I had a guest with all 5* make a booking. I don’t stay at the property but I have a caretaker. On check in, the caretakers shared the Identification cards of the guests. None had the name of the guest who made the booking. I tried to call and message the guests to verify, no reply.
The guest had asked for an early check in, the initial conversation was pleasant. I’d told them that I have guests so can’t allow but will try my best. The caretaker cleaned up quickly and allows these guests to check in at 1pm whereas our check in time is 2pm
Now the guest who made the booking has left a review that we didn’t facilitate them for an easy check in etc. and left a private note for me that he was busy at a wedding and his guests had to wait.
How can Airbnb allow the guest to review my place when he didn’t stay at the property? They are saying since the stay was complete, they can’t remove the review.
Has this happened to anyone else? A third party stay and a review done by the one who made the booking but didn’t stay?
Why is Airbnb allowing them to review?
Yep, similar situation, booker didn’t stay, the guests they booked in left a mess and the booker left a nasty review and never set foot in the place. I thought it would be simple to get the review removed….nope
I am sorry you had these horrible guests. However, third-party bookings are not protected by Airbnb. I think business third-party bookings might be OK. But you should contact Airbnb support once you found out it’s a third-party booking. They could be kicked out without refunds. Now, it’s too late…
Yes that’s what they said too. I’ve never had this experience so I didn’t know. This is so crazy
Of course they can remove it. They are just refusing to.
Not sure how you asked, but it’s always best to quote to Airbnb the review policy the review violates, in this case, “It’s irrelevant, because the person who wrote the review never stayed- their review is based on hearsay, not a reflection of their own experience.”
That’s no guarantee that they’ll agree to remove it, but gives you a better chance.
If you feel it’s warranted, leave a response to the review. Keep it very brief and factual. Something like “This review was written by the person who booked, but unbeknowst to me at the time, never stayed, instead having booked for others. Early check-in was, in fact, accommodated by allowing them to check-in an hour before our normal time, the best we could do, as other guests had checked out that morning.”
Post it as a draft here first so other hosts can tell you if it sounds okay.
And BTW, him talking about “my guests” is BS. They weren’t his guests, they were yours.
I read it as his wedding guests, not him trying to claim he was the host of the accommodation.
Yes, but that they were his wedding guests is immaterial. I have heard even hosts refer to the booking guest’s party as “The guest’s guests”, which of course they aren’t.
Inspired by a great forum member here, to prevent such as situations I’ve extended my House rules with an additional one: “Only the specific guests noted in the booking are allowed on the premises. A violation of this house rule will result on immediate removal of all guests (and any visitors) from the property without a refund. If there is a disturbance with more than the occupants specified in the listing, a … EUR per guest fine will be charged” . This addition was invaluable for my listing. They can make new accounts for their party guests, no excuses.
Yes, the account holder has to have an “Airbnb for work” account. That enables them to book for employees, the contact info for the guest who is actually staying is provided, and the booker is held responsible for anything the guest does or doesn’t do.
I don’t know why they try a third-party booking, they, as guests, are also not covered, I have had a few try it on, we don’t do self-checkin; we actually say in our profile that we are the owners and we meet all our guest at the property.
One, it really backfired on them. When the so-called guest turned up, they said they had booked a villa on the beach. We dont say we are on the beach; clearly, we say we are 1.5km to the beach. This is when we realised this was a third-party booking. They had printed the paperwork off of AirBnB, so who is this? My friend, he said, so where is your friend? I was a little bit suspicious all along with this booking. Communication was bad, and I noticed the phone number kept changing; it went from a Chinese to Hong Kong to and English number. Anyway, they didnt stay; they got back in the taxi and left. Thanks very much. that was a 2-week booking, and there was nothing they could do about it.
Sometimes it’s because the guest who shows up has been banned from Airbnb, I think. Or maybe they have a criminal record. Or an enabler parent booking for their teenager, who’s too young to have an Airbnb account.
Sometimes, unless it’s obvious the booker has lied in messages, it’s totally innocent- the booker just doesn’t know that 3rd party bookings are against policy.
This makes sense. Will try adding this but this incident was so not required
We have booked local rentals via Airbnb for my in-laws when they have come here for a holiday. The hosts have always been made aware that we are booking for another couple and we’ve never been refused.
I can only assume that this is because we are a tourist area so hosts here are more accepting? Or maybe because of being in a tourist area, most hosts have proper STR insurance (which we need to show in order to get our licenses) so don’t expect Airbnb to cover anything?
Maybe the local hosts also feel okay about it because you live locally, and they can see your listing, and see by all your reviews that you’re a good person, not some scammer.
A host booking for others would also risk getting a bad review if they tried any funny business or booked for someone who’d be a bad guest. Even though it would be a review of you as a guest, not a host, it would still be visible to prospective guests, which might make them think twice about booking with you.
Yes, I agree. I should have pointed out that we don’t use my account when we or our in-laws travel and we book with Airbnb. 'imself has his own account and we use that. Although in the case of my octogenarian in-laws I’m pretty sure that they’re not going to have parties or trash the place. 
The only complaints I’ve read from hosts as far as hosting elderly guests is that some of them can’t figure out how to work some appliances, electronics, or electronic locks, etc., and that if they’ve never stayed at an Airbnb before they can have unreasonable expectations, thinking it’s like a bed and breakfast or hotel where they’ll get a full cooked breakfast, clean towels everyday and so on.
I can imagine that some hosts might think those things relate to elderly guests only. If a host is running their business in such a way that they don’t leave instruction manuals for appliances or don’t show them how the electronic locks work during the house tour and guests repeatedly have a problem with these things, then as a host I’d look at my own systems and see if I can change anything to make life easier for guests.
If elderly guests have a problem with anything like that, then younger guests will too.
I just remembered something - in one of my apartments there’s a fully-working range from the early 1950s. Many guests comment on it as quaint but the only guests who ever asked how to work it were in their twenties. 
For sure, people of all ages are challenged in lots of ways. The things I mentioned are just reasons I’ve read in host posts on various forums re their experience. Like lots of hosts say other hosts have invariably been their worst guests, yet lots of us have never found that to be true.
I’ve always found hosts to be lovely guests - usually very appreciative of everything.
Me, too.
And one thing I think a lot of older guests are often better at is reading thoroughly. We grew up in the age when people still wrote long letters sent by snail mail, and used email a lot when computers started to be ubiquitous.
Younger people, who have grown up in the age of instant digital communication where their text messages consist of a few words, half of it acronyms, use the “send” button like a period, and are used to visual images that change with rapid speed, tend to have a shorter attention span, unless they are students who are accustomed to having to read a lot of material and write essays, put together their thesis and such. If you give younger folks too much information in one message, they tend to not register some of it.