Post by High Priestess on Feb 17, 2017 3:06:45 GMT
Warning regarding use of resolution center for extra charges to guest:
A guest left some of his belongings at my house, and then requested that I mail them to him. I told him that I can't do this at no charge, and so I billed him for the estimated cost of postage and packaging via the resolution center.
He accepted the charge, and I got notice of this and assumed that this meant the payment went through. However, 20 days after he accepted the resolution request, I still had not received the funds from Airbnb.
Come to find out, the charge did not clear his credit card. Why then would it show as a pending payout on my account?
Since the Airbnb resolution center thus gives a misleading representation of the status of a payment by the guest, for the future, I intend to not use the Airbnb resolution center to bill guests for extra charges. Instead I will require that guests pay me via PayPal. it's more dependable.
I sent this message to Airbnb CX about this:
So...this is how this went...
I called Airbnb CX about this, as described above, and they said the guest's credit card didn't process the amount. They said they would work on it and ask the guest to update his payment method. Several days later (5 days later) they still had not resolved the issue, and they had made 2 phone calls to me which I missed. I emailed them asking them to resolve the issue and contact me by email, not by phone.
I got no response, so I contacted the guest directly, explained that the payment had not gone thru and asked the guest to update his payment method on the Airbnb site. He complained "I really have more pressing things to do than deal with $___ " and claimed the Airbnb website didn't work. I wasn't pleased with his minimizing of this issue -- after all I didn't charge him for my time to go to the post office to mail the package -- which I normally would do -- so his cost was considerably less than it ordinarily would have been -- but he did offer to mail me the funds or pay via PayPal. I still had his phone number in my records ( I keep a hardcopy of all guest reservation forms so I keep their contact info as given there) and so I texted him my PayPal email address and he paid the amount immediately.
The only problem with resolving this in this way, is that eventually, if this guest makes another Airbnb reservation (which he is likely to..he's used Airbnb several times before), the amount still owing to me will still remain in the system (as an "eternally" pending future payout in my account) & may be charged to him at that point.
From now on for any similar extra services provided, I may insist on using PayPal and not Airbnb resolution center.
A guest left some of his belongings at my house, and then requested that I mail them to him. I told him that I can't do this at no charge, and so I billed him for the estimated cost of postage and packaging via the resolution center.
He accepted the charge, and I got notice of this and assumed that this meant the payment went through. However, 20 days after he accepted the resolution request, I still had not received the funds from Airbnb.
Come to find out, the charge did not clear his credit card. Why then would it show as a pending payout on my account?
Since the Airbnb resolution center thus gives a misleading representation of the status of a payment by the guest, for the future, I intend to not use the Airbnb resolution center to bill guests for extra charges. Instead I will require that guests pay me via PayPal. it's more dependable.
I sent this message to Airbnb CX about this:
"I dont' understand why, if this payment shows up on my account under future payments, it is possible that the guest actually never paid this amount. I can't operate like this with guests. Your system has to work better than that. I have to know that a guest has definitely paid the amount requested before I provide a certain service to the guest -- in this case, paying for packaging and postage for an item that the guest left behind when he departed my house. Such costs are not included in payments for accomodations.
If I request payment for a service, and the guest accepts the resolution center request, and then I provide the service, only to find out that the guest hasn't paid after all, then I cannot use your resolution center to bill guests for services and I will have to require guests to pay me via PayPal instead. You can't show a resolution center request as "accepted" and then show the payment in my future payouts queue, if the payment did not go through. That is a serious error on your part and makes the resolution center essentially unusable for the host requesting a payment.
I expect Airbnb to cover this payment if the guest does not make good on the payment."
If I request payment for a service, and the guest accepts the resolution center request, and then I provide the service, only to find out that the guest hasn't paid after all, then I cannot use your resolution center to bill guests for services and I will have to require guests to pay me via PayPal instead. You can't show a resolution center request as "accepted" and then show the payment in my future payouts queue, if the payment did not go through. That is a serious error on your part and makes the resolution center essentially unusable for the host requesting a payment.
I expect Airbnb to cover this payment if the guest does not make good on the payment."
So...this is how this went...
I called Airbnb CX about this, as described above, and they said the guest's credit card didn't process the amount. They said they would work on it and ask the guest to update his payment method. Several days later (5 days later) they still had not resolved the issue, and they had made 2 phone calls to me which I missed. I emailed them asking them to resolve the issue and contact me by email, not by phone.
I got no response, so I contacted the guest directly, explained that the payment had not gone thru and asked the guest to update his payment method on the Airbnb site. He complained "I really have more pressing things to do than deal with $___ " and claimed the Airbnb website didn't work. I wasn't pleased with his minimizing of this issue -- after all I didn't charge him for my time to go to the post office to mail the package -- which I normally would do -- so his cost was considerably less than it ordinarily would have been -- but he did offer to mail me the funds or pay via PayPal. I still had his phone number in my records ( I keep a hardcopy of all guest reservation forms so I keep their contact info as given there) and so I texted him my PayPal email address and he paid the amount immediately.
The only problem with resolving this in this way, is that eventually, if this guest makes another Airbnb reservation (which he is likely to..he's used Airbnb several times before), the amount still owing to me will still remain in the system (as an "eternally" pending future payout in my account) & may be charged to him at that point.
From now on for any similar extra services provided, I may insist on using PayPal and not Airbnb resolution center.
