Okay to give this review

[Clay29]

 "The guest who stayed was a great guest except he was not the registered guest. He was also over seven hours late checking out."

Also, what kind of star rating would you give this third party booking ?  The guest who reserved was not the guest who stayed but because the ID was verified by Airbnb and I use self check-in and the guest and registrant looked close enough, I did not verify. I found out at the end as he actually checked out late.  They made a concerted effort to conceal this fact during the interactions while he stayed as well as in messages, even answering to the registrant's name on personal interactions.

[Gordon0]

You've been exceedingly positive given the facts, @Clay29. 'Dishonest' would be a word I'd get in having heard your explanation of what went on. 

[Mark116]

@Clay29   Hmmm.  So, your guest was dishonest, and they did an illegal third party booking, which if they had damaged your property Airbnb would then to refuse to pay based on this, and they checked out 7 hours late.  I don't see anything here that meets the 'good guest' requirement.

'XX left the property clean and in good condition.  Unfortunately, we later found out this was a third party booking, not allowed on Airbnb,  and that XX remained in the property 7 hours after check-out.  For these reasons, we can't recommend XX to other hosts.

[Colleen253]

@Clay29 I would ditch the word 'great' and just stick to factual assessments. "This was a well concealed third party booking, and 'X' did not stay. While the unknow guest who actually stayed respected the space and left it clean, they were over 7 hours late checking out. I cannot recommend 'X' to other hosts.

Be sure to click 'would not host again.'

[Pablo629]

You must explain the truth.

 as the same as explained on forum.

good surprising 3th party guest. but with 7 hours checkout delay.

4 stars for not complying the checkout rules.

Regards from Bolivia 

[Pat271]

Both the third-party booking and the extremely late checkout are enough by themselves to warrant a negative review, let alone together. You’re lucky that the unregistered party didn’t get hurt or trash your place, and also lucky your housekeeper didn’t contact you, livid as h*ll at not being able to clean. My housekeeper loses her cool when my guests are late even 15 minutes.

[Clay29]

Thank you for your replies and I think I am feeling bad for the guy who actually stayed and letting that leak into my review of the supposed guest. Thank for putting me straight. He has already left a review which most likely is bad and I will try to have removed since he never stayed.

My overall sense though is the person who stayed is being scammed in some way too by the person who booked. I had never understood the demand for third party bookings and mostly chalked it up to people being unware of the rules but the person whom stayed was  a transient worker who either paid a third party a higher rate to book my Airbnb for which they would not qualify or something more sinister like wage theft using undocumented workers. 

None of that matters for review though nor is provable fact, but I worked with the guy nicely as long as I thought he was the actual guest but on hearing he wasn't insisted on an overstay fee. Either way, I will leave an honest review so other hosts don't have to deal with it.

[Colleen253]

@Clay29 "I worked with the guy nicely as long as I thought he was the actual guest but on hearing he wasn't insisted on an overstay fee."

An overstay is an overstay. Doesn't matter who it is. It's one thing to give honest guests a little grace if they are 15 minutes late getting out, but this was on a whole other level.

[Kelly149]

Just like how you will try to have the review removed when you tell ABB that "guest" did not stay but sent over someone else, I think you will be on shaky ground if your posted review says it is not actually about "guest". So, if it were me the review would be something along the lines of 1* rules, 1* communication, whatever you want for cleanliness and "would not host again" and then the text would be "unfortunately, not a guest we recommend for ABB stays"... just in case maybe re-read the current review policy for tips on what will not be allowed

[Brian2036]

@Clay29 

Whomever booked this stay has to be held entirely responsible.

The person who actually stayed, innocent victim or otherwise, will never see your review or suffer any consequences.

 I hope you really stick it to the the person who actually booked. They should not be allowed to Instant Book ever again.

[Susan1188]

Yet another case proving that  self check in for first-time guests is not a good idea.
Did you do any due diligence, corresponding with guest, requiring ID, asking who was coming, etc?  And all of that written in your house rules?
If yes, then: 1 star review and "this person did not stay with us but booked for a third party who did not respect our house rules".