Avoid bookings that are far out for a monthly rental

[Matt4467]

We have an Airbnb that is monthly stays or longer. Say it is vacant next starting March 1st. What is the best way to prevent requests for bookings in like say April which would likely result in a 4-6 week vacancy? 

In this scenario, ideally our place would only be available to book for people looking to start a stay March 1st to March 15th. Would setting the minimum stay for March 16th onwards to like a year or something prevent bookings after March 15th to happen? But would allow someone to start a multi-month stay in early March?

[Emiel1]

@Matt4467 

The booking options are only checked  y the system at the requested check-in date. So initially  you need to have a min. stay of 1 month and a very long (or unlimited ) maximum stay to attract the guests you want. You can also limit the maximum dynamically  (like 1 year) by the "availibility window" setting.

If you do not want bookings in april now (but have to keep the dates available for earlier "long term bookings" starting in march), You need to create a ruleset with parameters wich make it unlikely somebody will book (like min en max stay set to same very long values).

Sometimes it is easier to manage the other way round: set initially the "unrealistic" paramters and create a ruleset for march having the realistic values. After the first booking is made, you can shift the ruleset to the new time period available for bookings. Always test (simulate bookings) your listing to check if results are as expected.

If you do not want to use rulesets, you can also make a "custom requirement" for a certain time period in the lenght of stay section, but is less flexible

[Huma0]

@Matt4467 @Emiel1 

I think there is a less complicated way of doing it. There is a rule set for 'no check in', which blocks those dates from check ins, but doesn't block them from being booked. I use this rule set for when I am travelling. I don't mind guests staying here while I am away because I host long term stays but I don't want bookings starting on those dates as I have no one else to manage the check in.

So, leave the first half of March open as per usual and then apply the no check in rule set for the dates after that. The guest booking in the first half of March would then still be able to book for a month or many months (depending on your maximum stay setting) but no one would be able to book stays starting after 15th March.

Hope that makes sense!