Guest who did not make the booking checking in

A guest who booking an upcoming reservation just contacted me to ask whether her son, who is the second registered guest (my listing only accepts one or two guests) can check in by himself at the start of the reservation (8th June). She plans to arrive on the day after the start of the reservation (9th June). Does anyone know whether this is in contravention of Airbnb rules? Should I check with them directly?

Both the booking guest and her sun have web presences, and appear to be who they say they are. Also, her son is 20 years old.

This wouldn’t bother me at all. As to AirBNB’s rules? Have no idea… but don’t really feel obligated if something feels logical to me.

Could you confirm that you mean a day early? According to what you’ve described if the original check in date is Tuesday, the son wants to come Monday and the mother on Wednesday?

Assuming you meant the son wants to check in on Tuesday… I don’t see why not. It wouldn’t make a difference to me.

I would just amend the booking, and charge for the extra day ( I am assuming the son is an adult !!!)

@anon67190644, @Zandra, @Helsi,

Gentlefolk, I’m sorry. I wrote poorly and hastily. The son is arriving by himself at the start of the reservation. I’ve made the wording clearer.

@Zandra props for understanding my sloppy wording.

He’s on the booking, let him come before her. He’ll be covered. We just had the opposite. The booking person arrived the first few days and then left her registered daughter behind for an internship.

Hi @Sarah_Warren,

Thanks for the feedback. I hope you’re doing well.

Actually, that brings up an interesting question. What constitutes “registration” in Airbnb’s eyes? In this case I have two people coming, but only one of them (the person w ho booked) has her account attached to the booking. The other may not even have an Airbnb account - as far as I know, there is no requirement. However, the messages always contain the full name of the other guest. If they don’t give it, I ask. Is that sufficient? I can see an argument for a stricter criteria, like all guests having Airbnb accounts, and having them linked to the reservation, but Airbnb isn’t currently set up like that. For now, at least. And I suspect not ever, since it would probably put guests off and decrease bookings.

You are required to have all the guest’s information for government/legal purposes, correct? That will give you additional protections I would think. The biggest problem I see on the forum that loosely relates to this is unregistered guests. But this guest is registered/planned/mentioned in the messenger system. You’ll be covered under the Air TOS, not that it truly means anything :slight_smile:

And I’m doing well, thanks for asking! Been busy, but now it’s summer!

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That’s only for foreigners. Though these guests are US citizens, they have something called an OCI card, which means they are treated like Indian citizens in this context. In the case of Indians, I collect information when they arrive. In the case offForeigners, I have to submit Form C, so I try to get them to send me information in advance, though often they don’t. Anyway, in this particular case I don’t have any information about the guests apart from their names.

One side note: Airbnb has a note online prohibiting third-party bookings, but I can’t see anything about it in their actual terms of service. Am I missing it?

If the person booking is staying (even though not on the first night or two), I wouldn’t consider it a third-party booking.

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Good point. Though my question about Airbnb policy (the last para) wasn’t specifically related to this situation.

Oh this is okay, totally. The other person on your booking is simply coming early. No big deal.

No-one is arriving early. One person on the booking wishes to check in on time. The second is coming late.

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Right. That’s what I meant and did not say.

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Thank you for the feedback, @konacoconutz. For some reason, these last three posts are not showing up as responses. Though posts in a thread that I began usually do.

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I have a guest, checking out this morning, that I suspect is a third party booking. The profile picture shows 2 people (a man and a woman) and the person staying in our unit is a woman… but she doesn’t look like the picture at all, she’s a good 30 years younger and different hair. When this guest was dropped off by a man and a woman (whom I suspect are the people in the profile picture) I hadn’t put 2 and 2 together.
Should I confront them or leave it be since she is checking out today anyway? I just denied a 3rd party booking yesterday ( booking for 3 friends…umm I don’t think so!) which made me start to question my current guest.

I would keep communication in the Airbnb message system, and i would ask. Because when you review, you want to be able to say that while the guest who stayed with you was fine, you can’t say whether the person who booked was a good guest sinne they didn’t stay with you - future hosts need to know.

Well I asked, through airbnb message system, if the person who stayed with us was a friend and not associated with the profile. I received a " Yes, it was my friend Jennifer. I dropped her off." So I’ve written this review:

I-Tang booked our unit for a friend and did not stay on the premises. We had our suspicions that the person staying at our house wasn’t associated with this profile, but it was confirmed by I-Tang after the person checked out. The friend who stayed with us was fine, but I feel a bit misled by this user.

Is it too much or not enough?

Not enough… I answered you on the other thread.