Airbnb quietly tries out new paying scheme for guests

When you book a home with Airbnb, the policy is to pay upfront once you decide where to stay. But a new option has been spotted by Fast Company’s Ruth Reader while looking for her honeymoon destination. It hasn’t been officially launched but her account seems to be part of a small group of users that are shown a new “partial-payment feature.” It lets her pay partially for the place she booked and then having to pay the remaining balance two weeks before she arrives.

According to Airbnb’s spokesman Tim Rathschmidt, “We’re always looking for ways to make booking with and paying for Airbnb listings easier for guests, but have nothing to announce at this time.” It seems to be in the early testing phase yet but Reader theorizes this is being tested out on people who have booked far in advance and above a certain price point to make the feature attractive and more worthwhile. As she points out, from the time of the first payment and the next one, her and her fiancé will have four paychecks each, giving them more time to save up for it.