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I am not happy with this upcoming feature.
This makes room for professional travel agencies to start make bookings with you.
(It already happens, but I only got a few up to now)
This means you will have guests that never even saw the listing, but will still be able to review you.
How is AirBnB going to make sure the agency is not overselling, making things better than they are?
Third Party Booking
When travelers find the perfect home, they will want to book the listing
and start to make plans. But what if they’re booking for someone else?
We’ve seen that 11% of people booking through Airbnb for Business are not booking a home for themselves. Which is why we built Business Travel Booking,
a new way to allow employees to book business travel for co-workers.
More and more business travelers are choosing to stay with Airbnb while
they are on the road, so they get the chance to live in a city, even if
it’s for one night. As business travel has tripled in growth on Airbnb
in 2016, this new feature allows business partners like travel managers
and executive assistants to be able to book Airbnb listings on behalf of
other employees. By adding this new feature, we will alleviate the
stress of booking for other people, and help hosts have more
transparency on who will be staying in their home.
Even though my listing has been marked as Business Travel Ready, due to the right combination of amenities, I do NOT want third party people in my home, but then again I had a HORRIBLE experience when my place was booked by a travel curator without my knowledge or consent and the whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth.
I am not a fan of ABB anymore and I have been perfectly clear about that in my posts. More and more and more they treat our homes as their capital. Fortunately, I never bought another property solely for a STR like so many of you here, although I came very close. But, I guess I will ride it out and see where this goes and in all likelihood I will never get a “business” traveler in the Catskill Mountains.
But after what I went through I don’t trust ABB as far as I can throw them. And Brian Chesky creeps me out.
It is an improvement though. Currently only the person booking is attached, atleast this new feature associates the person that is stayings account. So the review can be completed for the correct person.
I do not care about the reviews I am ginving, they do not influence my business.
The reviews I am getting is the problem.
Persion A books for person B. Person A says he has booked a fantasic place, person B turns up and the place does not live up to person B’s expectations.
Who gets the blame you think? Not person A! The host will get the blame, and the bad rating.
Also, what about the house rules? Will person B ever get to see them?
On the host side of things, the host will see the profile of the person who will actually be staying at their home, as well as a note indicating that the booking is being made by someone else on their behalf, so there’s no confusion.
Hasn’t this been the case since they intro’d Air BNB for business? Honestly, we have never had any issue with business travels booked directly or via a 3rd party. They tend to be the cleanest, as they are never actually here and always on the go!
