Has anyone heard of a change to TOS surrounding 3rd party bookings?
Because a CS rep told me that I should be A-Okay with one and I suspect it’s bad advice that would leave me in hot water if an issue actually arose.
The whole story went like this: A potential guest messaged me because she’d made a reservation that was cancelled, although her card was charged. Her note was the first I’d heard of it - there were no earlier requests or IB notifications. I held the dates for her over the weekend while she sorted out the refund.
When she got back in touch she asked if her roommate could make the booking. This set off a bit of a red flag for me (Is her roommate traveling with her, or is this now a third party booking? Had Airbnb cancelled her original reservation for a security reason?)
I called ABB and waited over 30 minutes for a customer service rep. He was able to tell me that the payment hadn’t completed, so the reservation was cancelled, and there was no other issue with her account. I mentioned I’d just need to check with her to see if the roommate was also traveling and he says “Oh, I’m sure it will be fine if she goes ahead and books even if she’s not staying.” 
Say WHAAAT? I asked him to please check his documentation because that’s definitely a third party booking and against TOS.
He asked if he could put me on hold while he checked.
When he came back he said that “third party bookings weren’t encouraged” but that I could rest assured it would be fine in this case because my guest had booked as a business traveler before and that I’d just need to make sure communication went to both people.
I haven’t gotten a business account booking, but my understanding was that there was a “coordinator” account & that person could make reservations on behalf of others. And the coordinator could designate who is on the trip so communication went well. For those of you who get business bookings, is this the case?
Either way, I was pretty sure her roommate wasn’t a business account coordinator.
How can we tell if someone is booking as a business account? Have there been changes to TOS around 3rd party bookings? Was this CS rep just pulling policy out of his 
? I was very unimpressed by his advice and told him as much.
I have heard them say outrageous things, total fabrications of any old thing just to get you off the phone. Then the next time you call, you’ll be told something completely different.