Completely broken heart-

I have not had anything like this in my experience… I am not sure I am equipped to even imagine this scenario. It all seems really horrid. Just confirms that should I ever get someone at my door who is not the guest I am expecting, to refuse entrance to my home.

It is no longer against airbnb’s terms of service to accept a third party reservation. Also, I have learned that if U show up as a guest, my hosr, can have a "host he or she chooses to get me checked… acclimated.

Once, we showed up in Raleigh, NC but the host never showed up at all. Later, she would claim that her mother was supposed to show u/ check us in.

I asked airbnb if this was right, since I did not agree. They said, “Yes” it is fine for a host to use an auxiliary host.

Thing is No one showed up to check us in; three hours later, we finally found a different host… and paid more to stay there.

Airbnb made me fight for hours to be heard on this matter. All we got was a refund, when airbnb should have compensated us for out loss.

Instead they argued and bullied me the entire time I was on the phone, and in the end did nothing for me to resolve the primary problem: the host failed to show up.

I write this so others will not be naive like I was, Monday Morning Quarterback.

You do not know enough of the situation, and the documented communication, to speak about what could/ should have been done differently.

Um, yes it is: “We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who’s going to stay at the listing.”

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OK? I guess being with Air as a host for seven years means nothing. I don’t know what I’m talking about. Fine.

You present your story in a confusing manner, use words like “evict,” say bizarre things like you had asked Air to feed your homeless guest and then tell me it’s OK for Air hosts to accept third party bookings.

So I’m confused. Just what are you trying to communicate? Your story doesn’t add up. Sorry.

Maybe if you give us a better picture of went went on here we can help you better. We don’t even know how it ended up. Did you cancel, did they leave and did they refund ? What has you heartbroken?

If you want to keep hosting you have to toughen up and be firm with guests and set boundaries.

Never mind, I think I’d rather watch the debate coverage.

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“As an empty headed AirBot, I consulted the other AirBots. We searched in the scripts given to us by our AirMaster. We found that no situation matches our scripts. If not script can be found we, just take a random one, to close the case and achieve our target for closing cases. Case closed. We will not reply, until the media catches up on this.”

My advice. Call your local newspaper or tv station and inform them.
They love cases like this. How a local family is helping a homeless man, but is left in the cold by a big company.

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I work in international human rights and have dedicated my life to this field. I am also a co-founder of a charity for homeless women - so feel I am a fairly compassionate person.

If you read my response properly you will see that I sympathised with the stress you were encountering but pointed out that it was likely that BNB wasn’t helping you because you had broken one of their fundamental rules by accepting a third party booking. I didn’t ‘blame’ you. I pointed out how your actions could have contributed to the situation.

Nowhere in my post did I comment on whether BNB had been wrong. I gave you some what I hoped was useful suggestions to help you deal with the situation.

Before lashing out at people who are trying to help you, please take the time to actually read what they say.

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Something is really wrong within Airbnb. It didn’t used to be like this. The tone of the customer service reps is arrogant, aggressive, and sarcastic - especially those based in the Phillipines. I have personally experienced behaviour similar to the OPs. Similarly, they held all payments over that particular weekend. I am writing about my experiences with them over the past year, and look forward to no longer hosting with Airbnb with great relief. Onwards #Innclusive!

Likewise, the tone of the posters in this group is changing. I thought its purpose was to offer help and advice in a safe place.

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I’d noticed that too.

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I agree 100%.

It’s sad that the first few responses are victim blaming. And thank you to OP for even posting. I’ve accepted parents as guests when their kids book for them. I will definitely not tolerate this any more.

And I think I’ve had enough issues with Airbnb that now I only get straight forward, fast acting and quick responses. They probably have some kind of note on my account. When I first started I got several rude responses that made me feel helpless. I also had quasi squatters and had to call the cops to escort them out.

