I had that too with my NC listing.
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If other hosts are comfortable with 3rd party bookings and can make them work, more power to them. Congrats on the additional revenue.
I remotely manage my properties. Repeatedly 3rd party bookings have resulted in guests not knowing house rules, misunderstandings about check in/check out and general difficulty in communication. I now try to avoid them.
I think one of the more awkward 3rd party booking moments, a woman called me stating she wanted to cancel her reservation because the condo was for sale. I had no idea who she was, no record of a reservation by her, and my condo was absolutely not for sale. Her daughter had made the reservation. The mom wanted to know what the neighborhood was like so the daughter pulled up the development on Zillow & used Google earth to “walk around & see the neighborhood”. The Mom misunderstood. That was the beginning of a long series of misunderstandings.
HOWEVER I would gladly accept a work booking from someone using the Airbnb work program. Accounts are linked. Contact information is shared. The itinerary with house rules is shared.
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@Annet3176 Thanks! The person who booked has a company but I don’t think it’s associated with the Work program. I contacted Airbnb a few hours ago and they haven’t responded.
I can’t sign up for it because all my rooms have shared bath.
True, I’m pretty certain that for business use a room/suite has to have its own bathroom. I’m not certain that it has to be en suite, but I think it has to be a dedicated bathroom for the guest.
If it’s a for work booking it will say so. Third party bookings are different. For me I want the person who books to be there. You have absolutely no accountability for a guest not on the reservation.
I rely only on me , I don’t rely on very questionable host guarantee policies and other reembursments . And I also don’t rely on accountability of guests. If I need a damage deposit I will collect it directly from guests. With Airbnb you can’t even use damage deposit against damages unless you spend hours of proving to them that damages happen.
Whatever it says there for work or not work: if a company books from me and usually it’s a person who doesn’t stay at the house, I will rent to them with pleasure .
Even if there are some confusion with my rules or other issues, it’s all solves easily with proper communication .
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Your insurance company says that? Ours doesn’t. It doesn’t care who booked. I can imagine that I’d be heading towards and administrative nightmare if it did. (Well, far more work anyway). If any potential hosts are reading this and their insurance company insists on the person who booked being present, I’d suggest that they look at other companies.
Bravo @Yana - your post sums it up perfectly.
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I just had a third party booking of a sort. The woman lives here and arrived with her friend. She checked her friend in and then left for the night. She came back and forth to pick up and drop off her friend and spent a few hours one afternoon in the room. If she hadn’t told me I probably wouldn’t have realized it was “third party.” There are some situations I might outright reject but I’ve had no problems with third party bookings.
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“Work Collection” and “Airbnb for Work” are two separate things, @Rolf.
Air for Work just allows a travel coordinator to book and assign stays to their employee accounts. It simply legitimizes 3rd party bookings for business. A host doesn’t “opt in” or join this program. You get a booking if a business coordinator or employee selects your place.
“Work Collection” listings may be most attractive to a business travel coordinator but they’re certainly not required to book only those listings. Just like I’m not in the "Family Collection and yet families still stay at my place.
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I’m not because you can’t have a strict cancellation policy, only moderate or flexible.
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We played with strict for a while but as we have very few cancellations, settled on flexible.
That’s what I understand as well. The person booking the trip has the option to set a filter “For Work” which will only show listings in the Work Collection, but the default setting for this filter is off.
I have yet to add my listing to the work collection. I think it qualifies under Airbnb’s standards, just not my own for a laptop-friendly work space.
I’ve always thought that this is a bit of a daft description. I don’t know about others but I use the laptop on the sofa, in bed and outside in the sunshine. So I don’t really understand what a laptop-friendly work space truly is. The whole point of a laptop is that you don’t have to be chained to a desk.
When we first got the work designation in the small apartment, I figured that the dining table or the small console table in the bedroom counted. Both had a flat surface for the laptop, chair and a nearby electrical socket for charging.
We since bought a proper desk but I’ve also found that people coming for work and people who are on vacation both use their laptops - work people don’t use them more than anyone else.
I think I know the answer to this. Some employers are authoritarian about workplace safety and that includes office ergonomics. Workplace injuries such as carpal tunnel, tendinitis, lower back pain and tennis elbow are the most common workplace injuries and they cost employers big $ and they all can magically be attributed to office ergonomics. Employers don’t want to book accommodations for their employees that don’t provide a working environment that they deem acceptable (regardless of whether the employee opts to use the work space).
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Just as well that no one ever checks then 
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The guest profile needs to say WORK.
I accepted a booking from someone w a single 5 star review, but no comments.
I explained everything in case they didn’t read the house rules etc.
The registered guest was a man and his girlfriend, which he only provided her first name after I asked 3xs (I require first and last names of everyone in my critera).
Here’s why I will never allow anyone additional, unregistered, or 3rd party bookings in my home again:
2 young women get dropped off by Uber. One was the girlfriend, which he informed be about, but she did not have an account, just traveling w him.
