Awaiting payment and cancellation?

[Sanna1]

Hi everyone,

I have a guest who wanted to book last minute last night and arrive today.I did not get a chance to decline  the pre-approval (I have instant booking on) so they went ahead and booked.

So I arranged a cleaner to organize the flat,but then I get a message saying 'Awaiting Payment'.And finally a message from a guest saying 'the baby is unwell and they are looking at flights to go home'.As I had a suspicion this would happen.

The guest has not cancelled yet,though I told them to do so I get my apartment free again on the market.Nor has it been confirmed that they would come.

Now I am out of the pocket the cleaners fee,fuffed around organizing early/late check-ins and outs as per requested by the guest for nothing AND possibly lost income of other bookings,but who will pay for this?Can I charge the undeciding guest for this as he has really messed up things for me and I'm not at all pleased by this?I've tried to contact various sites on Airbnb ,but so far no help (its difficult!!).Also I am thinking of reporting this guest as it feels like this was a quite inconsiderate thing to do.

Thanks for any advise.

[Oomesh-Kumarsingh0]

This is a sad story to hear, i still do not understand why is Airbnb allowing people to do an instant booking without actually doing any payment. I would advise you to set your cancellation policy to strict and never have pity for such guest ' never trust a stranger with sometimes fake excuses'. If your cancellation policy is strict do not refund the guest. Good luck for the future!!!

[Andrea9]

@Sanna1

Since they haven't cancelled you're entitled to receive your payment depending on how many nights booked and on your chosen cancellation policy.

BTW should you get an email from Airbnb asking whether you agree to your guest's cancellation DO NOT AGREE, but check off the box that you are willing to host them, otherwise the cancellation will bounce back to you with all host penalties. Sneaky Airbnb thing...

[Andrea9]

@Sanna1

I think I misunderstood you. If the booking was not confirmed, then of course the payment was not made.

The same day and next day bookings are a weak spot of the system. If a guest's payment system takes too long or is faulty, or they use a stolen credit card, then the host can easily get that information too late.

If you don't want to run that risk, then you would be better off adjusting your settings to only accept bookings for 2 days later.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Sanna1 - this is indeed frustrating but it can be resolved easily.  

First of all, with Instant Book turned on, the guest can book without any action on your part.  By having IB turned on, you are automatically giving approval to anyone who requests that meets your criteria as a guest.    Second, your cancellation policy is set to Strict.  This means that you are entitled to 100% of the guest's booking since they did not make the cancellation deadline.  https://www.airbnb.com/home/cancellation_policies#strict

However, they may qualifiy for an Extenutating Circumstances exception if they can provide support for having to leave early because of severe illness. 

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-is-airbnb-s-extenuating-circumstances-policy

Third, if they don't cancel, you will receive the funds for the booking and not have to actually host anyone.  Think of it as free money.  

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/309/what-if-my-guest-doesn-t-show-up-for-their-reservation

Hopefully this eases your mind knowing that all your work is going to result in some sort of payment.  Let us know what happens with the payment issue. 

For the future, if you don't want same-day bookings, you can adjust your calendar settings to require notice.  There are several options.  Please note: do not check the box underneath that says "Instant book...." This bypasses the notice qualification and allows same day bookings. 

Good luck! 

[Vivian0]

I had a last minute booking request.  I accepted the booking and it came back from Air bnb as “awaiting payment”.  I tried to get hold of the guest to advise if this situation and that I was still awaiting payment.  He apologized and said he was on a flight.  And said he would process the payment immediately.  I never received notification from air bnb that the payment had been made.  So am I obliged to allow check in by this guest based on “awaiting payment” ??  This guest was from The DRC ( Congo) and I have had fraud issues from this country before so I am very aware of these very last minute bookings, 

Any input or thoughts from anyone regarding this ?