Third Party Booking(s)

[Sarah327]

I have come across third party bookings on numerous occasions. In almost all, before a booking occurs and I have been able to advise on the subject (i.e., point the "guest" to Airbnb's Help Centre).

I now have two exceptions:

- the first made me aware their stay had been booked by a colleague upon arrival/prior to check-in, and after 3 hours and a long conversation with Airbnb, I helped the guest (who was onsite and intended to stay) set up their own Airbnb profile and book correctly.

- the second occurred this week, unbeknownst to me until the "guest's" left me a thank you note signed, "Kath and Tony". Not the name (of "John") the booking was made under.

I believe John is most likely the couple's son and made the booking on their behalf for ease. As is often the case.

However, I feel rather angry that when I greeted "John" and introduced myself, he made no effort to correct or advise me that in fact he was Tony, and continued his stay under false pretences.

It doesn't help matters that the couple arrived, almost an hour early, and were rather rude when told the cottage was not quite ready for them.

Nor that Airbnb, when I contacted them today to make them aware of the third party booking, seemed completely non plused about the situation. I do understand nothing happened, however, had it I would have been left completely unprotected!

I want to ensure I leave a factual review to warn other hosts of the likelihood of a third party booking, but first would appreciate any advice/thoughts of other fellow hosts, who have experienced similar, before doing so.

[Kelly149 · Accepted solution]

@Sarah327   I don’t complain about things unless I KNOW exactly what the problem is. In this case, perhaps John is real name & Tony is nickname. 

ABB does not believe in telling you who is staying with you, so unless you ask for guest ID you really have no idea. 

[Gillian166]

this is really tricky, because if i were to book a hotel for my husband, no problem.

I also often book flights for him, no problem.
on other accom sites like BDC you can book for anyone, and you can even send the review to them to complete (wtf! only just found this one out last week). 

So it's industry standard that this happens, so you can understand why people do it. they aren't trying to break rules, they don't realise it's a rule to start with. I've actually booked abb's for my husband many times, after all, why should he set up a seperate profile for the few times he's travelling alone, why not just use mine? (and use the free-wife labour he is so accustomed to, ha). Never has a host stopped me, and i've been upfront in the chat that i'm booking it for my husband. 

This is a grey area, and a son booking it for his parents isn't a red flag. they might not be airbnb savvy, or maybe he booked it as a gift. (abb dont' do gift vouchers which is a shame). If you flag him for this, when he was doing a lovely thing for his parents, it's not really fair. I've had v similar experiences, and even yes the oldies were a bit rude and didn't really understand the airbnb thing, and they managed to complain about a few things. I think in the review I wrote that it was the parents of the person, and that's it.  

Now at least with abb you have the safety net in the review, because John should not have made a 3rd party booking (likely he doesn't know this), so if a poor review arrives you can have it removed easily I think. But i would address it now, before the review, and let john know how it all went, carefully! and that as he didn't stay personally anything he says that might be negative is heresay. again, this must be worded really carefully.  Given that 3rd party guests can't reach out to you easily, don't receive any of the welcome messaging, it's really impossibly for them to review the host on many things. 

So, 1) i'd wait for them to write a review and 2) I wouldn't punish John. If he was buying the getaway for his parents as a gift this is the ONLY way to do it, afaik. 

[Michael5689]

@Gillian166 I'd agree with this.

My parents actually tried to figure out the AirBNB website a couple of times and couldn't get it to work and actually get to a booking even after their account was in some state of creation.  I think they had trouble with the verification step.

AirBNB offered them the option of staying much closer to our house when they came to visit and they just couldn't figure out how to get everything working on the website.  Because of that I completely managed and booked their first few trips.  Eventually they were able to get an account created and I do now "add" them to the bookings so they can see the bookings, receipts, host communication, etc.

That being said to @Sarah327  original post, I always inform the host of the house of what is going on right from the beginning and keep them well updated throughout my parents stay.  I've probably contacted ~20 hosts through the years doing this and none of them have ever complained about the arrangement.  Most were actually very understanding.  In reality I am always the one doing the physical check in, usually doing the final steps of check-out, and end up spending a considerable amount of time at the place as well so it's a bit of a grey area for us.

