Booking for another person

[Rosemary12]

Twice in the last month I have had someone try to book for another person. I have notified them that this cannot be done. Is there somewhere on the booking site that tells potential guests that they cannot book for someone else? If not, can it be spelt out please? I am 20 hours into try to sort this out with the person who tried to book and getting them to have their family register and book themselves.

[ZenHomes0]

@Rosemary12 Guests are not allowed to book on someone else's behalf, but it is happening a lot on the platform. For example, company HR representatives tend to book for their colleagues, some people book for their less tech-savvy parents who just want an affordable place to stay for their holiday. The risk you take when you accept such a booking is that you can only deal with that person when things go wrong, which is not very effective. For example if you want to settle a dispute, the 3rd party may not be as aware of the situation as the guest themselves. Or when it comes to leaving a review - how accurate will it be? Hence it is a frowned upon practice. 

You can see Airbnb's stance on this here

[Rosemary12]

I did check the regulations and that is why I notified the "guest" that I could not accept the request.  Because I live in the home as a host I want to know something about my guests  before accepting them. I think AirBnB should have a statement on the website that prevents this happening. It is very time consuming and frustrating for a new guest who isn't aware of this regulation.

[Amy38]

I have had very good bookings which came from children booking for visiting parents...especially from overseas.  The booker writes a review and inserts their parents comments. Absolutely no problem.