Booking through someone elses profile

[Ann-Marie47]

I had a booking from a woman using her boyfriends account. I had my listing set to instant book.

Upon reading the message and doing some online research i realised that this goes against the rules of airbnb. I got back to the guest to say that we require reservations to be booked by the person who's going to stay at the listing. 

I cancelled the booking and gave the above reason. I now find that the dates are blocked on my calender and unavailable to anyone to book. 

I understand that this can happen but wondering if it isn't extreme given the specific circumstances in question. 

[Laurie489]

Hi @Ann-Marie47 

Sorry to hear your dates are now blocked. For Instant Book hosts, you have the possibility of cancelling penalty-free up to 3 times a year if you're not comfortable with the guest. After that, you'll have to call customer service. You can find more details on how to do that here: https://www.airbnb.ca/help/article/2022/

Hope this helps!

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

@Ann-Marie47 

I wouldn't say you were wrong in your actions, but I do think that the Airbnb third party booking aspect is not fully thought out.

Hosting guests is a risk. Often we take direct bookings from people who we wouldn't have any clue who they are, no profile photo, no reviews, but what we do have are their contact details and to a certain extent their bank details too. We also hold their damage deposit until this is returned after they leave and leave no damage behind them. Airbnb prevent that sort of detail passing to the host in their bookings, and only hold a theoretical deposit. Why is that? Why is it the host is relying on what is turning out to be an unreliable booking platform which favours guests actions over hosts?

One of our recent guests booked for his wife and some of her friends. In that situation, why should a host discriminate between family members who normally would travel together? It seems rather odd.

There is of course the insurance aspect, but that never seems to be of any benefit - rather, another penalty in the way it depreciates the values of damaged property - if you ever get to make the claim in the first place..

If we were a live-in host I can perhaps understand from a safety issue that whoever you accepted to stay should be the guest who turns up. But less important when you're renting a whole home. Those two scenarios are completely different and yet they are covered by the same archaic rule.

It is a shame that you lost a booking because of adhering to rules. The rules here seemed to have penalised you and you have also incurred cancellation losses and you will now need to persevere with Customer Services to return your account back to where it should be, because you were adhering to their rules.

Sometimes, a conversation like this needs to happen directly with the policy makers, but they're never around here.

[Debra300]

@Ann-Marie47,

You acted correctly if you felt uncomfortable with a booking made under someone else's account.  In the future, I would suggest that you call Customer Service, and explain to them that you want them to cancel the reservation, because it goes against Terms & Conditions.

You didn't specify your guest requirements for booking, but would you have accepted the booking if the guest had a new account with no reviews?

Although many hosts have complained about the claims process, it's 100% guaranteed that you would not receive any compensation if you knowingly accepted a reservation from someone without an Airbnb account.  

[Ann-Marie47]

Thanks all for the feedback, it's a lesson learned on my part! 

The refusal was mainly because i am a stickler for rules and the woman did say her account wasn't accessible at that time, so i thought that perhaps she could sort that and rebook. A wee bit niave on my part. 

I've been hosting for only a few weeks so learning as i go. 

[Alexandra316]

@Ann-Marie47 If she couldn't use her account, that sounds like a massive red flag. She could have had it deactivated for misuse, credit card fraud, bad behaviour, etc. I'd say that you made the right call. 

I would definitely call or contact Airbnb and ask them to unblock the dates. Explain your position: they should do it for you. I prefer contacting them on Twitter @airbnbhelp. 

I hope it works out for you. You should not be penalized.