I don't know that I would feel comfortable booking an AirBNB for them if the location wasn't somewhere that I was physically going to be at as well.  That might be unfair to the host.
Mike

[Emilia42]

@Gillian166 Technically, all a user would have to do is change the profile name to "Gillian and [Insert family member here.]" Hosts have no idea which ID is uploaded to the account nor whose name is on the credit card. Personally, I don't mind 3rd party bookings, since Airbnb doesn't give me ANY information on the primary account holder as it is. Why not host their family members?

[Debra300]

@Emilia42,

The problem with a third-party booking is that if there is an accident, incident or event that causes damages or injury, it's unlikely that most hosts' insurance policies (I am dismissive of Air Cover, because is just a marketing gimmick) would cover any claims, because hosts are supposed to have a legal binding reservation with at least one of the persons staying.

[Gillian166]

@Debra300  my insurance doesn't specify that. 

[Debra300]

@Gillian166,

That's great, and you run your business accordingly.  I recommend that all hosts review their insurance policies before accepting third-party reservations, because theirs may not be like yours.

[Gillian166]

does that mean you don't do direct bookings? or you make people sign a contract first? even for a 1 night stay? @Debra300 

[Debra300]

@Gillian166,

It would not be economically advantageous for us to offer one nights, because it takes at least six hours to do a thorough turnover.  Our home owner's insurance provides coverage for our short-term rentals, because they are at our primary residence.  We do take direct bookings, and issue a booking payment receipt document which constitutes the rental agreement.  At check-in we require that the guest show ID and present that card that was used for payment, if applicable.  Without this documentation and ID verification we wouldn't have any proof that the people weren't our house guests instead of paying guest.  Personally, I wouldn't feel competent if I tried to submit a claim to my insurer, and couldn't tell them the full names and contact details of the people who are staying or stayed with us, because I let someone else book for them.

[Helen3]

It's not a grey area at all @Gillian166  Airbnb makes it very clear it doesn't accept third party bookings and that if hosts accept them then if there is a problem with the guest staying or damage carried out by a third party the host may not be covered. https://www.airbnb.co.uk/help/article/427/booking-for-friends-and-family

Third party bookings can create problems for a host as the person staying often haven't read the listing and therefore can be unhappy with the accommodation/amenities. The person staying also often hasn't had sight of house rules so may not be aware of them. And the host have no way of contacting the person staying directly.

The fact that you choose to make third party bookings for your husband 'many times' doesn't make it right.

If the son wanted to pay for his parents to have a break @Gillian166 as you know he could have bought a gift card.

[Inna22]

@Gillian166 I don’t agree that’s it’s industry standard. I once booked a hotel from our family Expedia account and didn’t change “who is staying” from my husband to me. The hotel did not let me in. When you book airfare for someone else, you put their name. In fact, no one even knows that someone else booked. 

I recently had a wife using husband account. Communication was a nightmare.

I wouldn’t want my husband to book from  my account and for me to be the messenger back and forth. If he is to use my log in, I would have to give him a code from my phone every time as I am sure a different log in would flag that. It might be easier initially but asking for trouble when actually traveling 

[Kitty-and-Creek0]

@Gillian166 

I believe Airbnb does gift certificates, and we can buy Airbnb gift cards at our local grocery store. 

[Gillian166]

@Kitty-and-Creek0 
I meant a Gift Cert for our property. I recently had an enquiry about this, she wanted to buy her a daughter a night's stay at my place in particular.

[Amanda660]

I’ve was caught out with 3rd party bookings a couple of times back in the day but now I’m a bit of a bloodhound sniffing them out. 👃 

Apart from the fact Aircover won’t cover the stay the biggest challenge I found is when the original booker fails to pass on all the details and the folks staying can’t access the booking, house info, check in details etc.    

You can’t ‘chat’ or communicate with the actual person(s) staying direct through the App and it then lands up on text or WhatsApp and your co-host(s) can’t access, reply, etc.

This also happens a lot with guests staying via BCD who are booked by their office.  It wouldn’t be the first time a guest has called me in a panic because they can’t get in.