Airbnb hosts all over the globe are complaining of significant delays in receiving payments from Airbnb, and many are frustrated by the lack of transparency.
According to its terms of service, Airbnb releases payments to hosts roughly 24 hours after a guest checks in. The peer-to-peer home-sharing marketplace requires full payment from guests (on bookings that are for less than one month) in order to secure a reservations. But contrary to the belief of some in the community, Airbnb said in a statement that the company "does not collect interest on guest payments."
Airbnb hosts began to notice something was amiss this past weekend. William Mulligan, who lives in New York City but rents a vacation home in Pennsylvania, was expecting a payment of roughly $400 for a guest stay that began on Friday. When he contacted Airbnb customer service on Sunday morning about the missing payment, he was told the money had been submitted to
Below is an excerpt from Mulligan’s email correspondence with Airbnb on Sunday:
It is not showing paid out because it has not fully processed in your bank yet!
Follow up with Pay pal, the money has been released from our hands and is now in Pay pals.
Our job at Airbnb is to send out the payment 24 hours after check in. The rest is on your bank.
That same day, Mulligan was told he could expect to see the funds in his account by Monday. As of Tuesday morning, he had still not been paid. He then addressed the issue on
“What's kind of upsetting to me is that they make money on my money,” Mulligan said, referring to his belief that Airbnb collects interest on reservation fees from guest customers. “I am not concerned about the company's solvency -- what’s most upsetting to me is that it is very easy for Airbnb to contact its hosts.”
Indeed, Airbnb frequently communicates via email with its customer base, particularly in cities like New York, where Airbnb faces regulatory challenges. Mulligan said that he has gone to City Hall at the urging of Airbnb to protest city regulations that prohibit short-term rentals.
Shannon, an Airbnb host based in Nova Scotia, has been waiting on a payment for a reservation that is now more than two days late -- and it’s the second time Airbnb has been late with her payout. When she contacted Airbnb this time, she was told initially that it was an issue with PayPal. “Now they are backtracking -- after I asked for the PayPal confirmation code -- and saying it's an issue on their end,” she said.
But Airbnb still won’t explain what the issue is, exactly. A member of their press team responded to an inquiry with a link to a Twitter status update.
Some of our hosts may be experiencing a payout delay. We're working to resolve this issue and truly apologize for the inconvenience caused
— Airbnb Help (@AirbnbHelp) September 15, 2015
When pressed for more specifics, she replied: "We are working to resolve this issue. We'll keep folks updated on Twitter when we have more to share."
Helena Flack, a host in Berlin, had been waiting for four days on a payment for a reservation that was supposed to appear in her account on Saturday. Her email inquires about the late payment were met with generic assurances that the money would appear by Monday. By Tuesday when it still hadn’t, Flack turned to Twitter. “As a PR professional I know how to hit them where it hurts," she said.
Indeed, Airbnb was much more responsive after she posted to Twitter. “As soon as I went public I was offered some compensation,” and was put in touch with a cooperative Airbnb representative based in Berlin. “They have finally sent me the money,” Flack said, and noticed that payment came just after she received a request via Twitter to speak for this story.
But Shannon, and numerous Airbnb hosts who have been complaining on Twitter and Facebook, are still waiting.
“I've called again and they are giving me the same generic answer, that they are working on it,” Shannon said. " I’ve yet to receive an email explaining the actual problem. I'm a Superhost [an Airbnb designation for hosts with consistently positive reviews and high response rates] and have worked really hard to maintain a stellar experience for my guests ... It's a slap in the face that Airbnb hasn't been transparent with hosts about this issue."
“It's too bad,” Shannon continued. “I’ve really enjoyed my hosting and renting experiences over the last year. But I can't put my faith in a company that isn't honest.”
On Twitter, Airbnb said on Tuesday that the “technical issue has been resolved” and that hosts will be “gradually” receiving their money. Later in the week the company issued a statement: "We are incredibly sorry for the inconvenience caused during last weekend's delay in payouts to a small batch of hosts – the issue is resolved and all hosts should have received payouts due to them."
Airbnb is currently valued at over $25 billion, and last week acquired the travel planning service Vamo for undisclosed terms.
*The author of this article is a member of the Airbnb community and was affected by the error.
