Bookings made by third parties

[Ben53]

I'm a new host and just received a booking request from someone for their friend to stay with me. My instinct told me it wouldn't be safe to accept because I would know nothing about the person staying with me so I declined the booking.

Am I right in thinking it is against the AirBnB rules to accept a booking for someone who is not themselves a member of AirBnB? Or is it allowed (but inadvisable 🙂

[Clare0]

@Ben53 You were wise not to accept this 3rd party reservation.  I never knowlngly accept them.  These type of reservations can lead to heaps of trouble including hassles if there is damage, inability to communicate with the people actually staying there and the problem with reviews.  How can you review the guest if you never met him and, technically, the guest can't leave a review for you for since they didn't set foot in your place. 

I can't find anywhere that there is a hard and fast prohibition against 3rd party bookings, but it certainly is not encouraged.  Here's Airbnb's help article on the subject: 

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

I know they say they "require" that the booking guest be the one staying, but I've seen actual communication with hosts that seem to imply they will not interevene in a 3rd party booking. 

My advice is to always decline them and ask that the people staying create their own Airbnb account. 

[Patricia55]

Hi @Ben53

See section 14, User Conduct, of the Terms which states:

"... you will not:

Unless Airbnb explicitly permits otherwise, request or book a stay at any Accommodation if you will not actually be staying the the Accommodation yourself;"

This situation occurred for me recently; I took a booking from someone who subsquently told me she'd made the booking for her parents (but I was worried that it could have been anyone..)  I contacted Airbnb and they intervened to get the parents to register and make the booking themselves.

[Andrea9]

@Patricia55 Always wise to tell 3rd party bookers to have the other person to set up their own profile.

You also are fully in your right to ask in advance for the full names of the guests and mention that they are the only ones allowed on your property.

Here's some 'fun' reading:

https://community.airbnb.com/t5/Hosts/Third-party-reservation-nightmare/m-p/53172#M14310

[Ben53]

Thanks for your replies. The person concerned wanted to make a booking for 30 nights - it was very tempting to accept.

[Andrea9]

@Ben53

That is very tempting. As long as the regulations in your area do not allow tenant rights with that amount of days - another can of worms waiting to be opened. In some US states around a month of renting automatically gives tenants such legal rights, so that informed hosts don't rent out longer than 26 or 28 days. 

[Lucas-Augusto0]

It amazing how Help center really doesnt help at all. There should be an online chat here with an agent to help us with matters such as someone who's just made an instant booking for third party and I dont want to cancel and lose 1 of my 3 free of penalties cancelations. 3? really? What if i get 7 of these throughout the year? Airbnb really needs to improve its platform for hosts. I've already accepted one of those and had a really bad experience. 

[Thanos-and-Ina0]

Hello from Greece. My wife and I are new at AirBnB (just 4 days) and we also had a similar experience. Actually we are having now 3 people living in our apt, but  someone else made the reservation instead. The fact is not who did it. I send this message just to say that you can contact with airbnb through twitter and everything will took care in 30 minutes. I am so satisfied with the quick response of the Airbnb’s customer support team. They contacted him/her, who made the reservation and he/she assured AirBnB that is completely responsible for the guests. Also he/she gave id information to me just to be sure that if anything happens i have all personal details of the people who stay at my home, including her/his.  AirBnB can cancel the reservation and this wil fall as a guest cancellation. So by the time that you will realise that something is going wrong, feel free to contact directly with them. It is a matter of high importance to keep the platform safe.