3rd party bookings

Chris232
Level 10
Petersfield, United Kingdom

3rd party bookings

I think it is about time AirBnB reminds guests that 3rd party bookings are not allowed.

3 times over the past week I have received 3rd party bookings. The first 2 was able to get CS to cancel the reservation and to encourage the guests to set up their own profile to book.

But late this afternoon, I had a complete stranger arrive at my door stating that a room had been booked for him.

Its late, heavy rain and not looking forward to spending another hour on the phone to CS to get this reservation cancelled. The stranger then hands me his mobile phone to talk to his friend whom had made the booking only to be told that they had made numerous bookings and that this is the first time they had been made aware of this policy.

So this means other hosts are happy to accept 3rd party bookings, without realising that they are putting themselves, their children, their family in danger by accepting a complete stranger whom has no Airbnb profile to come into their home.

In this case, sat the gentleman down with a cup of tea, 3rd degree interrogation and after going through the reasons of no 3rd party bookings and house rules, relied on gut instinct that he was OK to stay.

AirBnB need to safe guard and protect hosts ... and need to send out a reminder that 3rd party bookings are not acceptable

41 Replies 41
Chris232
Level 10
Petersfield, United Kingdom

Here you go @Jess-and-Craig0 

 

Can I book on behalf of a friend or family member?

Transparency and trust are vital to the Airbnb experience. People rely on information in Airbnb profiles, reviews, and other verifications when deciding whether to host or stay with someone.

We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who's going to stay at the listing.

Instead of making a reservation for someone else, consider referring them to Airbnb. You can refer them to Airbnb directly from your dashboard by clicking the Invite Friends button. When a referred friend or family member successfully completes a qualifying reservation, you’ll earn travel credit.

For business trips, Airbnb allows designated bookers at companies enrolled in Airbnb for Work to book trips on behalf of others. If you book travel for your company, find out more about booking for your team

 

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

Jess-and-Craig0
Level 2
Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Thanks.  I guess then that if someone who hasnt booked causes damage to our property we will not be covered as our aggreement is with the account holder. 

 

I'm asking airbnb again just now for clarity.  

 

It's really not cleare, is it? 

I have now been on hold with Airbnb support for over 30 minutes.

I asked "Where in the Terms of Service does it say that 3rd party booking are not allowed?"

The first person was not able to find it anywhere on the site and transferred me to a  "senior support person". This person claimed to have sent a link to the requested information to my Inbox. Nothing arrived in my Inbox. So now I have been on hold for more than 30 minutes waiting anxiously for a definite answer.

I need legal footing from Airbnb if I want to deny a 3rd party booking. I can't just say "Airbnb told me ... ".

Does anyone here know where I can find in writing that 3rd party bookings are prohibited.

@Abrasha-and-Maria0 

 

The simple answer to your query

 

T&C  14.6

14. Prohibited Activities

  • unless Airbnb explicitly permits otherwise, book any Listing if you will not actually be using the Host Services yourself;

As it implies Airbnb can permit it in certain circumstances. It's why I often depict it as a 'Gray Area'.

 

I've also suggested elsewhere if Airbnb wanted to totally outlaw it, it should not just be buried in T&Cs but explicitly stated at the point of contact; i.e. 'Request to Book' for Guests and Accept / Decline for Hosts. 

 

 

What does T&C mean?

When I go to https://www.airbnb.com/terms (Terms of Service) and go to section 14. Prohibited Activities, there is no section 14.6

 

The section you mention "unless Airbnb explicitly permits otherwise, book any Listing if you will not actually be using the Host Services yourself", says nothing about 3rd party bookings.

In other words, this is not what I asked about. It does not provide a "simple answer".

 

@Abrasha-and-Maria0 

 

Firstly, please don't be so pernickety:

 

- T&C = Terms and Conditions. Many people refer to it equally as ToS = Terms of Service.

   I'm no expert, but it may just be a difference between spelling of the term in UK & USA.

   In any case it's the same thing. 

 

- You also found section 14. You see there bullet points. 6th bullet point down is what I quoted and for ease of reference stated 6th.