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I think the problem is with the OP’s account of this situation. Her posts are full of hyperbole (In his email Greg M. also ridiculed and castigated me accusing me, punishing me, and executing swift, incisive judgement against us who were being victimized.), lack of details and unanswered questions, and false statements (It is no longer against airbnb’s terms of service to accept a third party reservation). When asked to back up some of her claims, such as to cut and paste Greg M’s emails, what we got was a typical “case is closed” response that did not ridicule or castigate the OP. The biggest unanswered question is why she let this guy into her house when he wasn’t the one who made the reservation? Air cannot take care of that for anyone – only the host is the one who can see that the guest is not the one who made the reservation. Was she more interested in getting the money than her or her family’s safety? Even a newbie should have the common sense not to let someone into his/her house that is not the right person with whom she had the rental agreement/contract. So many holes in this story. As far as helping, no one can help this person without an accurate account of what really happened. However, it is a good thread for new hosts to read to find out why Air does not allow third-party reservations.

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There seem to be a lot of people who are confused about third party reservations. People don’t seem to understand that Airbnb does allow third party reservations, but only if the are booked as business travel.

Maybe, but don’t you think it is common sense that if some 50-60 year old guy makes a reservation and a 20-30 year old shows up instead (or – not sure what exactly happened here – if the dad shows up and leaves the son and the dad doesn’t stay), you would say, "No – this is not right. You will have to leave (or, you need to take your son with you as he is not a part of the reservation).

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In my previous post, I was addressing the confusion many people seem to have about whether or not Airbnb permits third party bookings. As the poster seemed to believe that Airbnb does permit third party bookings; he/she may have believed that he/she would be punished by Airbnb for not accepting the son of the person who booked as a guest. The communication that the poster had with an Airbnb customer service representative apparently inculcated the posters belief that he/she was required to accept this guest.

I know that I will be piled on, but I have accepted third party bookings for various reasons. Mostly, the person who books states that it is actually their child, spouse, parent, etc. who will be staying. A few times we haven’t found out until the guest or guests showed up. Most recently, someone booked for two people who didn’t have an account. They didn’t arrive until 9:00 P.M. The booker explained that the guests didn’t have American cell phones or credit card accounts. I accepted them because I didn’t want to turn them out leaving them with no place to stay. I called Airbnb and asked them to tell the booker that he shouldn’t do this in the future.

It’s absolutely your choice to take third party bookings accepting the risk of knowing that if something goes wrong BNB won’t be able to help you and you won’t be covered by the guest guarantee. I don’t see why you should berated for this. It’s your choice to take this risk. Personally one that I would never be comfortable in doing.

Registering with BNB only takes a few minutes and normally a fairly easy task for a spouse, child to do (and even most parents :slight_smile:

I’ve never had a situation where the person who turns up isn’t the person who has booked as I always check in advance with someone as to who is coming before accepting a booking.

Knowingly accepting a third-party booking is one thing (I’ve done it) but having someone show up at the door who is not the one who booked and you didn’t know about, is an entirely different thing. I don’t think the OP ever answered or made clear what booking information she/he had to begin with. But, I absolutely would not let someone in the door that was not the one who made the booking or had made very, very clear to me that they were booking for someone names X, who is X years old and is related to me by X. So very dangerous to do otherwise. Still not clear why they even let this person stay in the first place.

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It is crystal clear to me from reading their original post that the communication they had with an Airbnb representative led them to believe that they were being instructed to allow the son to stay or face punishment.

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AFTER he/she let the son into their home in the first place. Ok, I’m going to read this again and sew if the OP gives the details. Again, I am put off by the hyperbole – even the title of a broken heart by a business is way over the top.

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Again, the original poster seemed to believe in error that Airbnb now permits third party bookings in all cases. The poster didn’t understand that Airbnb only allows third party bookings for business travel. Also, according to the poster, when he/she contacted Airbnb; he/she was told by the customer service representative to allow the third party guest to stay in the listing. I believe that the poster thought he/she would incur the penalties that Airbnb imposes on hosts who cancel reservations if he/she didn’t allow the son to stay.

Not done reading yet but that explanation is idiotic – sorry, Ellen. What is more important – your safety or avoiding Airbnb’s “punishment”? Don’t let someone in the door if they are not the one who booked or, alternatively, you know that the “booker” is booking for a third person (btw, I won’t do third party bookings ever again – last one trashed my house and did a lot of damage; the “booker” first denied it and then spoke to his clients who admitted to everything so the guy ponied up for the damages).