Mother booking reservation for her "child"

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We just had a new booking and it happened to be a mother booking a reservation for her daughter, mid-20’s, we alerted Airbnb and they cancelled the listing, but it got me wondering about the idea of parents booking hotels for their child, and I know they can list it under the visitors name and pay that way.

I’m curious how you’ve handled this before? We had it cancelled and asked Airbnb to reach out to help them understand the issue. Airbnb insisted on cancelling the reservation and I agreed, but also I understand when a mother might book for a child. I’m torn, ultimately it was one night and not a huge loss.

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I had parents book for their daughter and their daughters friend to stay at mine. They caused damage in the flat, were messy and the daughter had a huge nose bleed that covered all the white bedding. That was when I discovered that third party bookings fall outside the host guarantee. I have since cancelled every single third party request.

And I don’t understand a mother booking for her adult daughter. How hard is it to buy an Airbnb gift voucher?

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I allow third party bookings. I’ve had parents booking for children, children booking for parents, spouses booking for each other, you name it. I’ve had no bigger problems with third party bookings than with first party bookings.

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I have allowed when a wife made the reservation for her husband working in the city for a night. He was a perfect guest and I’d be happy to have him back. I didn’t allow it when it was a guy booking for friends coming to visit. The friends ended up booking directly and they too were great guests. I would have reservations about a 20 something “child” having their mother book for them. Are they not responsible enough to set up an account and have a credit card?

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I have a reservation coming where it’s 2 17/18 year olds coming in town for an internship. The intern housing is not available until a week after the internship starts…

At the beginning the mother who reserved will be here along with both older teens and the other girl’s mother. By the end it will just be the two girls for the final few days though the one mother may stay the whole time. Everyone on the reservation will be staying at some point and everyone is mentioned in the Air messaging system. But I haven’t allowed a situation where a mother is trying to book the whole summer for an internship for her teen, but mostly because it would be discounted during busy season.

I think each situation is different. It comes down to your gut feeling often.

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I have had several occasions where adult children have booked for their parents. Mostly because the children are local and the parents are out of town or coming from overseas.
They do it because they know the area, will be driving the parents around, don’t have space at their homes, English may not be the parents first language etc. It’s never been a problem.

However, a mother booking for an adult child is a big no-no. It’s one of the first things mentioned if you read up on the dos and donts of renting to that age bracket. It’s called helicopter parenting or some such jargon.

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Agreed. Twenty-something’s that still need mummy to book their Airbnb are likely to have other undesirable traits. Mummy probably also still does their dishes, washing and general picking up after them

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we had a guest yesterday who booked using his Grandson’s account, we were expecting Ashlee to arrive but we got David!..
He was an older guy who was not familiar with technology and had used his grandson’s ipad to put his own photo on his account and somehow muddled his way through the booking process…

He was very apologetic when we explained that it was against the T’s&C’s of airbnb for him to book using someone else’s account and we suggested he get his grandson to help him set up his own account, he has no computer or smart phone!..He was a great guest who wants to return ( he has family here)…
So sometimes we don’t know its a third party booking until the guest is here…we have also had spouses booking for each other, which we only found out when they arrived, but that has (so far!) all been fine.

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What stinks is most of the time it will be just fine. But it also is voiding the minimal protections we get from the “guarantee”, so if anything does go wrong we don’t have any chance of getting reimbursed for damages. And yet I’ll still accept 3rd party as long as my instincts aren’t warning me. (I almost said “my gut isn’t screaming at me”, but that could be from bad food :wink: )

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It’s a risk, but one I’d personally be willing to take.

Who knows, maybe the mom is booking her daughter a birthday or anniversary trip. We don’t know the circumstances and it might not have anything to do with raising a spoiled princess.

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I thought it was against AirBnB rules to accept third party bookings for personal travel (it can be done on the business side). If something happens, and the person staying is not the person who booked the room, are you still covered by AirBnB?

I find it interesting that one of the most common posts that I see on this page is hosts who are frustrated by guests with little or no profile information. The rule against third party bookings would seem to be trying to address this. It seems to me that you would know even less about a guest if they’re not even the one you are communicating with!

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My understanding is no, but this has to be weighed against the fact that it’s hard to collect from Air even when the guest is the one who booked.

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Yikes, did not know this. I wonder if that policy applies to a wife booking for her husband (or vice versa), when they frequently travel together to the same Airbnb. Hm…

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Hi Amy

If a wife and husband are travelling together and it is booked under either account then this is fine. As the party who has the account is part of the booking.

The problem is if say a friend books for a group of friends and aren’t part of the party or a mother books for a son and she isn’t travelling.

Not only aren’t you covered by the deposit or guarantee but if there is a problem with the guest say if there is late night noise, or they behave badly and you want them out, then if BnB realise it’s a third party booking, they don’t have to help you resolve any problems.

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No. A husband and wife, assuming they are travelling together, are fine, as are friends, boyfriend and girlfriend etc. If the person who booked is also one of the people who stays, it’s fine.

When a person books on behalf of someone else and is not staying themselves, it becomes a third party booking. Third party bookings leave you outside Airbnb’s host guarantee and at risk of loss should anything go wrong.

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I have to be honest - it annoys me that some hosts have chosen to ignore this rule and accept third party bookings. What would happen if our guests were allowed to pick and choose from the rules they are expected to follow?

I have had some issues with this in the past, so I actually added this to my house rules, so the guests see it before they book. Many of them are unaware of the rule because let’s face it, who reads all the terms and conditions before they make their booking?

“Airbnb requires that reservations are to be booked by a person who is going to stay at the listing. As a result, I do not accept reservations made on behalf of someone else. Visitors and guests other than those named in the booking will not be permitted in the house at anytime without prior permission from the homeowner.”

I find that doing that has helped a lot.

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The rule against third party bookings applies to guests, not to hosts. Here is the wording in the Airbnb Terms of Service:

“You understand and agree that you are solely responsible for compliance with any and all laws, rules, regulations, and Tax obligations that may apply to your use of the Site, Application, Services and Collective Content. In connection with your use of the Site, Application, Services and Collective Content, you may not and you agree that you will not: unless Airbnb explicitly permits otherwise, request or book a stay at any Accommodation if you will not actually be staying at the Accommodation yourself;”

I accept third party bookings. Several times I haven’t known it was a third party booking until the guest arrived. Once I didn’t know until half way through the guest’s stay.