I question the name/identify of the unknown young woman, her reply “Coco”. No last name? “No, just Coco it’s all you need to know”.
I stupidly let them in because the girlfriend claimed her boyfriend (who had the 1 review) was just 15-20 minutes behind them.
I accept up to 4 ppl, so instead off making them wait outside until he arrived, I let them in. Booking was only for 2, so I had not set up the sofa bed.
Well, the boyfriend aka pimp, never intended on showing. These girls Uber’d to Atlantic City that night and came back about 6am. Yes, I used the word ‘pimp’ because the young women were loudly talking about saving more money to do incall here.
I’m up at 7am and smell weed. I don’t care about weed, but house rules are not to smoke anything inside. Go outside!
I called Airbnb right away, they said I’m on my own and might want to call the cops in case they get mad and trash my house. Great.
They had a towel at the base of the bedroom door and my entire home was smelling like Cheech spent a month here.
I tell their “boss” that I’m telling them to leave and they have 1 hour, since they are not the registered guest. He doesn’t answer.
I had my sister come home so I had a witness.
I waited until 10am (checkout is 11am) to knock on their door and explain that they are unregistered, evaded 3xs for the full name of ‘Coco’, and that house rules were broken.
Immediately, I’m accused of being a ‘racist stupid ass bitch’ and they start throwing my new and 100+yr old antique furniture around, and slam the door in my face.
I walk away and call the police, while sitting in my kitchen listening to them damage my house and accuse me very loudly of so many things I won’t repeat here. I don’t answer or engage, I stay in the kitchen.
Police finally arrive 20 minutes later, they just needed a brief explanation and then they attempt to calmly talk to the young women.
The women told the cops ‘the racist ignorant bitch’ who “needs to come correct” (me) woke them up and told them to get out immediately… No, I gave them an hour before calling PD. I warned them I would have to call if they refuse to leave and caused any damage.
So, PD was standing in doorway waiting for them to pack up, watching so they do not cause anymore damage.
They leave about 40 minutes later, trying to also entice the PD into arguing…PD did a great job of remaining calm and patient, and they were also accused of being racist… Which I didn’t understand because they shared the same or visually similar ethnicity…
So, they leave finally by Uber after smoking on my porch by the open window, I watch them blow smoke into the house, while making the Uber driver wait and putting whatever was being smoked out on my mailbox. Hey, whatever, just go.
I had to cancel the remainder of their booking because I had to have curtains cleaned. I swear, I could not get the weed smell out for 3 days of having windows opened, mopping etc.
(Lost money, I had requests to fill the dates they had booked, but I was not going to have a new guest have a bad experience).
Airbnb would not support me, no back up. Ok, technically I accept that because I was naive by not waiting for the registered account owner to show up before letting them in.
But, I was left with a disaster to clean (wasn’t going to ask my cleaning crew to deal w this), and I found weed, little baggies w ties, and a bad of what looked like meth or crack (Crystal rock is how it looked). I took pictures, but really… For what reason?
I guess with PD standing there, they couldn’t lift the mattress to grab it where they hid it.
I’m at the point of weighing the benefits of this whole thing anymore.
I don’t discriminate, I’m very clear with my house rules, I don’t care if you want to prostitute and use drugs, but I don’t allow illegal activities in my home. Hell, my home owners would drop me in a heartbeat.
And racist? No. I look white, but I’m the recessive gene family member (Native American, Asian, +), sister is biracial and has a biracial son… Who visits often and I prefer his 10 year old self not to have to be around shady things.
I will never allow an unregistered guest into my home again.
I’ve updated my rules, specifically starting that ONLY registered guests wv first and last names will be able to enter the home upon providing me of ID.
I just wanted to accommodate, but refuse to allow risks to losing my home owners and putting myself in harm’s way.
They said the following night their other girlfriends were coming by and bringing some guys.
Umm, no. I’m a single woman and have my younger sister and nephew stay w me on the other side of the house.
Airbnb neglected any and all responsibility, offered zero assistance. I was stuck with the dry cleaning of curtains, A LOT of extra cleaning and making sure no other drugs were present, etc.
Best part…I was not allowed to leave a review to warn future hosts, because they were not the registered guest. Really cool… That’s something I definitely would have wanted to be aware of.
The account ‘pimp’ owner was also not allowed to leave a review, and removed his account. But they angry young woman made up a new account just to harass me further. I just blocked her.
No sensibility in trying to reason with mindsets as such.
Know what I do as my career? I am a dually licensed counselor (mental health & substance use) and I take state cases where I go into home where there is severe abuse and neglect, and tons of drugs… To help these children.
I advocate in court for these families. I didn’t get mad at being called racist, but it did hurt because I work long 12 hour shifts to do my best to help families find peace within their homes.
Thanks to anyone who took the time to read my vent. I feel a little better.
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Curious. What insurance company do you use?
This is a totally different thing. The work collection is not the same as Airbnb for work. Work collection is a way hosts can differentiate their listings as possibly being a good choice for those working. The Airbnb for Work is to allow employees to be booked by their employer and not under their own account.