Airbnb vouchers

jimaydee

just a few lines to explain our recent issues trying to use vouchers on a recent booking.

We identified a property for June next year with the option to pay 50% (£1200) now and the balance 50% (also £1200) next June, 7 days before arrival. My wife's company has a scheme that sells Airbnb vouchers at a small discount to face value, so be went on and bought vouchers with a face value of £1200 and uploaded those to our account.

Then the fun started. When we went to complete the booking, the vouchers were indeed deducted from the payment, so no problem there. However we were being asked to pay 50% of the june balance (another £600) to complete the booking. (If we removed the vouchers from the booking, the payment reverted to £1200 by credit card now, and £1200 in June.)

We called Airbnb thinking this must be a glitch, but were informed it wasn't !! Their system is to deduct the vouchers BEFORE the payment plan (50% now, 50% in June) , then impose the payment plan 50/50 on the balance £1200 , meaning that to secure the booking we had 3 choices

1. Pay £1200 in vouchers and £600 on credit card now, leaving a £600 balance for june.

2. Pay £1200 by credit card now, leaving the vouchers to pay the June balance, not forgetting Airbnb already have the vouchers so effectively paying 100% immediately.

3. Buy another £1200 in vouchers and pay the total now.

I hope this is clear and not overly complicated.

The bottom line is, if you buy airbnb vouchers for your first payment you will end up paying at least 50% more on your initial payment to satisfy their system. It may of course work better if you buy the vouchers specifically for the the second payment, after paying the first installment by credit card.

This is clearly a ridiculous system, and defeats the objective of buying vouchers to spread the cost over a longer period.

(ps we opted for the 1st option, paying 1200 in vouchers and 600 on credit card leaving a £600 balance for june, at least leaving us some balance to pay)

eskbanker

jimaydee said:

This is clearly a ridiculous system, and defeats the objective of buying vouchers to spread the cost over a longer period

How would buying vouchers spread the cost over a longer period, assuming you have to pay up front for the vouchers in the first place?

hugheskevi

Very strange system, but in general I have found AirBnb vouchers amazing value and have saved hundreds if not thousands using them.

I get an 8% discount on Airbnb vouchers through work, and a further 1% when purchased with Chase card, so a useful discount.

I've purchased and used many, many, cards over the last year as I have been travelling all that time. It has always been straightforward and quick and worked perfectly. The main frustration is being limited to £250 gift card purchase per transaction.

I always pay in full, immediately on booking. If I need flexibility I choose an option with free cancellation. If you cancel, the funds are immediately returned to gift card credit.

jimaydee

eskbanker said:

jimaydee said:

This is clearly a ridiculous system, and defeats the objective of buying vouchers to spread the cost over a longer period

How would buying vouchers spread the cost over a longer period, assuming you have to pay up front for the vouchers in the first place?

Prebuying vouchers before booking (some each month as funds availale) obviously spreads the cost. But not if you then are required to make additional payments to use them