Has Covid changed your booking window?

[Alexandra316]

I used to open up my calendar 9 months in advance. When Covid struck, I lost all my bookings, but I was able to refill dates with people travelling for essential reasons. Then things opened up last summer, but people would book, cancel, new people would rebook, then they would cancel: rinse and repeat as events got cancelled, guests got sick, work schedules changed, etc. etc. etc. The calendar was getting filled consistently, but it was wasting a lot of time.

So I cut the window to three months. That definitely improved things, but due to the constantly shifting rules around hosting tourists, it was still resulting in a lot of cancellations (and a lot of questions from potential guests about what would happen if they were to cancel). So more recently, I've cut the window down to one month or less.

Yesterday, I opened the calendar for August, and it's already fully booked. I'm thinging that I'm going to keep the booking window shorter in the future, because I'm getting booked and there's less messing around. 

Has Covid changed your booking window, and if so, how's it working for you? Has it changed the type of guest you're getting?

[Emilia42]

@Alexandra316 

Covid is pretty much over here but this has been my exact experience to a tee. Cancelations are still so common. I've restricted my calendar to 3 months out. I had a guest inquire the other day for Christmas and I said absolutely not, check back in with me in a few months. 

[Linda108]

I have shortened my booking window as well.  I am in an area where usually there are several large events that have been scheduled, cancelled, rescheduled and cancelled again.  Keeping track of all that is difficult because there are always insiders that know the dates and book reservations at very low rates.  As a result, I have had bookings made a few days, rather than weeks and months in advance.  

[Alexandra316]

@Emilia42 @Linda108 I noticed this on my recommendations also. The shorter booking window is probably frowned upon by Airbnb because they don't get to hold onto the money for as long. I've always wondered what percentage of their income just comes from sitting on all that money. 

[Alexandra316]

The picture disappeared... Here it is! 

 

[M199]

@Alexandra316 

We only open in South Bruce Peninsula around mid December for the next year, so haven't seen much change.  But we're seasonal April to October.  I prefer the early bookers, that tells me that are planners and not likely to be bad guests or reviews.  That's just my experience so far.

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

same here. I used to have availability 6 months but now I've set it to 3 months. Guests usually book a few days before check-in, we have more cancellations than ever.

[Andrea-and-Glenn0]

@Alexandra316 we also reduced our booking window to 3 months on advice from our mentor that we continue to bounce things off since we are still relatively new hosts. We don’t experience many cancellations but like a lot of others on here, we had everyone who was booked cancel when Covid hit, then we hit the jackpot with business travelers and essential workers and have been very fortunate to have a pretty full calendar, mostly with 1 week to 6 week stays per guest. Seems to have worked well for us so we will stick with it for now. 

[Robin4]

@Alexandra316 

There is an old saying 'familiarity breeds contempt' and we here in Australia are guilty of just that where Covid is concerned. 

Although we have taken it seriously we have been so successful at containing it that we have not really felt its effects like other countries around the world.

Up until last week we hadn't had a Covid related death, nor anyone in ICU in Australia for 9 months. Because of this we have let our guard down and we are now starting to pay the price. Only 9% of Australians have been fully vaccinated......the reaction in the general community is, "Oh maybe I will get around to that when the right vaccine comes along, when a bit more development has been done on it" There is no sense of urgency to protect ourselves.......protect ourselves from what, month after month you could scour the whole country and not find an active case in the community.

The national government didn't put a vaccination program high on the priority list and went with the AstraZeneca vaccine instead of the Pfizer. With the incidence of blood clotting with AstraZeneca, people don't want it, they would take the Covid risk.

Well that has changed. NSW let a Delta variant case escape from quarantine into the community and now has close to 1,000 active cases rising by 100 detected cases every day. Two removalist employees with their removal truck took the strain into Victoria, a nurse took it into Queensland and Australia is now very vulnerable because we all felt the risk was so small it was not worth worrying about!

The end result of this is as some parts of the country are going into lock-down, others are opening up. It's like a game of 'hide the thimble' as to which borders are going to be shut, and trying to make travel arrangements at the moment is just about impossible. We don't know what is going to be possible next week let alone next month! 

