Guest won't arrive till late and wants me to give the keys to their friends

[Jessica40]

Hi (Please forgive any naiviety - I'm new to this!)

I've had a potential guest contact me and make a request to book. She says she's arriving quite late (about 10pm) and as I have plans that evening and need to rearrange these, I've declined the request and said if she's still looking at the weekend, to get in touch as I will have a clearer idea on my movements. 

She has come back and asked if I could meet her friend (who she is visiting in the UK), hand my keys to him and he will let her in when she arrives.

This does not make me feel entirely easy as her friend is completely unknown to me and I do not feel comfortable doing this. 

Has anyone else experienced this type of request? What did you do?

Thanks!

[Alon1]

@Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 

re: Airbnb system is acting to prevent a booking being made for a next of kin. Almost PC gone wrong!'

In my experience it's not PC gone wrong. Rather there are valid reasons, though it's all on a case by case basis.

In the past few years I've had a few cases both bad and good. 

A wife booking for her husband and mother booking for her son turned out bad and was reflected in Reviews. (I managed to have one of the Reviews deleted by a Case Manager.)

  Conversely, a niece booking for her uncle and a godmother for her godson turned out good, but in both cases bookers lived close to my home, and fulfilled my request to turn up with their charges.

Most recently I had identical situation of mother wanting to book for daughter for a few nights stay to attend auditions at the drama school close to my home.

I sent same message to both:

Airbnb do not encourage 3rd Party Bookings. The Guidelines stipulate the person who books must stay at the listing. A Host who knowingly accepts 3rd P.B. forfeits any Airbnb support and it's Host Guarantee.

The only way to address it within the context of an Airbnb booking is for Host to request the Booker to accept full liability in any eventuality. *

However, the preferred method is in line with the Guidelines, namely, that your daughter open her own Airbnb account. She can do this as long as she is 18 years old..

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* I originally got this advice from a Case Manager which leads me to depict 3rd PB as a grey area

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In respect of these two identical cases, the former simply got her daughter to open her own account, no fuss or bother.

  The latter initially informed me her daughter has her own Airbnb account, and a day later that she doesn't, and daughter would prefer for mother to make the booking, in addition to which there was a complication of how many nights she might actually stay. -- I didn't grasp the reason, and had an uneasy feeling, so replied that I am obliged to request the daughter create her own account and contact me herself. I didn't hear from either mother or daughter again. 

.

[Ian-And-Anne-Marie0]

Thanks @Alon1 for your thorough explanation.