Guest books for friend, leaves negative review

[Anthony608]

Its been quite  awhile since I had something like this happen and I cant recall what the AirBNB procedures are in a case like this.

I had a guest book for two people for about a week, two ladies showed up and said the place was wonderful after staying a week.  On the very last day, the woman staying in the house admitted that she was not the woman who made the booking but actually a friend who had been using the account while she looked for apartments.  

They left and gave no cause for concern but then the woman who operates the account (and never actually stayed in the house) left a low star review (but didn't say anything negative in the comments).  I don't require guests to show IDs (never have) but recall a year or so ago reading about how people who never stay in the house aren't supposed to leave reviews.  This also strikes me as on very shaky ground with the 3rd party booking rules, but since I don't require IDs to be checked, I'm not sure. 

Postscript, in a final thank you message from the guest, she admitted she had given her friend access to the account so there is a record over messaging that she never actually stayed in the house.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Anthony608  as the booker never stayed you can contact Airbnb Cs and ask them to remove the review.

I never understood hosts who don't ask for IDs and have no idea who has a key to their property. It is like giving a key to someone on the street. What if someone dies during his stay? Or rob you? Or attack you? What would you do? Anyone can register on Airbnb with a disposable phone number and email address.

[Anthony608]

@Branka-and-Silvia0 - The issue is how to check IDs and what to do if you encounter an actual 3rd party booking.  There is no real guidance, while cases on this forum speak about how AirBNB told hosts just to cancel the reservation but then charged the host a penalty (rooms blocked off, loss of superhost status, etc)

In my own case, I use self check-in and have had people arrive from flights at 1AM.  I would have no way to check IDs at the door unless I stayed up waiting and that seems to defeat the purpose of self check-in.  And then what happens if it turns out the person from another country had the reservation booked by a relative or friend?  Turn them out in the middle of the night with nowhere to go?

This should really all be handled through AirBNB booking before we even meet the guest.  Not really on us to verify who people are.  Awkward and possibly even a bit dangerous to challenge someone at the door, especially late at night when there is uncertainty as to who they are.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony608 Airbnb could require all a verified ID for all bookings, but there's not really anything they can do at the desk to guarantee that the verified member will be the person who arrives at the door. Once someone is at your doorstep, it's entirely up to you how you're going to deal with that.

You really aren't required to allow self-check-in or accommodate late-night arrivals. Those are your choices. And if someone is "dangerous" when challenged at the door, how is that person not much more of a danger inside of your house?

The foreign traveler scenario you imagine is quite avoidable if you communicate sufficiently with the guest before their arrival date. You can't board an international flight if your ticket has someone else's name on it, so why should sleeping in a stranger's house be held to a lower standard?

[Anthony608]

@Anonymous  in my own case, I use the word "dangerous" loosely.  I mainly refer to not wanting to have some kind of argument or problem at the door at 1AM with a guest who isn't the person who booked, especially if they themselves didn't know they had done anything wrong and thought their friend or relative had covered everything.

In this most recent case, the two women in the home were being a bit deceptive with the mother obviously acting like she was the person who booked, when it was actually her friend back in their home country.  She admitted this on the last day, when I received an AirBNB message from the booking party asking how her friend was doing and let it slip she hadn't actually stayed in the house.

That original issue with the low rating was resolved.  Too complicated to explain here, but I communicated with the booking guest and we worked out what had happened.  For a lot of reasons, I am going to leave it alone and not try and go through AirBNB customer service who I don't think would remove the review anyway.

[Anonymous]

@Anthony608   Actually, this was also a factor in my decision to shorten the available check-in window to 2-8 PM and decline most late-night arrivals. I'm seldom in bed before 3 AM, so sleep isn't an issue. But there have been several times that things have gone wrong at check-in and the guests had to leave, and incidents like that put everyone under a lot more stress when it's too late for the guests to find somewhere else. 

I once made the mistake of letting someone inside despite him being hostile at check-in because I wasn't letting him bring an extra person in with him. All-time worst guest I've ever had, not worth the payout. Others have gotten much nicer around me with their manners since I got meaner with my boundaries.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Anthony608  I totally agree Airbnb should verify guests' IDs when they sign up..  But it doesn't. The last changes were in the "register and book within 1 minute" direction. 

This is one of the reasons we always meet our guests in person and we take their IDs. If the one who booked is not with them it doesn't really matter, we know who our guests are.

We are not obligated to let the third-party guests in if we don't want to. We can refuse and will not be penalized, but of course, we should contact Airbnb, guests would be refunded, we would lose money, they would stay on the street ...