Third party reservation nightmare

[Gina9]

I recently accepted a booking for guest and his partner for their anniversary weekend- 2 people. Alex did not have any reviews but his request email was articulate and he had 4 verifications from Airbnb including  drivers licence, phone number etc........the nightmare began on arrival of "guests" . Key was collected but apparently Alex had made booking on behalf of friends...........I live in the adjoining apartment and was horrified by the number of people coming and going - at one point the door was left wide open - I called out and rang doorbell - looked in and the place was trashed - cigarettes and ash

everywhere (my rules are no smoking).........eventually someone turned up - I asked if he was Alex.......no - noone seemed to know who Akex was!!!........long story short - never had a conversation with Alex - and key not returned when "guests" (must have been 6 people staying) left. I repeatedly tried to call and message Alex regarding return of keys. The place was disgusting and took hours to clean- cigarette smell lingered for days - burns in sheets, cigarette butts in potplants, strange liquid spilt in freezer which has  eaten through the casing. Had to call a locksmith to have locks changed.......and have been in a long drawn out battle to have this payment reimbursed - not easy having the security deposit released! My question is - what are my rights in evicting third party "guests"..........my contract was with Airbnb and their approved client "Alex".........can I terminate a booking without any consequences? If not it would seem the verification process is not worth anything?.......I have hosted may guests and until now never had a problem........they have all been great and I have reached super host status.  I have accepted other bookings without reviews - everyone has to start somewhere - I have hosted may guests but never used Airbnb myself - so when I make my first booking I will not have a review.............in future I would not even accept myself!!!!.......any comments regarding the legality of third party bookings?

Thanks

Gina

[Francesca62]

Clare - kudos to you for having the courage to give an honest (negative)  guest review!

[Clare0]

@Francesca62 It is vital to leave a negative review when necessary!  All hosts rely on them, especially those who have Instant Book on their listings.  My yardstick for leaving a positive or negative review is whether I would want the guest to book with me again or not.  If I don't want them back, I figure another host wouldn't want them either.  A one or two sentence stating the facts is all that is needed. 

[Marsha17]

This seems to be a scam some people are pulling or trying to pull. I had a young woman reserve a month with me for "her and a co-worker" this summer.  She said her fiancee might show up for a weekend during that time. She was from CA.  She didn't show the other colleague when booking.  The day of check-in, her "fiancee" showed up to check in because "she was in a business meeting.  He was also not verified on Airbnb or the listing.  I gave him the key, while still cleaning the refrigerator. He was going to go get some groceries. As I cleaned, I didn't feel good about the whole incident.  He had said that the woman who booked my place probably wasn't even going to be staying there. He was checking in for her, but it would mostly be his 35-year-old nephew who would be staying there. Now, I'm totally befuddled, because neither the fiancee or the nephew, who is supposed to be the co-worker, have verified Airbnb IDs on this booking.  

So, I called the 800# for Airbnb, and described what was happening. The Cust Service Rep said I should not let them book. She said she'd call the woman who booked the place and tell her that only verified Airbnb guests could check in or stay. I said "Good" even though I could have used the money ($1915).  However, I was afraid of what might happen to my condo during the 30 days. It took all afternoon, and several more calls to get Airbnb to cancel the reservation.  I was very afraid that the intentions for the use of my condo might not be legal, since I had no verified identities on the 2 people who were going to be staying there.  I feel that the woman who booked my place was fronting for someone who is afraid to show their faces or who cannot be verified.  At any rate, I was happy to find out that I could cancel without penalty because it is a rule of Airbnb that only verified guests who have booked can check in and stay. Luckily, I was still at my condo cleaning, so I was able to speak to the man who came to check in.  If I had already left, they would have gotten away with whatever they were attempting to pull.  

[Edwin57]

Hearing this kind of story makes me upset on behalf of all of Host and us Iam sorry to hear such can't even said the word the person is trash himself, you reading this Airbnb the person is trash, stop them before it gets out of hand safty first Host don't be afraid of putting reviews on such people who are trash

[Edwin57]

Airbnb compensate Gina you know what I mean. I know you reading this is not about reviews anymore is about removing trash you know who they are

[Edwin57]

Thank you so much Gina for sharing this everybody is listening as well as Airbnb 

[Ji2]

Hi everyone - I'm writing in because I want to see if anyone has had this experience/Gina - I am in the deepest sense of this 3rd party nightmare:

- We had a third party booking from a gentleman who stated it was for himself and 2 of his 'work' collegeaues. 

