Penalty for cancelling an invalid booking?

[Ben53]

Someone has just made an instant booking for a third party. Am I right in thinking that people are not allowed to do this? If so, will I incur a penalty if I cancel their booking?

I notice that "AirBnB member tried to make a booking for someone else" is not one of the standard reasons for cancelling a booking. This makes me wonder if 3rd party bookings are in fact allowed. Or, call me Mr Cynical if you like, perhaps AirBnB don't care/enforce this rule.

[Karen-and-Brian0]

Hi @Ben53 You're right, third party bookings are not allowed. I think with Instant Booking, you are allowed a certain number of cancellations without penalty, but if you don't want to use one of them up for this, contact Airbnb, explain that it is a third party booking & ask them to do it for you. All ways to contact them are HERE. I think Twitter gets the fastest response these days. Hope that helps! Karen

[Marit-Anne0]

@Ben53

Definitely contact airbnb and have them do the cancellation for you.  Also inform the one that is booking that third party bookings are not allowed on airbnb and that the booking will be cancelled.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/427/can-i-book-on-behalf-of-a-friend-or-family-member