. Caught a handful and one time I was hit by a credit card chargeback via VRBO. I am doubtful of this booking.

Your thoughts would be appreciated. Thank you

2

I wrote this while being on hold to speak with Airbnb. I want to ask them
1.) if this guest is indeed staying at another airbnb currently and
2.) any payment problem was reported.
Airbnb seems short staffed because it is Sunday evening…so far 30 minutes waiting and counting…

3

Either his card has been hacked and his bank shut it off, or the account has insufficient funds. I had it happen (got notice I’d been hacked) while we were in Scotland back in September. Had to switch to another card. for the rest of our stay.

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4

Often for my guests the problem with the credit card is one of two things.

  1. It expired since the last time they used it.
  2. The bank flagged it as fraud. Often they seem to flag it if used at airbnb more than once in a short time period.

I always send a guest a message suggesting they check their card and call their cc company to release the charge. 90% of the time the payment is fixed or released within 2 hours of my message giving the above advice.

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5

The guy may have just hit his credit limit for that card - in which case they would need to submit another card for payment.

6

It’s probably nothing. I’ve had reservations where Airbnb told me their payment didn’t go through. The guest fixed it and everything went fine. It could be any number of reasons. I wouldn’t worry about it especially someone with 9 good reviews.

7

I also think it’s nothing. I’ve seen this message many times before and it was a simple CC issue which they fixed in time for booking.