Next guest wants to "transfer" his reservation

[Jules22]

I have a party of guests set to arrive this coming weekend and just heard from the fellow who booked my house;  his family is here for a wedding, but the father of the bride wants HIS family to stay at my house rather than the family who actually booked. (They will now be staying at the bride's house.) Because I have a strict cancelation policy, they don't want to cancel the one family and re-book the other, they want me to just "transfer" the booking to the new family. The person who booked my house is no longer going to stay there at all.

I told him I guess its fine if he just keeps the booking as is - the only real difference on my end is that HE would be the one receiving my review, not the guests staying. I also asked for a list of names of everyone who would be staying at my house because I've seen no profiles or anything about them at all.

Was this the right thing to do? And IS there a way to transfer a booking to a different person? Also, does anyone else ask for a list of of everyone staying? I've had a few guests flat out lie to me about the number of people staying at my house, and I wonder if requiring a list of the names of everyone staying would help (or is that weird?)

Thanks for any advice.

Jules.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

No. Do not do this.  Contact Airbnb and discuss the situation with them.  Reservations cannot be transferred in this way.   You always have the option to refund them the money awarded to your for your cancellation policy, but I would not do so until the new booking is actually complete.   Airbnb will help you with this.  What you have at this time is a third-party booking and those are not allowed on the platform.  The guests are not covered under Airbnb policies and neither are you.  

[Jules22]

Meaning should something happen then the person who actually booked is not responsible? I often have several people staying at my place in one party, but only one person ever makes the booking. If these folks are technically part of the same family, how is it different? Just trying to understand the "third party" concept.

[Vanessa-and-Kurt0]

@Jules22,

The difference is if the person who books is staying or not. If they are staying, thats fine-they are there and responsible for whats going on. third party us when the person does not stay so it is impossibke to make them responsible for anything that hapoens during the stay.

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

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

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

If you violate Airbnb's policies, you are no longer covered by their host insurance nor the host guarantee.  You forfeit your claims by bypassing their conditions for an acceptable reservation.  The fact that the reservation guest may or may not be around is not the point.  He needs to be ON SIGHT to be responsible for the actions of his guests.  

If one of the little children pee on your bed, he can claim deniablilty because he was not there to supervise.  He can also say that he has absolutely no idea who it was that was in the listing, if he were shifty and inclined to do so.  It's happened before - search the forums for people who have allowed third-party bookings only to have the group who actually stayed there throw a giant rave, trash the place, and the booking guest says "Wasn't me."  From a legal standpoint, I'm strongly suggesting that you not do this.

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Third-party-reservation-nightmare/td-p/53172

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Guest-booking-for-someone-else/td-p/197282

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Bookings-made-by-third-parties/td-p/96123

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Who-counts-as-a-third-party-booking/td-p/158961

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Host-Guarrentee-3rd-party-bookings/td-p/300332

[Jules22]

Thank you for all the links! I'm calling Airbnb for help on this, too.

[Paul154]

As a guest, I have done the exact same thing as your guest.

For a wedding, I did rent a townhouse only to realize it would be best for my brother's familiy.

Fortunately, the host allowed me to keep the reservation as is.

I was grateful, as family weddings tend to be a "fluid" thing. A long lost uncle will come. A niece will have an emergency...

I wish there were an easier way with Airbnb to accomplish this.

The "official" way to transfer would be to ask the original reservation holder to cancel and incur fees , releasing new person to book.

Even if you promise that you will rebate the original fees, it is a difficult sell to the people. It is very clunky, time consuming and risky.

[Jules22]

I actually think it will be okay. The original person who booked is part of the family of the people who will stay, and he will be around. I shoot weddings for a living so i do understand exactly what you are saying.