It’s in the full T&C under User Conduct. I just did a search for ‘third party’ in the doc and oh boy, there are a lot of hits. Most of them are related to Airbnb third parties or… who knows.
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Oh well, that’s ok then. As long as the guest doesn’t disclose it, that’s all fine and dandy. Phew.
As you were, people.
I’m aware that you’re being curt and sarcastic toward me, as usual. However, the guests often don’t disclose that they are booking for someone else. One time, the guest didn’t tell me until he’d been here two days that he wasn’t the booker.
I have the parents of some previous guests staying tomorrow who wanted to give their parents a break as an anniversary present. Since I had met the previous guests and they were lovely people I didn’t have a problem. In another case I had a woman who wanted to book her sister 5 weeks (!) emergency accommodation which sounded like a domestic drama so I used the “you can’t book for someone else” excuse to put her off initially and then blocked the dates mentioned before her sister could sign up as I am on IB and couldn’t have easily refused her.
Ah lighten up Ellen eh? Please?
You’re right, though, I haven’t found anything that explicitly states that hosts are prohibited from accepting third party bookings, apart from the business thing (where you can accept) but don’t have the will to keep searching right now.
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I know there are a few that also rend on flipkey/trip advisor, so I found both that and airbnb.
Flipkey/Tripadvisor general rental agreement:
ASSIGNMENT OR SUBLEASE
Guest shall not assign or sublease the Property or permit the use of any portion
of the Property by other persons who are not family members or guests of the
Guest and included within the number of and as permitted occupants under this
Agreement.
Airbnb
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/427/can-i-book-on-behalf-of-a-friend-or-family-member
We require Airbnb reservations booked for personal travel to be booked by the person who’s going to stay at the listing.
For business trips, Airbnb allows designated bookers at companies enrolled in Airbnb for Business to book trips on behalf of others.
I don’t accept third party bookings for several reasons:
- As many have mentioned, it’s against AirBnB’s policies.
- Because of this, I’ve heard that Air’s guarantees are null and void if damage is done by someone not listed in the booking. I haven’t encountered this personally, but I don’t want to take the risk.
- Third party guests have provided no verifiable information about themselves to AirBnB. As a result, I have no idea who’s going to turn up, and I have no way of verifying their identity, since Air cannot give me that information if it’s not included in the booking.
- Third party guests have not agreed to AirBnB’s terms and conditions, nor my house rules. They may not even have read them.
I have actually included “no third party bookings” in my house rules, and also added that the person who made the booking must be present at check in. Otherwise, I have no way of making sure that the person who agreed to all the terms is the one who arrives at the house!
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What a truly helpful and informative response. I am going to amend my house rules right now. Thank you!
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My 2 star was from a daughter who booked for her mother. (The mother left the review… the daughter was super sweet and reassuring in communications before her mom arrived… so maybe I should have been more wary?)
I think that because the mother hadn’t gone through the search herself, she didn’t know what to compare my listing to. (She’d been staying in a suburban Philadelphia place before my small urban bedroom, and I think her expectations were not calibrated with NYC reality)
I think you will be able to easily have the review removed including the stars as the Airbnb member didn’t stay.
Because I had knowingly agreed to the booking even though it was a third party, i thought i had lost my chance to argue about it?
I would try. Your knowing that it was a third party booking doesn’t negate the fact that the person who stayed isn’t an Airbnb member.
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I might. Thanks for the idea, Ellen!
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Agree, reviews have been a problem with surrogate stays.
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From the other side, older daughter and us wanted to book a weekend in Venice for younger daughter and new husband to visit a particular exhibition. If we had been able to book we’d have been spared the whole negotiation about who pays for what in what currency and what is the top price we’re willing to pay … maybe there could be an exception for hosts/superhosts who could be seen as trustworthy?
Anyone here have a nice apartment near San Marco at a good price?
There are many hosts, myself included, who accept third party bookings. You might try asking the host of a listing where your daughter and son in law would like to stay.
Yes, that’s my job for today! Stupidly, we’d thought it would be easy as “no-one would be going to Venice in November” … turns out everyone is!
Thanks, @EllenN, I took your advice and the host was perfectly happy to do this … Venice, here they come!
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I accept third party bookings if they are open and honest about it in the initial discussion.
However I’ve had one or two that were not great precisely because the person who it was being booked for wanted a hotel and they got a room in someone’s house. I’ve also had some of my best bookings as third party - mother booking for her son and his girlfriend after graduating for example - as well.
Swings and roundabouts.
What do you do if they aren’t open and honest in the initial discussion?
My current guest is a third party booking. Her father booked, but he didn’t say he was booking for his daughter. She arrived at about 11:00 P.M. She is very nice, but even if she weren’t I wouldn’t want to turn someone away at that hour.