Booking for non-member

[Stan-And-Juris0]

I have a pending reservation from a son booking for a 63-year-old father.  Apparently, the son is verified with e-mail and phone number, but nothing  is showing on his profile, no reviews either.  Family is coming from CA, but is making a separate booking for the father for 2-nights.  We are new to Airbnb and just being careful on who we are accommodating in our premises.   Inquiry came in last night and I would possibly want to reply to the guest the soonest.  I'm thinking about asking him to refer his father to airbnb so he can make a direct booking; though the father might have verification or signing up issues.  This is just my thoughts.  What shall I do, I am careful about declining requests too that will impact ranking; as I hardly see my listing myself unless I log in to my account.

Help!  Your inputs will be very much appreciated, thank you.

Stan

[Carissa0]

Stan,

I can completely understand your apprehension. I would want the son to have somewhat of a completed profile to feel confident in his booking. Personally, I would politely reject the booking unless a more thorough profile was completed. Your comfort, safety, and sanity is worth more than your ranking...and plenty of credible reservations will come that you can start to accept. I might reply with something like this...
"Hello. Thank you for inquiring, however, as Airbnb is a community built on trust, we are hesitant to approve any request that does not have a completed profile and offline ID verification. As safety is paramount in a world full of misrepresentation I hope you understand!"...And either that will send him somewhere else and ease your anxiety or maybe he will complete a profile and ID verification that you feel comfortable with. Good luck!

[Stan-And-Juris0]

Thank you much for the very prompt reply Carissa, gave me an idea!  Have a great day!

[Andrea9]

@Stan-And-Juris0

Agreeing with @Carissa0 and what you could do is tell the interested party that Airbnb discourages 3rd party booking if booker is not part of the visiting group, but that he could set up a profile for his elderly father so that he can book.

Make sure that you require verified booking as reservation requirement too.

[Stan-And-Juris0]

Thank you Andrea, that just makes sense.  Is there a place in our listing or button to hit that would say "verified members only" or something like that or do we just specify that clause in our policy?  Again, thank you much and I will explore that verified booking.  

Juris

[Andrea9]

@Stan-And-Juris0

Host  ->  Your reservations  -> Reservation Requirements (one of options on top left) 

I sometimes uncheck the box if I get a potential inquiry that I have a good gut feeling with, but think might be overwhelmed with the somewhat complicated verification process. I'll wait till the pre-approval time frame is over, then reinstate the requirement.

There'll be inquiries or requests with which I'm okay but feel that I need the feeling of having extra security I make sure the box is checked.

If I get an inquiry I'm okay with and guest needs verification I'll usually tell them to first finish profile verification and then send a booking request. Reason? if an unverified guest is pre-approved they have 24h to verify while the dates are blocked. If there is then a problem or delay in payment, they get another 24h in which the dates are still blocked (at least that happened once with a guest).

If I get an inquiry from somebody unverified that I think would be a very nice guest or good booking because more days, I'll pre-approve them and mention they still have to finish verifying before the booking goes through. However, the dates would be blocked which I intend  in this case.

Just some tips and tricks 😉

[Stan-And-Juris0]

Oh wow, very clever idea, Andrea!  I actually found the box to check for reservation requirements (just under my nose everytime I log in and kept ignoring it) after your reply, and then graciously declined the guest.  He said, he'll have his father create a profile.  Meantime, I have been reading a lot of comments in this forum, and I am just thankful to all of you who take time out to respond to our inquiries especially from new hosts like Stan and I.  We were feeling dissapointed about not being able to get answers from what may seem to be simple questions, and not knowing how to contact airbnb, etc... I've never gotten the chance to go through this forum until today.  I find it empowering.  Again, thank you much to all the support.  I'll try and share once I get enough experience...just didn't want to be the blind leading the blind.  Until next, for now I'll keep reading.

Feeling empowered 🙂

Juris

[Sally203]

We have likewise been receiving bookings from 3rd parties, often an agent for an employee on the road. Mostly, they acknowledge that it is for someone else and we then ask for the traveller to register and redo the booking.  While it is a hassle (generally we want to keep the booking without the penalty of canceling or declining) I wonder whether insurance is voided when this occurs and I will be asking AirBnB the same question......