- Then 11 people (3-4 adults they interchanged constantly but a few remained constant) and 7 children 4 under the age of 3 moved into our house. We continally called, cried, made complaints, we had witnesses including friends, our gardener, our cleaning service but the case manager asssigned said we didn't posess enough proof! Even though we were here witnessing it and everyone and their mother could see the children and hear them.

- Finally the reviews of the hosts before me started appearing on their page - they were just like our issues - third party bookings and they had trashed the houses they stayed at.  We called Airbnb again and showed them the issue -- they seemed more receptive and helped by canceling the reservation. It then took us 8 HOURS to get the people in there to leave. Airbnb told us to call the police and force them out but we didn't want a scene on our very quiet street. 

I had friends come with me instead. So again more witnesses who saw the 7 CHILDREN (including 2 teenagers) who left the house. The house had been freshly remodeled with a brand new kitchen, new furniture, and new paint. It was completely trashed. To the point of vandalism. We have over 8 grand in damages. $8000.00. 

We video'd, we did tons of photos. It took us two weeks to clean it up and replace all the items, get all the service people out, fix all the damages. Then I sent everything off to Airbnb. That took hours of documenting and collecting bids etc. 

They moved us around to at least 3 different customer service representatives 'case managers'. Then after hearing nothing, I call. They tell me they are looking into it, it's been bumped up to legal, they are looking into identity issues. 

Still nothing. 

Then just a couple days ago I see online that they state the guest was REFUNDED. The entire amount. Not just even the unspent portion but even the days they stayed in our property. Airbnb refunded the guest the entire amount, took the money FROM US, and will not respond to us about the damages. 

So just a HUGE warning to everyone. This company is very shady. Insurance policy -- we've never seen anything and now they have taken the money that was already paid for a person who's already stayed at the property and refunded it. And they tell us they reserve the right to do all of that. 

I do think something needs to be done about it. 

[Adrian232]

My third party guest checked in and feighned illness forced us to do a booking back to the Uk for him that very day!! When he realised the rates were high he said he would go to the place he USUALLY stays at!!! He mooved out leaving a MONTHS VOID in my booking!!!

[Elaine-And-David0]

I have had several people who have been booked by friends etc. The latest was a man who nturned up when we were expecting a woman . It turned out hsi wife had booked for him.  So far we have only had one issue when they turned up at 4am very drunk with a group of people and tried to hold a party in our house. I asked them to leave imediately and after a couple of hours and threats of police they did. They sneaked back and collected their stuff and car but took the keys the next day whilst we were out. We did get the keys back eventually. 

When i spoke to someone at airbnb about any claims arising because of third party bookings i was told that they would not cover it as it is not the requistered guest that did the damage. However they did say we do not have to allow people in if they are not the person on the booking. So in a sense as hosts we need to be sure we are only letting in the correct person. I would find it very hard to have someone turn up who is very pleasant but not the person who booked an dthen turn them away, knowing they had nowhere to stay. There has to be some solution.

I now have rule that guest have to accept that only registered guests can check in. We also now ask who is coming and if there is no profile picture or it is not the person named on the booking we ask for a passport or driving licence photo of the person coming "to cover our inmsurance".  Fortunately I live in the propoerty so check everyone in personally.

As much as we as hosts have a reponsability to protect oursleves and our property there has to be more airbnb can do. Every guest who has been booked by a third party I have spoken with (and pointed out airbnb terms and condistions) have said they were not aware of it.  This needs to be made much clearer to existing registered users and agreed to to in large letters when people sign up.

I also think airbnb need to make provision for joint accounts that requires all parties to have been verified. That way couples and families can book for each other e.g. wife's can book as in this case for their husband. But it should require them always saying who is actiually going to stay. The new system of letting the host know who is coming is voluntary and does not work.