Third-party bookings nightmare

[Helen2404]

I get many third-party booking requests. I ask Aibnb for help and they say this is not allowed as the guest is then not ID’ed or verified. Good I want to protect my family and other guests but then what I ask do I do about the booking request. 
i have been told to let it expire, to decline it or to ask the guest to withdraw their request. The first two options mean I fet penalised by Airbnb with warning emails saying my response time is slow or that my listings will not be promoted if I’m declining bookings. I am told my calendar will be or is frozen.
The third option to ask the guest to withdraw has been ignored and I have been told its my problem. 

And this is based on trust, then saying who they are or who is coming to stay - I had a booking a while ago from Anya who wanted to come in a yoga course near me. I said politely that I was sorry I could not take the booking. It was odd right away because my listings were then closed. I thought it odd but didn’t anticipate what happened next. 
Later I happened to be looking through my archive of messages and it turned out that “Anya” was in fact (same initials) a hairy face middle aged man called Alex from Bournemouth with a rental in Morocco! 
I told Airbnb. They said “sorry for the inconvenience”. They have done nothing about it. 
What would I do if Alex instead of Anya had turned up at my home? 

Airbnb have given me no support. 

What you do to protect yourself? 

I think I should start to say I need to see passport ID on arrival to weed out the problem? 

I have asked in another post how to make a formal complaint to Airbnb as I have been trying to for a week. . 

[Marci729]

We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who's going to stay at the listing, as hosts rely on information in Airbnb profiles, reviews, and other verifications to provide transparency and trust.

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

[Helen2404]

Thank you @Marci729  but I tell guests making these booking requests that I can’t take third party reservations. Thats assuming they tell me.
I say ask the guest to book themselves.

The problem is that their simple mistake, flouting of Airbnb the rules, deception or dishonesty (why would Alex pretend to book as Anya?!) turns into my being penalised for not just pressing ‘accept’ booking. 

There is no disincentive for the guest. They aren’t told, warned, reminded or penalised for making rule breaks or false booking requests. 

[Emiel1]

@Helen2404 

You can ask the guest to retract the booking, also mention you otherwise need to decline the request with reporting it to Airbnb as a 3rd party booking. It is my experience 90% is retracting their request within an hour !

[Helen2404]

Thank you @Emiel1  its a good idea.
Do you think Airbnb does anything when you report it? I have been reporting to them but don’t get the impression any note is name or anything done. 

[Fred13]

@Helen2404 You are talking requests correct, not inquiries right?

How do you know it is a 3rd-party booking? Nor that the interested party is not ID’ed or verified?

[Helen2404]

@Fred13 Yes for our safety I have always chosen that setting that guests have to request to be allowed to make the booking. I then have two options - accept and decline. This allows me to check their profile and to engage them briefly in messages to know why they will be staying if they haven’t said. Also I can answer questions guests have before we are tied into a booking. 
but having two options only is a blunt instrument when someone’s booking request is unsafe or untrue.  Each decline or expiry gets me penalised.  

[Fred13]

I think I have answered 100 inquiries with a single dot (.) and I have never noticed any influence on my rating.

[Colleen253]

“What is Airbnb doing to avoid penalizing Hosts' acceptance rate when they decline unfit or illegitimate requests?
We understand that sometimes you may get requests that clearly violate your House Rules, or that are actually marketing attempts disguised as booking requests. These can put you in the awkward position of having to risk harming your own acceptance rate when there’s not a better action to take. To address this, the first thing we need to do is help you flag to us when there’s a problem. We’re exploring how best to do this, and while we don’t have a feature to announce at this time, we are absolutely aware of this pain point for you.

We want to ensure you’re empowered to decide who you welcome into your home and that you’re comfortable with the guests who stay with you. We understand that you only want to be held accountable to legitimate booking requests, and we’re committed to making sure that happens.”

https://www.airbnb.ca/resources/hosting-homes/a/understanding-response-rate-and-acceptance-rate-86

From 2018, last updated April 2021. They obviously are not that invested in fixing this issue for hosts.  As per usual.

Inform these people that their request is a violation of the terms of service, and as long as they promptly withdraw it, you will refrain from reporting them to Airbnb. If that doesn’t do the trick, you have no choice but to decline (and report). @Helen2404 

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

This part of “flagging” and notifying AirBnb to a third party booking or illegitimate booking so that legitimate booking request do not negatively effect your acceptance rate percentage. I recently posted about this as our acceptance rate is well below the 88% target rate AirBnb wants hosts to shoot for. 

Ive had many many third party rental attempts (mostly innocent errors by potential guest) that have resulted in declining booking requests and negativity effecting our acceptance rate unfairly. 

What is Airbnb doing to avoid penalizing Hosts' acceptance rate when they decline unfit or illegitimate requests?
We understand that sometimes you may get requests that clearly violate your House Rules, or that are actually marketing attempts disguised as booking requests. These can put you in the awkward position of having to risk harming your own acceptance rate when there’s not a better action to take. To address this, the first thing we need to do is help you flag to us when there’s a problem. We’re exploring how best to do this, and while we don’t have a feature to announce at this time, we are absolutely aware of this pain point for you.

We want to ensure you’re empowered to decide who you welcome into your home and that you’re comfortable with the guests who stay with you. We understand that you only want to be held accountable to legitimate booking requests, and we’re committed to making sure that happens.

They need to fix this, and it should be very easy.  

[Colleen253]

@Andrea-and-Glenn0  It IS easy to fix.

“We want to ensure…”

“We understand…”

“…we are absolutely aware…”

“We’re exploring…”

What they actually mean is “we really don’t give a rats patootie about our hosts or their ‘pain points’ ”.

[Helen2404]

Yes for the last five weeks the responses I have had from Airbnb have been poor, interested. They must be given a list of responses - “sorry for the inconvenience”. Yes appropriate sometimes but not when a host is reporting a guest booking in their home with a false identity! 
This time has been an eye opener for me and I now feel quite unsafe having Airbnb guests in my home. Not that I think every guest is bad but because some are and I now know first hand that there is no Airbnb safety net. 

[Elaine701]

Again.... 

There. Is. No. Support. From. Airbnb. 

We don't use them for anything, except in extreme cases, and only to report something extreme. We never expect any resolution or tangible action.

We can, however, be guaranteed flowery, complimentary, snd disarming responses.

But that's not what I need. I need results. Airbnb support isn't the way to get it. You have to (wisely) use your own facilities to achieve results. 

Prevention is the best cure. Do your best to scare the undesirables away before they book. I don't care if Airbnb likes it or not. They're not the ones suffering the burdens of (ever increasing) undesirable guests. Reality will eventually sort things out for them. Even if it's painful. 

[Helen2404]

@Elaine701 

Yes totally no support from Airbnb. None. 

In the last five weeks I have messaged Airbnb support for help in the middle of the night to say I’m being threatened and given abuse by a guest who wants to break her UK travel quarantine on day two. Airbnb had nothing so say about it. After a month of this behaviour the guest sneaks out a day early but luckily I hear her and ask for the key back as she is leaving. Airbnb had nothing say about this. 

Finally Airbnb send me an email saying they notice I had a bad review (as threatened) and that I should be aware that my listings will not be promoted if I do not improve. 

To be clear, if I am ever threatened again in my home I will call the police and worry about Airbnb later. They did nothing for 5 weeks to make a difference and help me. On one occasion they sent me love and thanked me but that in fact didn’t help me. 

My perception of Airbnb has totally shifted this month and its left me afraid to host ongoing. 

[Fred13]

@Helen2404 You are not going to find sanity catering to the $39/$42 a night market, specially with your nice place.  The odds are against you.