Listen along while reading the podcast transcript.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, or on your favorite podcast platform.
Transcripts may contain a few typos. I work alone and publish daily, so it is hard to catch all typos. Enjoy!
Imagine not getting your payout! Booking.com fails to pay hosts on time Transcript
(00:10):
What’s up everybody? It’s John. So today I’m going to talk about not getting your payout from booking.com. Imagine not getting your payout. Why is booking.com failing to pay host on time? Well, right now, booking.com as a platform, they’re having a hard time delivering payouts to vacation rental owners like us. European hosts are actually the hardest hit right now, but this is on top of years of broken promises and instability with their payment infrastructure. They’re saying they have technical difficulties, but we know this is a huge communication failure. They just sent this message to us, host this summer payout for reservation checkouts between the 20th of June through the 19th of July will be processed by the 24th of July in one consolidated payment. Irregular payout schedule is expected to resume by the 27th of July, 2023. So what they’re saying here is that we’re not going to get our money in time, and then when the payout date actually came, no money.
(01:05):
So can you really trust them as a platform? Well, they’re not insolvent. So booking.com has ample capital. This is not a matter of them going into bankruptcy. This is not a matter of them having financial difficulty, but their payment system, their actual financial infrastructure is going through some difficulties technically right now, and that’s affecting everyone who lists on there. So why list with them if Airbnb and VRBO don’t have these issues? That’s a challenge that’s going to plague the company until they get this right. One, I would like to see some more clear communication from them and transparency because without this clear communication and commitment to us as owners, why should we even list on their platform if we’re not going to be paid out in time? We have expenses that are due today, actually not tomorrow, not next week, not next month, but expenses are due and are due.
(01:56):
So when they’re not paying out in time, that puts the burden on all of us owners while money’s stuck in their financial system, we are having issues because it ruins our cashflow in effect, right? So we need to find out what they’re going to do about this. And if you’re using booking.com, you should definitely be more vocal to the company. Write them an email, get on Twitter, because it’s not acceptable that payouts are being withheld because we list on a platform under the assumption that we’re going to be paid out in time each and every time. And when there’s trust that’s broken there, it makes us wonder, should we even waste our time listing with someone who’s not going to fulfill their end of the bargain and keep their promises? I’ve had some issues with VRBO in the past with payouts taking a little longer, but booking.com absolutely takes the cake for making people wait.
(02:47):
And yeah, they did communicate there was going to be a delay, but just the lengthiness of the delay is not acceptable from a business perspective. Anytime someone tells you that you need to wait for your money, when that’s not the normal course of business is not the right thing to do, especially in the real estate business. So I’d like to hear your opinion. If you’ve had any issues with vrbo, with Airbnb, with booking.com, giving you your payouts, I would like to hear it because everyone’s situation does vary. While the vast majority of people do get paid out in time, I’ve ran into stories of people not getting paid out for two to three weeks. So if that’s you, please shoot me an email. I want to hear about it. We need to hold the platforms accountable, and part of that is voicing our opinion when things like this actually happen.
(03:36):
I mean, there’s no telling with all of this real estate instability that this is going to be a repeat trend or not. So let’s hope not, but let’s keep an eye on the platforms to make sure we can hold them accountable, offer payouts. With that being said, I hope you enjoyed this content. If you want to help me make more of it, please just leave a rating or review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. It helps me get this show in front of more listeners and keeps the content machine moving for you. And if you haven’t joined the Facebook group yet, I’m inviting you to join a link to. It will be in the show note. Well, until next time, friends, take care.
Vacation Rentals With John is one of the fastest growing short term rental podcasts. The show has been growing in popularity because of its no BS, to the point lessons on how to grow and operate a vacation rental. Join the facebook group. To listen to any of the past episodes, check out this page.