Booking under fiance's name

Simona197
Level 1
Kaunas, Lithuania

Booking under fiance's name

Hey all. We have a guest comming who has booked us through his fiance's account. John (let's call him that:)) will be comming alone without the fiance whose account he booked us through. Does that pose any threats? Did any of you have such a situaction when the guest has booked through their family or friends account? Should we cancel his reservation and require him to book through his account?

5 Replies 5
Marzena4
Level 10
Kraków, Poland

I have had a few, @Simona197. If I was informed earlier about the fact, there weren't any problems. When I was taken by surprise, coincidentally there were some glitches in the guest's performance. But still up to you to decide.

// "The only person you can trust is yourself"
Andrea9
Level 10
Amsterdam, Netherlands

@Simona197

As @Marzena4 says, it often isn't, however should a problem arise you' wouldn't be covered by Airbnb in any way, plus the guest can't leave a direct review for you. I had one of these 3rd person bookings which I accepted out of trust. The actual guest was a terrible communicator, and later I got a negative review rating and the comment that arrival communication was difficult. That taught me a lesson...

 

Best way to proceed with such bookings is to call up Airbnb and  have the booking changed, so that they have the guest make their own profile and transfer the booking to that.

If you feel uncomfortable with the booking, you can do the same but ask Airbnb to annul the booking for that reason.

My guest does want to cancel this reservation because under the fiance's account he received a 50 GBP discount 

Susan740
Level 2
Campton, KY

I had this happen just last week.  I looked at the reviews and many of them were actually reviewing the son whom was to be the guest.  I accepted the booking and it turned out fine.  He was in fact a very respectful, polite young man but I realize it was a risk and could have turned out differently.  

Hi all,

 

This just happened to me last week as well.  I would agree that it is best to get the guest to make their own account if at all possible.  If not, then get contact information for all involved parties.

 

Let's call our guest Tom.  Tom used his brothers brand new account and his mother was paying for it.  On check-out day, he came to talk with us about extending the reservation an hour AFTER check-out time.  We agreed, but told him "Mom" would need to go online and extend the reservation.  He left and was out until after midnight.  It didn't happen that day, and we worried for hours that someone else would instant-book and we would have a mess!  It was stressful, as we also did not have his phone number.

 

Biggest problem was not being able to reach anyone.  Lesson-always exchange contact information immediately!  2nd problem-realizing airbnb didn't prevent this problem and total strangers can show up on your doorstep.  3rd problem-he didn't know house rules because those were online - parked in wrong spot and didn't know checkout time and was unable to extend reservation himself without relatives interventing.

 

It would have been helpful to have the mother's contact info too, since she messed up when extending the reservation.  She just made a new one and was charged the cleaning fee twice...a mess.

 

He was a nice guy and it all worked out, but I learned a lesson.

 

Kristi