bookings by people other than the guests - corporate; personal

[Helen2523]

1)  I sometimes receive a booking from an Airbnb account owner other than the person(s) who will be my guest.  Aren't there legal ramifications in this?  Is it acceptable?  If there's a problem from me as host, with the guest, how are they held accountable?

2)  I recently booked as a traveller through Airbnb and a local real estate agent took over the booking, entirely and explicitly cutting out Airbnb and wanting me to open a new account with them etc. etc.  Again, there are legal ramifications in this.  Yes, there was a problem during my stay although the real estate agent fixed it fairly promptly.

[Sarah977]

@Helen2523  

1. 3rd party resservation. Actually against Airbnb TOS, although reps will tell you that you can accept it if you want. Best not to. No guarantee that Airbnb will support you if there are issues, 3rd party has often not read the listing info at all nor house rules. Sometimes are made because the person who wants to stay has been banned from Airbnb for some objectionable behavior. Sometimes parents facilitating booking for underage teenagers.

2. How was the real estate agent able to "take over" the booking and cut Airbnb out of the deal? You went along with this? 

[Helen2523]

1)  Useful information thank you, shared with today's booking.

2)  Upon making an instantaneous booking, I received an aggressive email from the real estate agent saying Airbnb would not be communicating from then on, I "had to" open an account with the agent's platform in order to get check-in information etc. etc.   (I didn't.)  Yes, dodgy.  I was familiar with the agency and was very disappointed as I had deliberately avoided booking with them (they dominate rentals in their area with patchy results).   Within Airbnb I reviewed the visit accordingly.  I also advised Airbnb immediately about the legal ramifications, without any response.  The second aspect was that within Airbnb a certain cancellation policy would have applied (and this was more than a month ahead), but within the real estate agency it was "instant death" - 100% loss of money (other than cleaning fee) if I cancelled, even within 1 hr. of booking!  BAD.