@Wenona0 This is kind of a bummer. Airbnb requires that the booking guest also be a guest that will be staying. This is in Airbnb's Terms of Service under Prohibited Activities, section 14:
- unless Airbnb explicitly permits otherwise, book any Listing if you will not actually be using the Host Services yourself;
If you are not comfortable with this, contact Airbnb. Likely they will ask you if you want to proceed with the reservation.
If you do, then be sure to indicate in your review that the booking guest booked on behalf of others. I would certainly give the user a "Thumbs Down" so as to protect Instant Book hosts from receiving an instant booking from this person if they are habitually booking on behalf of others.
Oftentimes it is an innocent booking. Family members often book for other family members, especially children for their parents, not realizing that Airbnb just doesn't work this way.
Since you asked what other hosts would do, I would contact Airbnb to see what info they had on the booking guests. If the reason for booking was an innocent booking for family members, I might let it go, but otherwise I would consider cancelling. Also, it would depend on when the reservation was due to start. If it were quite a ways away, I would ask the booking the guest to cancel while offering a refund and then ask that the guests that would actually be staying book themselves.
For future reference, please see this link:
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/427/can-i-book-on-behalf-of-a-friend-or-family-member
I hope this helps!