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Hi there. I need advice. We have guests arriving today. The original booking message from them said: my husband and I would like to stay at your Airbnb for my daughter’s graduation. The booking was made weeks ago. Now today I just received the following message:
"My two sons are planning to be arriving to check in about ~ 6 pm.
We’re all in the area for my daughter’s graduation from MHC."
I wrote back to say that my understanding was that it would be her and her husband who would be staying with us and I haven’t gotten a response yet. I am anticipating that this could be a problem. What if they are planning to drop two young adults here and then go stay in their own Airbnb? Do I have any recourse? It’s not that I hate young adults, it’s just that I feel that the people who booked the place should be the ones who stay here.
At this point I wouldn’t do anything. I’d greet the sons at check in and make it clear that you are going to be around. They will probably not be there much since graduation and it’s celebration will be elsewhere. I would mention it in the review for potential future hosts to be aware.
How many guests are allowed in your airbnb (in my airbnb, you can only select x number, and the price increases the more that come, for example)? Are there house rules about visitors?
My understanding is that you will get no support from Airbnb on a third party booking if something goes sideways.
And hosts have had issues with getting bad reviews from guests who didn’t even stay there.
But as this is so imminent, I would tend to go with KKC’s advice and also reinterate your house rules to the sons. And make sure you get the mother’s phone number, in case the boys behave badly. Definitely mention it in the review. I might think she just wasn’t aware that she couldn’t book for others, but for the fact that she obviously lied to you.
There is also the possibility that there is no graduation, that it is all BS, just a helicopter mom or a friend booking for teenagers who are too young to have an Airbnb account.
But I think your listing is a homeshare? If they were intending a party, they probably would have booked an entire place.
To answer some of your comments, I’m not comfortable with it but I reviewed their past reviews and they are very positive. I haven’t heard back from the parents yet but I will make it very clear with them what the rules are about third-party bookings. But I will let the two sons stay because they apparently are young men, not kids. If they turn out to both be minors though, I don’t know… I might call Airbnb just to alert them. I do have the parents phone number since they did the booking. And we are a home share so believe me, there won’t be any partying. But I feel like it was a bit duplicitous. And they are going to be here for three days.
Plenty of teenagers, and if that’s what they turn out to be, and young adults, are respectful people. (As my friend’s 20 year old son said to her when she said “I hope you guys cleaned up after yourselves” when he and his buddies had stayed at an Airbnb- “Of course we did, I want 5 star reviews”)
As you say, they can’t throw a party in a homeshare, or invite anyone over without you knowing, so it will likely be fine. It would also be the duplicity that would bother me. She pretty obviously waited until the last minute to let you know she and her husband actually didn’t intend it for themselves, so must have known you might decline if she had been honest from the start.
You’re correct, third party bookings are not allowed on Airbnb.
To the OP:
This is flat out disrespectful behavior towards you as a homeshare host.
To be clear: We do reside on the same property where we have our studios and we advertise it as “quiet” along with a long list of requirements for our guests together with explicit instructions what we require from them prior to check-in and that access may be refused to the accommodation if any requirements are not met, especially if other people try to check-in than the ones who made the reservation.
The least the booker can do is be honest and transparent, showing respect to the host, this goes a long way and we do allow third party bookings (on our responsibility) if (adult) children make reservations at our place for their elderly parents who aren’t tech savvy for example. Communication is key.
I would pick up that phone and call the booker to clarify the situation.
Although Airbnb’s official policy says 3rd party bookings are not allowed, if hosts call Airbnb concerned about a 3rd party booking, they will be told “It’s up to you whether to accept it or not”.
Yes, I remember having that when I first started to advertise with Airbnb.
I’ve always accepted 3rd. party bookings and honestly, I probably wouldn’t have the (great) occupancy that I do if I didn’t.
If a host is new to the business then I’d agree that 3rd. party bookings should be avoided at first - say the first year - until the new host finds their feet.
Update. I explained the policy to the parents and they apologized for the "miscommunication " and said they understood they would be responsible for any problems that might occur, such as something being broken. I’m still not thrilled with how this went down but the two young men, 25 and 15, are as sweet as can be and the 15-year-old is playing chess with my spouse right now. I’m glad I documented things through Airbnb messages so I do have a record. Thanks for your advice, friends.
It’s not too late form the parents to go online and add the sons’ names to the guests… this covers you better with Airbnb if there is a problem – or at least change the reservation to Booker + 2 adults.
And I would definitely mention it in the review – even if everyone earns five-stars for behaviour during their stay
Don’t know if their stay is already (really) over but we had our single worst guest behave completely fine until the final 24 hours of her 3 night stay when she decided to use our place as a Tinder meetup, drank uncontrollably, caused damage inside and outside of the accommodation and smoked up the whole place at 3 am in the morning.
My wife and I had the most pleasant check-in with her always being courteous and happy until some switch flicked and she turned into something pretty nasty.
Of course not hoping that this will happen to OP! Just sharing experiences…
This sounds like a third party booking. Airbnb frowns upon third party bookings. Will you have insurance coverage if the persons showing up are not on record as staying and there is damage during their stay?
I’m sorry you had that experience. The fact that we are in the house with our guests protects us from those kind of experiences, for the most part. The two guys left this morning and we told them we were really happy to get to know them. But I will mention in the review that the people who booked did not stay here, just the other hosts will be aware.
The studio is in our house but this happened at the very beginning of our hosting journey and we literally had no clue how to handle this guest and what rights they have or who would “help” us.
We tried to keep the trigger protential to a minimum, knowing that she was heavily intoxicated. Some people in this state can do unbelievable things so I tried to talk to her in a calm voice and tried to make sure that she wouldn’t set the studio on fire by smoking inside almost falling off of her chair.
By the amount of wine bottles she emptied herself it was clear that this wasn’t the first time she was that drunk, so it didn’t appear to be an emergency situation. She didn’t go on a rampage destroying stuff or screaming but managed to break a few things just because the she couldn’t keep her balance at times.
The damage was manageable and with the ozone generator we could get the cigarette smell out before the next guests arrived. This also happened during the last night of her stay and we just wanted to get this over with as smoothly as possible.
This was a BDC guest and host support did back us up in the sense that we have the right to kick her out if we choose to do so. We reported her for misconduct and she was kicked off the platform.
We have changed our “screening” process dramatically since then, and knock on wood haven’t gotten into another situation like this (or similar for that matter). We DO get a lot less bookings but the ones we get are much better behaved and in most cases do read the listing descriptions and our messages as we require some info from the guests before check-in. This allows a base of communication to build on which has worked out so far very well. By the time of the check-in, it’s almost as if they have already been with us before as a lot of info has been exchanged and everyone got to know the other person much better. This is a good balance for us and might not work as well for other hosts.
Too late for this situation (and I’m glad it turned out well) - if I find out others / more are coming or my spidey sense says that they are) I always say that ‘I need full names of all on premises for insurance purposes’ (who knows, could be true) and in my experience people both comply and behave well.
Technically you are not covered by Airbnb’s public liability if the person who booked is not the person staying. I always ask the guest to temporarily change the name on the booking.
Further it is against Airbnb’s rules to book for someone else.
A company booked the room for 2 workers. They had an unannounced dog with them. Not a problem, but was a bit surprised when a young Staffordshire Bull Terrier came storming in to the room and almost pushed me over.
Unfortunately the dog ripped apart the sheets and made holes in a mattress.
The booker only wanted to pay a very small amount.
AirBnB paid us more than we asked for, even though it was clearly a 3rd party booking.
This is the first time we had a problem with a 3rd party booking, and we had plenty over the years.