Black is not black and white is not white any more....travel is a shade of grey.

Our bookings are holding up okay but when a reservation comes from interstate, my heart is in my mouth as to whether it will proceed, or end up as another cancellation!

Hopefully this is a wake-up call and the authorities will put a bit more emphasis on vaccination!

Cheers........Rob

[Kim2828]

I don't understand how those two removalist employees got thru the border. We came over to Adelaide last year and had tests done just prior to leaving to get results before we left and had our travel permits aswell.

[Robin4]

@Kim2828 

Kim I think it just comes back to people not doing their job properly.....they think it doesn't matter. 

I travel by car from Mt Barker in SA to the Central coast and Woolongong 3-4 times a year to spend some time with my daughters and their families.

The 2nd last time I drove over this year was in February when there were NSW and VIC border restrictions (because a bit of my trip was through country Victoria which was an orange zone at the time) on the way over, and SA border restrictions for the same reason on the way back.

I was told I needed to apply for and download a border clearance pass to cross from SA to VIC and then into NSW on the way over, and an SA border clearance pass on the way back.

So I took the time and effort to comply with two passes each way.......

Kim, at no point on the way over were there any border checking stations, nor was I stopped or asked to produce a border clearance pass either on the way over or the way back. They are concerned about the spread of fruit-fly but were not the slightest bit interested about the Covid checking they had made such a big deal about. I asked at Yamba on the way back where I had to produce my clearance pass and they said, "No, that's okay as long as you have a number"!

I think we needed this wake-up call Kim, it's costing the country $Billions but hopefully it will wake a few of these public servants up and make them realise, they actually have a job to do, not just accept the pay packet! 

Cheers........Rob

[Alexandra316]

@Robin4 It's been the same in Canada with doing the hokey pokey with the rules. Restrictions have been placed on vacation rentals a number of times and it's really hard to plan ahead. I've been trying to accept only guests who need accomodation for essential reasons: for example, I have a three-week booking in August for a family who is in need of temporary housing after the sale of their home. That's unlikely to be affected if there is a new lockdown. Every time there have been restrictions, that type of stay (primary housing) has still been allowed, so trying to build in some insurance. 

[Robin4]

@Alexandra316 

Wow, we do lead parallel lives....have a look at my booking for a big chunk of August!

That's almost 'paranormal', isn't it Alex,

                                               

Right down to the sale of home bit!

I had an existing booking for the night of the 13th so they are going to stay somewhere else that night but are coming back from the 14th to the 18th!

Cheers........Rob

[Helen427]

@Alexandra316 @Kim2828 @Robin4 @Andrea-and-Glenn0 @Branka-and-Silvia0 

I've always had my calendar availability for 3 months for a number of personal reasons.

I had a long distance planning Guest book last night for an annual endurance event in October, it caught me a little by surprise as I have on offer an Early Bird discount and had kind of forgotten about it.

I'm ok with such a booking and the Guest is thinking about spending another night as a result of such a good deal.

Win-Win there, meanwhile other recent Guests tend to book either a day or 2 prior or on the day of intended stay.

No one much comes to Auckland at the moment for study courses/ university and employment prospects have also been impacted on due to the manner lockdowns have disrupted stability for students and others here. They have gone to other parts of NZ where they are less likely to be told to Stay Home and can get on with their lives as best as possible.

Life in Little ole New Zealand is fickle at the moment.

[Ann72]

It's funny you raise this @Alexandra316 because for the first time ever I've shortened my booking window.  After the flurry of 2020 cancellations, all vacated dates were re-booked and it feels like I've been booked non-stop since then.  With summer all filled up I decided to shorten the window to three months.  I was a little stressed as it was so non-stop and I still have a full-time day job.  After the long surge, it does feel a little quiet with the calendar stopped, but I had a two-week July/August cancellation the other day to liven things up.  Both weeks were booked at a higher rate within two hours.  On the same day my cottage became almost fully booked for October, so I decided to keep the calendar closed for now to give it and me a rest.

It seems that no matter which way things go, we've all proved we run pandemic-proof businesses and that's not a bad thing.