 

Secondly, what is written in 14.6 most closely equates to the section in 'HELP' 

Type '3rd party booking' and there is no section with that phrase!

If you want to find the guideline ruling type: 'Who can book trips on behalf of someone else?'

 

Who can book trips on behalf of someone else?

Airbnb allows designated people at companies enrolled in Airbnb for Work to book business trips on behalf of other people—these people are called bookers.

When a booker books a trip for someone else, they handle the reservation request, introductions, and payment for the reservation—then transfer responsibility for the trip to the guest. Once a reservation is accepted, both the booker and the guest join the message thread with the host and receive all trip communication.

If you're a host, you'll see booked by and booked for in your communications with the booker and your guest.

Read more about bookers and Airbnb for Work.

Personal travel

We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who's going to stay at the listing.

 

 

Add one and one together and it's clear this the ruling v. 3rd Party Booking.

 

If you call Customer Services they uniformly refer to the term '3rd Party Booking'.

 

=============

 

ps. If you want to address anyone on this CC, then please use the @ sign and a drop down menu appears with names of contributors to the thread. -- Notification then appears on that person's Notification (bell icon) top right hand of screen.  Otherwise, you can't guarantee that the person addressed will return to the thread. 

@Alon1 

I have to be persnickety (the proper spelling ;-)), because I need to have legal footing in case it would be needed.

The 6th bullet point you quoted does indeed say nothing about 3rd party bookings.

In the meantime I did find "Who can book trips on behalf of someone else?" at https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1311/who-can-book-trips-on-behalf-of-someone-else as you have now also provided. That makes a lot more sense than your first reply. Thank for you support anyway. 

I now wonder what to do when a business or as private person books via instant booking for a 3rd party. Do I cancel the reservation and let them know how to do it properly? Or do I have to do something else.

FWIW, my last guests were business travelers booked by their company for 10 days. Booked instantly, and not by a booker.

My current guests are the parents visiting their daughter who lives in my neighborhood. Also booked instantly by the daughter.

How should I have handled these bookings?

@Abrasha-and-Maria0 

 

Thanks for reply and spelling correction!

 

Firstly, I have never used Instant Book. I'm a live-in host and it's not remotely suitable. I need to screen every enquirer to my satisfaction. 

  There are many Hosts on this forum who do use IB and so can better advise you.

 

However,  a 'Work' or 'Business' booking as it is variously called is permissible and does not infringe so called 3rd Party Booking. So as long as you are content to accept such bookings then no problem.

 

If a private person books for a 3rd Party via Instant Book, then best phone Airbnb Customer Support and request CS cancel the booking and contact the Booker.

 

  Do not Cancel it yourself as you will face the penalties: automated Cancellation on your profile, financial penalty of $ 100, and loss of Super Host. (Though as of July 1st 2019, Airbnb changed the ruling to allow 1 Cancellation per 100 bookings per annum.)

 

  I understand IB hosts are permitted 3 cancellations per annum, but I'm not sure how it all works because CC contains quite a lot of complicated cases. So if in doubt phone CS.

 

The gray area manifests in the type of booking you took for your current guest. Indeed, most 3rd P.B. requests are on behalf of family or friends. Many hosts do not see a problem with it. Airbnb will also process the booking, but will not apply their Host Guarantee (for what its worth). 

 

There are various ways to address it. The following are my experiences as non IB Host. So I either receive an Enquiry or Reservation Request.

 

i) My initial response depends on whether I will even contemplate the enquiry / request. 

   If so, I will kindly suggest the person who will stay open their own Airbnb account and so make the booking in their own name.

  If not, and a pre-paid Reservation Request was sent, I kindly ask the person to 'WITHDRAW REQUEST'. If they decline I phone Airbnb CS and ask them to Withdraw the Request (i.e. Cancel).

 

ii) If the prospective Booker makes a case that it's difficult for their relative or friend to open their own account, and I am still willing to consider their request, then I follow the directive once given me by a Customer Service Rep: Airbnb will not apply its Host Guarantee and therefore I the Host am obliged to request the Booker accepts liability in any eventuality. 

 

In the past month I've had two such cases.

