Third-party booking

[Marc14967]

Hi everyone,

What do you do if a guest arrives for check-in and you find out that the reservation was made by someone else, not by the person staying?

My understanding is that third-party bookings are generally not allowed for private stays, except for Airbnb for Work. How do you handle this as a host?

Thanks in advance for your advice.

[Helen3]

It doesn't normally happen to me because I ask vetting questions of all my guests including asking them to confirm who's staying @Marc14967 

When a visitor arrives who isn't the person who booked them you don't need to let them check in and can ask Airbnb to cancel penalty free.

[Rebecca]

Hi @Marc14967 👋

Has this happened to you recently? If so, what did you decide to do? 

I'd be interested to hear what types of vetting questions you ask @Helen3 - do you ask them in a conversational way, or just list them for the guest to answer?

[Helen3]

You can add vetting questions as part of the IB process @Rebecca 

The questions I ask depend on the listing . It's about ensuring guests disclose full information about who they are bringing to the property and that the guests and the purpose of their stays works for the listing. 

[Rebecca]

Fair enough @Helen3, completely understand it depends on the listing. I think hosts that I have stayed with previously have asked things like, why am I travelling to XYZ location? Who am I travelling with? Ages of children... things like that. Is that part of the vetting process? 

I wanted to share with Marc this article about third-party bookings: Booking a stay for friends and family.

It's got all the information about third-party bookings, Airbnb at Work and how the guest can add other guests to the reservation.  

Looking forward to hearing back from you @Marc14967 😊