So had an IB for three nights in June 2018 and it turns out from the message that it is a mother booking for her daughter and “her friends” for a music festival near to my property. RED FLAG since it is a third party booking. So “mother” writes to me and asks how far the River House apartment is from festival grounds-so I respond 35 miles and also let her know that if there are more than 2 people booking that there is an extra fee as noted in my listing. Get a response “why extra charge since they will only be sleeping there” and they will be at the festival during the day and evening. OK I take a deep breath and explain that the property is available for their use the whole time - also restrained myself from saying OK I will rent out the apartment to others while your daughter and her friends are at the festival! Then I get a snarky response that it is far away from the venue and they will only be using the apartment at night! So the limit of my patience is reached and I call Airbnb and ask them to cancel the booking because it is a third party booking and they don’t allow that and I am not comfortable with the booking. Airbnb responds well and cancels the booking without consequence to me (as it should be) and the dates are opened on my calendar. Get an instant booking the same day the booking was cancelled from “the daughter” for the same nights explaining that her mother doesn’t understand Airbnb and that she is sorry for her Mom and that she really wants to stay. UGH!! well I do not visit the sins of the mother on the daughter and allow the booking - people ARE challenging!
Interesting…as all the so called red flags are still there, you’ve just substituted “third party booking” for “people who have already demonstrated that they will be a problem.” I would not want this booking.
@KKC You are probably correct but I have the trail of messages so if I have issues I will deal with it at the time AND they booked for the correct number of people staying. We shall see! I am an on-site host so there is not much they get away with since we are around.
Ah, good to know…or be reminded of. If they truly do stay at the festival most of the time they may be very good guests. We only have a couple of very small, modest festivals here but my guests who are here to attend them have been great.
Hmmm. I wonder if you call Airbnb and have it canceled just because these people are defied you (mother daughter, whoever) and you don’t feel comfortable with this guest?
Or do you want to keep them?
If you feel you can monitor the situation, go for it. Get the money! The money is why I host. My few festival guests have been very respectful.
I would still be stuck on “Why did the mom make the first booking if her daughter was capable?” Is the daughter under age? Does the daughter not have a credit card? It feels very questionable. If you are NOT getting that little warning in the back of your mind, go for it. If you are, you may want to listen.
Thanks for your reply and I had the same thoughts about being undersage and the like. I guess my real issue was the mother questioning the charges for extra people (and this is certainly not the first time that has happened) and the notion that “just sleeping” in a rental is grounds for not paying full price. As we all know third party bookings are not accepted by Airbnb if they know it is occuriing and it certainly is not alright with me since I lose control over issues of property damage and liability. We treat our vaction rental as a business and though we have made many friends through the rental it is not our primary purpose.
I was cancelling based upon Airbnb rules of no third party bookings and I feel really strongly about that since you lose control related to property damage and liability. I was surprised when the daughter booked and my question would have been why not do so in the first place but I decided that there was a misunderstanding between the monther and daughter or something like that. I get festival guests every year since Flirefly is a huge event and draws big names in music and I have never had an issue with the guests.