 

In the former case, a father in China sent a request to book on behalf of his daughter in UK. I noted the father had been liberally doing this for 3 years with 16 Reviews, more than half on behalf of one family member or another. I phoned CS and the Rep took control of the situation. She immediately Cancelled the Reservation Request and contacted the father.

    Within an hour the daughter contacted me in person having just opened her own account. It also meant that she must be at least 18 years old and so eligible to open an Airbnb account. I accepted her booking.

 

In the latter case, this week as it happens, a young man living close to my home, wanted to book on behalf of his father. I suggested the father open his own account. The son replied immediately that he would inform his father to do so. However, half an hour later the son contacted again apologetically saying his father couldn't easily do it, and he couldn't easily help his father who was flying shortly from New Zealand. -- Consequently, I accepted the booking conditionally. The son should arrive with his father and accept liability in any eventuality. The son was happy to do this on the Airbnb messaging system. He arrived with his father and everything was fine.

 

Finally, the biggest problem are Undisclosed 3rd Party Bookings for Personal Travel. In other words, the Booker does not inform the Host at the time of booking that someone else will stay in the property. 

 

  In some cases, Booker might inform the Host sometime after booking and before arrival of 3rd Party.  - At that point apply the above solutions.

 

  Trickiest of all, if it's not disclosed at all, but the Host becomes aware of it at check-in (most likely if Host requests ID and discovers it does not match the Booker).  Host can then refuse entrance and immediately and contact Airbnb to Cancel the booking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

@Alon1 

That situation in the last paragraph happened to us once. As we were rather new at being hosts at the time I didn't know what to do so I called support while the two people were waiting before I allowed them to check-in. Airbnb cancelled the booking.

The situation got ugly later, as for some reason the booker was allowed to leave a review even though he had never stayed with us, and we had not written a review for him. The review was very ugly and 1 star across the board. It was later removed by Airbnb, because of the content of the review.

We had been under the impression that reviews were only posted on the site when both the host and the guest write reviews. This is obviously not the case. This happened again a couple of weeks ago as our review of the guest was posted for him, but he never wrote a review for us. Kind of annoying really.

@Abrasha-and-Maria0 

 

re: 'for some reason the booker was allowed to leave a review even though he had never stayed with us....'

 

This policy was implemented in UK following an intervention by CMA [Competition & Markets Authority') --  The Guardian newspaper article from two years ago has been quoted several times on this forum.

                     

 

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/airbnb-agrees-reviews-loophole-intervention-cma-r...

 

The current 14 day Review deadline, and timing of the loading of Reviews on profiles - either following both parties writing review, or only one party (on the 14th day - is also a revision of an original policy.

 

When I began hosting in 2013 Review deadline was 30 Days. Moreover, a review was loaded as soon as one or other party wrote their review. In other words, the person who had yet to review could see the review and respond to it in their review. 

     I don't recall exactly when the revision to the current policy occurred...  c 2014-15? 

 

Jessica1886
Level 2
Naringal East, Australia

Ah thanks for that info. I have a guest arriving tomorrow. They do t have an Airbnb account. The daughter booked it for them. Should I get them to sign up or let it slide? I’m guessing the parents aren’t covered or me if something happens?

@Jessica1886  I know hosts sometimes do accept 3rd party reservations depending on the circumstances. It seems a bit late for the parents to set up their own account and try to have the reservation transferred if they are due to arrive tomorrow.

An adult daughter booking for her parents probably isn't too risky. Have you had good communication with her? You feel you can trust that it is actually her parents she booked for? If they are elderly, they may not be computer savvy and would have been daunted by trying to book themselves. Or she may have given them the stay as a gift.

One of the main issues with 3rd party bookings is that often the party who has been booked in hasn't actually read though the listing description, house rules, etc, and can arrive expecting something different, or not being aware that it's a non-smoking listing, or that they can't arrive with their dog, etc. 

So if I were you, what I'd do at this point is to contact the daughter, ensure that her parents are aware of everything about your listing, and make sure you have a phone number for the parents. I might even call them, introduce myself, and have a chat, just to ascertain that there aren't any misunderstandings and all is clear.