3rd party booking disaster!

[Joy247]

I took a third party reservation because the booking party had a 5 * rating. What a mistake!  
The booking party had booked for her 24 year old son and friend.  The first night a strong smell of pot was smelled coming from the Airbnb suite through the heating vent directly above it. I messaged Esther (the booking party) that my family could smell pot very strongly coming from the vent and That I did not have a problem with smoking outside the unit, but as my rules state, it is not allowed in the unit. She said she would let her son know.  She messaged me back that her son denied the claim and that he was a very honest person. She also informed me that I should have contacted him. I told her that I only had her number since she had booked it and also that my family members had no reason to lie about this. She stated that someone should have gone directly to the room to inform them and was not happy that she was told. I was not home at the time and said that I would not expect my family members to go down there and that I also would not expect my property manager to drive across town to address the situation. That is why we called her number, it was all we had on the reservation. I had been kind from the beginning, stating that I had no problem with the pot smoking, just not in the house.

The next day she contacted me because there was no water. ( an outside pipe had broken because of the cold) My property manager did not get the call because he was in the middle of a medical emergency with his wife.  Being out of the country with spotty service and not knowing that my property manager had a medical energy going on, I did not find out about the water problem for about 90 min. I immediately called her and apologized profusely.  I also let her know that it would be very difficult to find a plumber at 6:00pm on New Year’s Day, in a small town, to fix it! I told her that I would do my best to get someone out there ASAP. I also told her that I would be glad to give her a refund for that day and the rest of the trip if she wanted to find another place for her son to stay. She said that they would rather see if I could get it repaired quickly. I was actually able to get my regular plumber out the and have the entire issue resolved in 2hrs 45 minutes from the first call she made. I also offer her 50% refund for that day.

She was not happy with that so I gave her a full refund for that day.  She went on to Harass me with a series of texts and messages about how upset she was that I did not get the situation resolved quicker and how irresponsible I had been. She also harangued me several more times about how I had not contacted her son directly about the pot smoking.  I told her that as the booking party she was responsible for the unit and that I did not have his number! She then gave me a bad review with low stars for cleanliness, location and for not having a property manager available.

My question is, is she allowed to leave me a review even though she did not stay there and could not see the cleanliness etc ( I have always  gotten stellar reviews for the cleanliness) She was not the one that experienced the problems.  Am I just out of luck with this because I allowed a third party booking?

[Christine615]

Yes - because you took the reservation. First - leave an honest review. Person did a third party booking without revealing she was booking for her son. Third party bookings are for when a corporation is booking for staff. Even then, I don't take them unless I have the name of each person staying and their contact information. Airbnb allows those to go through once the booking is approved.

Before someone books ask who is coming. What the purpose of the trip is. And if they have read all the house rules. If she lies and says it's staff and it's her son instead, you can cancel the reservation.

Airbnb does next to no vetting so it's up to the host.

If the harassment occurred through messaging, ask Airbnb to investigate and take the review down. If they decline, escalate to a supervisor or specialist.

[Linda108]

@Joy247   From your post it appears you were aware you accepted a 3rd party booking.  As such, if you review the booking guest about the actual guest you are posting you violated the terms of service with Air BNB.  You might have shot yourself in your foot on this one, I am afraid.  

[Sarah977]

@Joy247  Sorry this happened to you. But the review you left as well as the response to her review are far too long-winded. Your review of her should simply have said,

"Guest booked for her 24 year old son and his friend which I foolishly accepted, based on this guest's previous good reviews. Son smoked inside contrary to house rules. I didn't have her son's number, so contacted her about it as soon as we smelled the smoke. She was irritated that I had contacted her about it, even though she was the booker, responsible for the booking. She also said her son denied he was smoking inside and insinuated we were lying, because her son couldn't possibly be dishonest (my family could smell it through the air vents). 

There was then a legitimate plumbing issue, which I did my utmost to resolve as quickly as possible (all was fixed in less than 3 hrs), in addition to refunding one night (the 50% I offered was not good enough, she let me know rudely), but received many harrassing texts from this guest over it. 

This guest, and her son, who was the one who stayed, were extremely difficult to deal with and I cannot recommend."

And the response only needed to say, "Booking guest was not one of the people who stayed- this was a third party booking for her 24 year old son and his friend. Plumbing issue was resolved as quickly as possible (it was New Year's day, I was out of town, and my property manager had a medical emergency), but it was fully resolved in less than 3 hrs. This is a very unfair and mean-spirited review from a guest who made a third party booking, took no responsibility for her son's breaking of house rules (indoor smoking) and ignored my goodwill in discounting for a 3 hour plumbing inconvenience."

Your responses are for the benefit of future guests- they aren't interested in reading a long recounting of whatever drama a host went through with a previous guest. Just use responses to clarify lies or misleading information and to indicate that a legitimate issue was addressed ASAP.