Airbnb not accepting payment: How to easily pay for bookings

If you want to book on Airbnb, you’ll be asked to confirm your payment details as soon as you try to make a reservation.

There is no later time, no bargain, no wiggle room, and certainly no shady offline payments deals, just solid card credentials (and a few other methods).

By keeping things simple, both the hosts and the guests are protected. But what happens if the Airbnb payment doesn’t go through?

Before we dig in, let’s make sure we have a clear understanding of the whole picture.

How do you pay on Airbnb?

• Credit/Debit/Prepaid cards (Visa, MasterCard, American Express, JCB, Discover)
• Google Pay and Apple Pay (for Android and iOS users on mobile platforms)
• PayPal (if available in your country)
• Gift cards and promotional coupons

Airbnb supports different payment methods from standard ones that will be available for all guests to very specific ones, depending on the country and region of interest.

You will be able to see all available methods for which you are eligible on the checkout page of your reservation.

Can I pay cash for Airbnb? / Can you pay by bank transfer on Airbnb?

Cash payment, offline payments, and in fact any type of payment made outside the boundaries of the Airbnb app and/or website are strictly forbidden and can attract further sanctions.

These measures aim to protect users against fraud attempts and other security risks.

But sometimes, the Airbnb payment simply won’t go through, either from the first attempt or for some, it can be a second payment that fails. So let’s why does that happens.

Why does my card keep getting declined on Airbnb?

There can be several reasons for which you are unable to complete a card transaction via Airbnb and we distinguish between two major categories, as shown below:

Issues on the users’ side (card-related)	Airbnb internal checks
Expired card, insufficient funds, exceeded spending limits, debit cards that cannot be processed as credit cards, and so on	Fraud prevention, fraud pattern detection (billing address and/or phone number mismatch, flagged transactions when payments are routed through several banks, and so on)
In these cases, the user simply most sort the issue with the bank, respectively the credit card company.	These cases are trickier and unfortunately, more frequent. In fact, most of the time, transactions are declined for security reasons.

Here are the most common error messages that can appear on Airbnb when trying to pay with a card:

• Looks like this payment method can’t be added. Use an existing method or try this one again later.
• We were unable to authorize use of your credit card. Please confirm that all the details are correct. You may also contact your bank.

How do I fix my payment decline on Airbnb?

1. Use Payoneer

1. Get yourself a physical card from Payoneer. To do that, simply open the Payoneer platform and go to Settings.
2. Next, go to Payoneer Cards and click Order Card.
3. Note that there is an eligibility clause in place that only allows you to request a physical card if you met the minimum amount of payments received in your Payoneer account in the last 6 months.
4. Next, log in to your Airbnb account and select Account from the drop-down menu situated in the upper-right corner of the page.
5. On the new screen, select Payments & payouts.
6. Remain on the first tab (Payments) and press Add payment method.
7. Fill in the details of your Payoneer Mastercard card and set it as the default payment method afterward.

By following these steps, you should be able to see the Payoneer card as the primary payment method set to be charged during the checkout phase of your reservation.

If you’re just setting up your Payoneer account, it will take some time before will are able to request a physical card in regard to the eligibility conditions explained above.

Meanwhile, you can safely use our next recommendation.

2. Use Revolut

1. Get a phisical Visa or Mastercard card from Revolut. To do that, you must first register on the Revolut platform.
2. Note that you can either access the Revolut website via desktop or download the Revolut app from your mobile platform store.
3. Fill in the required details (name, adress, phone number, etc.) in order to complete the registration.
4. Then log into your newly created account and head to the Cards tab.
5. Select or tap the Add card option.
6. Complete your order (delivery method and delivery address along with any other details including the preferred payment method to cover the delivery).
7. Once your brand new Revolut card is shipped, you can head over to the Airbnb platform and repeat the steps 4-7 from our previous solution.

If you need further help on this topic, we have prepared more tips on how to use the Revolut web app on your PC. Obviously, there can be situations in which the app itself misbehaves.

Should it ever be the case, you can scoop some useful solutions to help you out when the Revolut login simply won’t work.

3. Use PayPal

1. From the Airbnb app, select Paypal as your payment method.
2. Next, log in to your PayPal Account and head to Choose a way to pay.
3. From this menu, you can select one of the payment methods linked to your account, then click Continue and agree to the different prompts displayed on the screen.
4. The final step is to confirm the payment via this method on the checkout window of your reservation.

Note that PayPal will only be displayed for users residing in countries where this online payment solution is available. You might also be required to check the eligible currency.

Airbnb is not accepting payment? Not a problem, you can tweak these options and make use of our recommendations to pay for your bookings even if Airbnb declined your payment at first.

Once this is covered, you’re all set to enjoy traveling!