Interesting to see exactly how Airbnb respond to guests requesting a refund when a refund is not due. They pass the buck straight on to the host, whilst making themselves unaccountable and opening hosts up to being badgered. This guy tried to make a third party booking and waited until check in day to let me know it was for his ‘sister’. He’s almost begging me for a refund and not taking no for an answer. He now has my address and phone number and has called several times. Sorting this has taken the whole morning and this is a four day booking and then the room is blocked with other guests for the rest of the month. So it’s unlikely I’d get it booked again now and so nope no refund.
This is really unfortunate, I’m sorry this happened to you and to help make sure it doesn’t happen to me, I would love to hear more, if you don’t mind?
Are you using Instant Book without restrictions, or do you have all restrictions checked on IB? Otherwise what is your guest screening policy when they send you a message asking to book?
The platform is a lot more confusing and complex to guests than it is to hosts. ABB does not tell guests in any obvious way that 3rd party bookings are not allowed. I didn’t even know that until I started hosting. Plus, it’s industry jargon, they should simply say you can only book for yourself, not other people.
I would have handled this by accepting the guests with ID, take a photo of the ID, a meet and greet with house rules in hand, and a little friendly lecture, plus getting the tag number off of their vehicle. Then a 3 star review.
BTW as a guest I am booking AirBnB less and less, the more I learn about it. Only for really special amenities, such as ski in ski out houses.
When I do book I screen hosts with great care. Because as a guest you can make a mistake, or have a lying host as happened to me once, and it could really cost you and at a minimum, it will really buzz kill your vacation.
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Thanks. I did have IB on. I require guests to be verified in order to instant book. And obviously my guest was not going to be verified.
I don’t think you could have avoided this, for sure not with alternative IB settings. Perhaps by deliberately checking in all your guest’s reviews that the names match up, you may have avoided it. Other than that it is difficult. I am sorry Air don’t make it clear. Hopefully they will listen to guest feedback about that in future. Personally, I think I would realise that if I needed to be verified, and was staying in a stranger’s home, that they would need to know if I am not the guest. I expect he did know, given how quickly he tried to get the address, and the way he avoided mentioning until the check-in day.
‘I would have handled this by accepting the guests’
Do you realise you would risk being kicked off the platform for that?
He booked three days ago and exchanged eight messages with me without mentioning that the booking was not for him. When I messaged ‘what time will you arrive tomorrow’, for instance, he replied ‘I will be able to confirm tomorrow morning’, without correcting my assumption that he was the guest. He also asked in his first message to me, ‘Hello please can you text me the house address’. Seemed a bit premature.
When everything came to light today, he claimed he had only used Airbnb once before. But he has two reviews. Also, both reviews refer to someone with a different name.
This is true. Hosts (like those on this forum) who try to keep up with the rules find themselves surprised by something they didn’t know.
I was chatting with another host about this last week.
For short stays a hotel with a small refrigerator & coffee maker fit my needs. A microwave is a bonus. For me, Longer stay & need a kitchen, Airbnb is better.
After reading about some host’s behavior & expectations for home share rentals, I would read every rule, every review & then inquire if their rental can accommodate my need for my morning coffee to be with me everywhere in the morning. I don’t want an unhappy host review of “guest violated rules by drinking coffee in her room & sleeping to 8:00”
Whole home rental same thing about read everything & then inquire when the last time was they enjoyed their own rental. If never or over a year ago, it’s a hard pass. They don’t know it’s condition.
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Airbnb has no problem ignoring it’s own policies but has a fit when we do!
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[quote=“Bosty64, post:3, topic:55160”] Do you realise you would risk being kicked off the platform for that?
[/quote]
That isn’t true at all. Although the TOS says 3rd party bookings are not acceptable, Airbnb doesn’t care if you accept them and if a host asks about accepting one, you will be told it’s up to you. However, if you have an issue with that 3rd party, they damage something, throw a party, Airbnb will wash their hands of it, saying it was your choice to allow a 3rd party to stay.
Some hosts have accepted 3rd party bookings with no issue, depending on the circumstances. For instance, an adult child booking for their parents, who they explain are not at all tech savvy, do nothing online, and have no idea how to.
I definitely agree with you that it’s despicable of Airbnb to offload the guest cancelling/refund to the host, making us out to be the bad guys, instead of doing as they should- saying to the guest that they are bound by the terms of the cancellation policy they booked under.
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Please be aware other hosts that it is completely true that you risk being kicked off the platform if you accept a third party booking. Muddy is right in that there was a time when it was up to the host, but this changed some time ago. Either way, from my experience of having accepted a third party booking once, never again. And as Muddy pointed out, Airbnb would obviously not cover you in any kind of way if the name on the booking doesn’t match the name of the guest.
That message does not say anything about getting booted off the platform if a host accepts a third party booking, as you asserted.
