3rd Party bookings...allowed??

[Adrien399]

Hi,

Just received a booking as follows.

I am booking your property on behalf of my Sister in-law Stacey, who will be in the area working a wedding.

I will pass all check in information on to her when the date is closer 🙂

Should I be nervous? Is it allowed?

The person booking had 8 positive reviews but who knows what 'Stacey' has !!

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Johanna394]

Third-party bookings for personal travel are not allowed. This Stacey should book herself if she is the one traveling.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/427/can-i-book-on-behalf-of-a-friend-or-family-member

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Adrien399  Airbnb doesn't allow third-party bookings in the sense that you can cancel third-party instant bookings without penalties.

But, if you want, you are allowed to accept it

Third-party bookings are often problematic because

a) the guest is not an Airbnb member and is not familiar with how it works. 

b) the guest often don't read the listing's house rules and description

c) the guest didn't choose your listing (another person did) so he may have different expectations

But, in reality, some people are not very familiar with the internet, smartphones, applications... so their family member has to book for them

[Adrien399]

Thank you. I have declined the booking and she has now cancelled.

Hopefully the 3rd party will register with Airbnb and book.

We have had some small problems with guests that we accepted without reviews but at least we knew who they were.

This booking was a potential problem and I think it important that everyone is verified.

[Nazan0]

Helli I just welcomed a guest who supposed to be a young lady but instead a man arrived.  

He said his girlfriend had book because of his email problems etc. 

I can understand that but what puzzles me is that they didn't inform me about this matter until now when the guest checked in to my flat.

Is this normal practice for Airbnb? Considering that they took a quarter of my earnings as their service fee.  

What is that service I am paying for?

[Sarah977]

@Nazan0  Is what normal practice for Airbnb? Airbnb has no way of knowing that the guest who booked isn't the guest who arrives at your place. It's up to you as a host to deny entry to a third party or however you decide you want to handle it. 

[Brian2036]

@Nazan0 

You’re paying for advertising and very little more.

 I hope you have have copies of this person’s ID.

 If you don’t and he refuses to provide it he should be evicted immediately. You will have to do this; Airbnb has no way to do it.

[Nazan0]

Hello thanks for your message   why are we paying Airbnb so much service fee if they cannot do this simple task?