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Post by High Priestess on Jan 16, 2018 15:56:54 GMT
Oh no! VERY bad idea for hosts.. www.theverge.com/2018/1/16/16896012/airbnb-book-up-front-50-percentAnd what if after paying the first 50%, the guest is unable to come up with the final 50% payment? Guess who loses out in that scenario. The host, who has a strict cancellation policy, or when there is a long term reservation going on where long term cancellation policy applies. If the guest hasn't paid more than 50% but has held the space a long time, the host could end up only getting paid 50% for the reservation. |
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Post by Mabel on Jan 22, 2018 15:30:57 GMT
That was another feature of Airbnb that stood above other booking sites... the full payment upon booking. And a strong one. I'm wondering when this new option will be active or if it already is... and if hosts will have any options in accepting it.
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Post by High Priestess on Jan 23, 2018 4:53:38 GMT
I think it is already an option for all guests. HOsts apparently have no option to opt out of this. It remains to be seen how this will effect hosts with long term reservations, especially.
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Post by High Priestess on Oct 16, 2018 19:02:05 GMT
More thoughts on this policy, as Airbnb presents here: press.airbnb.com/airbnb-launches-pay-less-up-front-a-new-flexible-payment-option-for-travelers/I dont' think this is a good idea....it encourages people to book who may be booking out of their price range. People should be able to afford to pay in full for a stay. It's not clear from the Airbnb article on this, if this could apply to longer term bookings (eg a month or longer) and for those bookings, there would be the greatest problem resulting from this pay less up front policy, since it would create a loophole around the long term cancellation policy. Long term cancellation policy states that if guest cancels a long term booking at any time after making the booking, they have to pay for the first 30 days of the reservation, which is the amount they pay up front. So if they are only paying half that up front, and then cancel, the host would not be able to be fully paid for a month long stay, but would only get half. For other reservations shorter than a month, I think this would not put the host at risk, the way the policy is written, because even if host has strict policy, the guest would get 50% refund on the whole reservation cost if cancelling more than 7 days in advance, and this policy requires payment in full by 30 days prior to arrival. So if the guest only paid 50% in the first place, if they cancel more than 30 days out, host can still be paid the 50% they are owed. |
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