Nothing has “changed”. Their TOS has always said that 3rd party bookings are not allowed, but as I said, if you call and ask if you CAN accept one you have received, they will tell you it’s up to you. That’s different from asking them to cancel a 3rd party booking, which they will do.
You do realize that you can talk to 5 different CS reps and get 5 different answers, right?
In years of perusing hosting forums, I have never read of any host being kicked off the platform for accepting a 3rd party booking. Airbnb is mainly concerned with profits in the form of service fees and avoiding bad PR- they don’t care a whit about host safety.
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Yes right I do realise that we can get different answers from different reps. That’s why IMO it’s misleading to say that something that another host has been told is completely untrue.
Yes I totally agree that asking if I CAN accept a third party booking is completely different from asking them to cancel a third party booking! That’s basically an opposite scenario.
Unless you have requested to accept a third party booking very recently, I don’t understand how you can be so confident that I am wrong when I say this has changed?
This message may not have said I could be kicked off the platform for ignoring the rule. But there has to be a risk. I’ve heard of people being removed for less.
Yes I’m aware that it isn’t about Airbnb caring about their hosts.
It is misleading to assert that a host risks getting booted off the platform for accepting a 3rd party booking, when that is not written anywhere in Airbnb policy, and unless you have evidence that this has happened to anyone.
Of course, if you want to believe it’s a risk, that’s up to you, but presenting it as a fact is different.
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When I get a booking, I ask specific questions that I require an answer to within 24 hours so that if I discover a 3rd party booking, the guests can get refunded BUT here’s what I do.
I have the person who wants to stay there create an account. I ask for their name. Once they are set up I have the original booking party cancel their reservation and Immediately have the third-party person send in a booking request and I accept.
BUT if the third-party is discovered after the penalty-free period has ended, I ask Airbnb to help me with the booking so that the guest doesn’t have to pay any cancellation fees from Airbnb or Me. Yes, it’s a pain but 99% of the time I catch it within the free cancellation period because I require info that will disclose it’s a third-party booking.
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they aren’t going to do that, because: money.
I’ve taken 3rd party bookings from time to time, guests have no clue it’s not allowed on ABB, as it’s allowed almost everywhere else. it’s not a standard industry practice.
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This is true, they don’t make it obvious- there should be a pop-up about it when guests go to book. It does say it in their Help articles for guests, but it would be a rare guest who bothers to read those articles.
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They may or may not know. Presumably this particular guest did know, given that he never corrected me in our messages.
I have found when renting a room in your own home that it is standard practice. Dangerous otherwise, surely. I couldn’t speak for the entire apartment rentals. Either way, it’s not for me!
100% i wouldn’t allow a 3rd party booking for an in-home stay. and in general i’m not keen on them, but in some situations it’s understandable.
As a homeshare host, I’ve never had any attempted 3rd party bookings, and a booking guest would have to give me a really good reason for me to even consider it. Of which I can imagine very few. They would also have to have a long-standing history of good reviews themselves, and be very good and respectful communicators.
I thought Airbnb was all about building trust and community. It was supposed to solve all of humanity’s problem around being accepted and foster understanding between different cultures.
Just kidding… sooner or later most hosts realize that the flowery marketing from Airbnb is lipstick on a pig.
Yes, They have even built complex software features so guests can request a refund from the host. There is a feature called “covid excuse” for requesting refund. Guest is not required to provide any proof of covid. Simply ask the host for refund and keep harassing them.
I have posted a screenshot of that feature here.
https://airhostsforum.com/t/how-to-verify-guest-has-covid/
It’s actually a good idea at the platform level to put the blame on a host. Atleast the guest will come back to the platform thinking that was just one bad host, they will have better luck the next time.
If they start thinking Airbnb is bad, then all of us would suffer. I will take one for the team and take the blame for not providing a refund. I have had half a dozen this year that I didn’t give any refund to (not required as per the booking policy). I have been abused by guests for not providing a refund.
I have a moderate policy and have never had a guest cancel after that kicks in, except for one, and she never asked for a refund. I feel sorry for hosts who have to deal with this s**t all the time.
The thing is even if you don’t have to deal with this all the time even one cancellation can put you back by several reservations in terms of profit. Deliver your margins the more reservations you have to get to break even. Scammers have an outsized impact on your pricing because to make up the revenue lost to the scammers you have to charge extra to the good guests.
That’s why I’m perfectly happy with my little homeshare listing and have never aspired to anything more in terms of hosting. I’m into quality rather than quantity of guests and no hassles or stressors. There’s plenty of opportunities where I live for me to property manage other properties, and I did do it for a couple little places for a few years, but difficult guests, scammers, house trashers, liars and refund seekers are not what I want to deal with. I might have had the energy and resilience for it when I was younger, but not anymore.