Booking request for multiple people - How do hosts get their names?

Is there a way to make it mandatory that a guest provide the names of all the people checking in? As in, if they book for 8 people, a box pops up where the guest must fill in 8 names? Or do you just ask for the 8 names in a text message?

Thank you

Just make it part of your house rules.

However there is no box.

If they don’t provide it, you will need to chase.

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Curious, why do you want the names?

In the UK all serviced and self-catering accommodation premises must keep a record of all guests over the age of 16 (Immigration (Hotel Records) Order 1972 (as amended)). A record being name and nationality, and if not UK, Irish or Commonwealth citizen, passport number and place of issue and details of their next destination.

Of course hardly anybody other than hotels does this, and Airbnb has no mechanism to collect the information.

And don’t get me started on GDPR for next year…

That’s interesting, I’ve never been asked for that information when booking self-catering in the UK.

Guests booked through self catering booking agencies have these details recorded, and B&Bs usually ask guests to sign the guest book, but otherwise I haven’t either.
The Hotel Records order is one of the things on the current government’s “red tape” list they want to get rid of, but that may never happen.

To make it mandatory for your guests, the first message you need to send to guests Requesting a Booking (not just Inquiring) should contain what you wrote above:

…and then say something like “I will approve your booking once I have received that information; thank you.”

If they don’t comply, tell Air you don’t feel comfortable with potential guests who do not follow your national rules.

We could indeed, if we thought it necessary. But my original post was meant as a possible answer to Brandt’s question “…why do you want the names?”
When I first came across the Hotel Records order in the Red Book I wondered “What’s to stop somebody registering as Mr & Mrs Smith?” - there is nothing requiring a guest to show a form of ID on check-in unless they are an alien.
Never heard of the police knocking up a B&B or self-catering owner when trying to locate a suspect, but it may still happen in hotels.