Ah, the classics. I remember when I first saw “Life of Brian” I was quite shocked by that scene. But I was a lot younger then. Now I think it’s hysterical. Life, Death and Christianity. What could be funnier?
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I have a guest booked for a stay next month (or maybe April) and after seeing the booking, and messaging him thanking him and logging it into various online and paper calendars, I didn’t recognise him at all. But I’d spent quite some time looking at his reservation on Airbnb with his name and profile pic.
I saw that he had one review, went to look at it and saw that the one review was from me. I’d hosted him last year and had totally forgotten.
Sometimes I get an alert on my phone from Airbnb asking me to write a review for XYZ and even though XYZ has only left a few hours previously, I have absolutely no idea at first who XYZ is.
We forget guests. I think that’s pretty normal. I hope so, anyway!
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Yes, I know. In this case, we didn’t know it was a 3rd party booking. The girl kind of tricked us about it. And I say tricked because I noticed when I found her profile the other day she had one more review on it. And it was from a woman who was complaining that she booked her place - and her listing specifically said it was for WOMEN ONLY! She said the female guest did stay one night, then she left and never came back. But this guy was with her that night and then he stayed after she left.
The host(ess) said they were both fine guests but she was letting other hosts know what happened in case it would be a problem with them.
I think it was after getting that review that this female guest, told our male guest he should book under his own profile.
We do sometimes knowingly accept 3rd party bookings because there’s nothing inherently morally or criminally wrong with doing a 3rd party booking and sometimes people have valid reasons. Like the father who booked for his son for a birthday gift. How can you book a surprise gift on the person’s account you’re giving the surprise gift to?
All of our three or four third-party bookings have worked out fine without any problems. So, I’ll do it on a case-by-case basis. If I feel they have legitimate reasons and they seem okay, I don’t really mind. But I do keep a sharper eye out for anything suspicious when we get them.
I always wonder about the three or four people who work at the exit doors at our nearby Walmart - checking to make sure nobody’s stealing anything as they leave.
Thousands of people come in and out of that store every day. And every person sees these three or four people. I’ve always wondered if when they go out they have a ton of people who recognize them! Although, I have to say, they don’t look like the types who would go out much.
You brought up a pet peeve of mine. You DO NOT NEED TO show them your receipt at the door. It’s not like Costco, where you are a member and have agreed to a TOS to show your receipt at the door.
I understand where Walmart is coming from but I just bought something from your store and paid for it. I own it now and I don’t need to show a receipt to prove I bought it. I walk right by them and they never stop me. If they did I would demand to see the manager and challenge their right to do this. Also it’s insulting. Shows you what they th8nk of their customers.
Aren’t the Walmart people there mostly in case the sensors go off and you need to be stopped and checked for stolen goods?
Here they ask for your receipt as you are walking out. What other store does that? No thanks.
Home Depot now does.
Not the Kona Home Depot. This is interesting.
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Isn’t that odd? My Home Depots [two of them] now do a receipt check. Though the checkers seem rather unconcerned.
One of the articles says it has a lot to do with the self checkouts. But there’s always a help person standing by at the self check areas. I don’t get it.
I once worked the switchboard in a department store that shared the office with security. They had expensive stuff walk out the door despite all their best efforts to stop it.
Given that Airbnb isn’t ok with third party bookings (aside from the business exception), this does mean they might not have your backs if something went wrong. Well, even less than they already do. Something to think about. I mean, I’m all in favor of keeping people happy, other things being equal.
AirBnB does not allow third-party bookings for a very simple reason - it’s an easy scam. One person books, another one stays, and the first person does a chargeback on their credit card claiming they never stayed. If you have a copy of the ID of the person staying, it does not match the person that paid, so the credit card refunds the person that paid, then tries to get it back from AirBnB. AirBnB does not want to be in the center of that - it’s just too messy.
No doubt, but that’s not the only drawback. For example, with a third party booking, you have to review someone who didn’t actually stay. At least, the review would be on his/her account.
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So, what does someone do who wants to give a vacation to someone as a gift? How do they do that through the recipient’s account without having to give that person all their payment information?
And what if they want to make it a surprise?
Yes, those are good points Faheem. I just think Air should do a much better job informing guests that it’s not within their rules to do 3rd party bookings. And I think they also need to come up with a way to accommodate those situations when a 3rd-party booking is the most reasonable choice for the person booking, as in my example of a surprise gift.
Or as in this example:
We had a woman who lives near us. Her parents are Cuban, don’t speak much English, elderly, don’t know anything about the internet, and they were coming to town to visit her. She needed a place nearby because she didn’t have enough room in her house.
She told us upfront exactly what she was doing and I just didn’t have a problem with it so I said ok. And they were delightful guests. Now, how is it possible that her parents could have signed up for their own account and made the reservation through it? Sometimes there are people who just need someone else’s help. And they often turn to family members. And being family members they simply put it on their own account.
Or the parents who are booking for an 18 year old son or daughter who doesn’t have an account because they have no money of their own to pay for bookings.
If someone is upfront and asks you if you’re okay with it in the first place - they probably are not going to be a problem. It’s the people who don’t tell you, who surprise you with it upon their arrival that turns out to be the problem.
One thing Air could do is have a 3rd-party feature where if you book for someone else - you could indicate that to them on the site. Then, they could get that person’s name and whatever other information they feel like they need. But then it would be totally legit and on the up and up as far as Air is concerned. They’d know about it and the host would still be covered (for like you say, what little coverage there is).
Haha! Big subject change! Well, what I realized after a while is that they only check the receipts of people who have something in their cart that’s not in a bag. Before I realized that it used to bother me a lot - because they never checked my receipt but they seemed to check most other people’s. And most other people at this Walmart aren’t white… in fact, I could pretty safely say that sometimes I’m the only white person in the whole store. And I used to wonder - are they not checking mine because I’m white? Anyway, I was glad to find out that wasn’t the case and anytime I have something that’s not in the bag - they check.
Anyway, I think theft is a huge problem at this store, so I don’t blame them for checking. My wife once caught an Indian man in the act of stealing some food from the food section and sneaking and eating it right in the store. She got so mad about it that she went over and screamed at him in Hindi! And I can only imagine if we’ve spotted a theft, it must be pretty pervasive there.
We went to some Walmarts when we were in North Carolina recently and everything was so much calmer and more civilized there. They didn’t have anyone checking anything at the door. Nor would it have made sense. It looked like they didn’t even get 50 customers an hour.
So, if that’s the kind of Walmart you’re coming from @konacoconutz - then I totally understand why you’d be upset.
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Hi @JonYork,
Oh, I agree there is a legitimate use case for third party bookings, of the sort you describe. Having said that, it’s perfectly possible for a third party to set up an account for another person, and pay for his/her booking, as in the case you have mentioned.
I suppose it might even be possible for third parties to post messages on the guests behalf, though this might be a little problematic - I’m not sure. The point is all the information associated with that account would actually belong to the guest who was booking, so Airbnb hopefully wouldn’t have a problem with it.
But such an arrangement certainly seems like it would be a little awkward.
I just think it would be easier - and best - if Air would simply setup a way for registered members to make reservations for third parties. All they have to do is say “Are you the guest?” If you answer No, then they ask you for some information about the guest. Like their name and ID information perhaps. Whatever they want… but that’s how they could do it.
AND they could ask if this trip is a “Gift”. Why don’t they ask that? It’s amazing how hard it is to give gifts - especially surprise gifts when you’re buying things online. No one is really setup for that. But Air should be because we’ve had several guests who came as a result of a surprise gift.