How to block future dates?

[Sean1030]

With the updated calendar, I'm now unable to block future dates that are beyond my 3 month window. They are already "blocked" so I'm not able to block them further. Meaning, when the 3 month window opens, the dates I wanted to block will automatically open up. 

I asked super-host support about this, and they said my only option is to use snooze or open up 6 months. Neither of those are good options. Snooze is only 1 time frame. And my family doesn't plan our vacations 6 months in advance so we'll lose dates that we wanted to go to our place. 

I feel like I have to be missing something, I used to be able to block future dates no matter what my booking window was. Has anyone else seen this issue?

[Bob178]

Hi Sean, I believe I have the same problem that you do. Our listing availability window is set to 6 months (Pricing and availability | Calendar availability | Availability window | 6 months in advance). So customers cannot book more than 6 months ahead of their stay. So in effect I want to DOUBLE BLOCK a range of dates that are 9 months from now, so they don't become available 3 months from now when the Availability window feature opens them automatically. I cannot see a way to do this from the Calendar section because those dates are already blocked. I tried "opening" and "blocking" the dates but I do not believe that will prevent the Availability window from opening them 3 months from now.

I suppose I could set an alarm to go off 3 months from now to block them manually, but that has multiple drawbacks. I feel there should be a better way.

[Joan2709]

Hi @Bob178 ! The calendar availability (mentioned below to @Sean1030 ) is a rolling calendar. If you set it for 12 months open, as each day passes it will open up that day for the following year. For example: 

If you set your calendar to 12 months (1yr) availability:

If today is July 14, 2023 :

Will open July 14, 2024  (looks like it is a 2-day lag) 

The only way to prevent the rolling calendar from opening dates up according to your set availability is to change your availabilty to "unavailable by default" in settings. Then  go in and manually unblock six months (or whatever you want it to be). Then, over time, open up your calendar as you wish. Thats  a better option than forgetting to block days one by one as they open on the rolling calendar. Screen shot below. Hope that makes sense. Other hosts might suggest another way?

[Bob178]

Thanks for the quick response @Joan2709 . Your solution is to go fully manual with the future availability, setting each future month to available by hand? Seems that would create more work and problems than setting an alarm to unblock. 

[Joan2709]

@Bob178 I agree!  Its a pain either way. The benefit of using "Unavailable by Default" instead of a rolling calendar is you will never get surprised by a booking at a price you didn't want!  Hosts use "Unavailable by Default" so as not to forget to change their prices for special events/holidays, etc. They review their calendar/pricing is what they want, then open up dates.

With the rolling calendar, if you forget (or aren't able) to update your prices, you might get someone booking dates at a price you did not intend 😱. 

Other hosts might have a better solution? 🤔

[Bob178]

@Joan2709 for me this has nothing to do with price. The original question makes no mention of price either. It's about blocking dates for personal use. The surprise comes when someone books the dates when a host wants to use their own property, because they didn't block the dates soon enough after automatically becoming available.

By the way, do you know who accepted your earlier reply as the answer? I doubt this line of thinking is the solution @Sean1030 can use either. It just seems like another problem that Airbnb chooses to remain unsolved, with only tedious workarounds.

[Joan2709]

@Bob178 ...Whether its to block personal days for your own use, or to ensure pricing is correct. it doesn't matter. The only sure-fire way that I am aware of is to use Unavailable by Default and only open days you want available for guests to book.

I did say that maybe other hosts (or moderator) might have a better idea? But no one has posted one so far 😊. You can always contact Airbnb CS and see if they have a better solution? 

If you figure out a better way, please let us know!

Cheers!

[Sean1030]

Thanks Joan! And Bob is correct, I'm not sure who marked it as best answer - but given all of the information and the push-back from AirBnB super-host support, I think it may be the best answer.

The downside now is that if I forget to open a month, I wont get any bookings. Which of course is not in AirBnBs best interest.

To me, this is clearly a bug / missing feature with the new calendar, and AirBnB has said in my DM that this is just how things are now. They don't plan to add this back.

So I guess unavailable by default, and me opening up 3 months manually - while keeping my vacation days blocked - is the only solution right now.

Maybe what I can do - is make the price of those vacation days really high, that way, no one will book them anyway. (And if they do, then I guess I've made a ridiculous amount of money)

[Sean1030]

My solution of setting my "blocked" dates to $9999 has been working well. I think that is the best answer to this problem. You can keep all the settings the same, and no one will book your vacation dates for 10k. (Or if they do, then great!)

[Haider1]

@Joan2709 , I totally agree with you. This solution is actually better than having a rolling 6 month window, IMO. I just opened things up through end of Feb. In a couple months, when we know what we're personally doing in March, we'll open that up as well, and so on. So much better than a rolling calendar where you forget to price correctly or block off your own dates!

[Haider1]

I just ran into this same issue and your way of doing it is brilliant. Thank you!

[Joan2709]

@Haider1 

Thanks Haider!  Wish I could take credit for this, but I learned this from YouTube 😂

[Sunday2]

I too was suffering with this problem. Here is the work around…. Open your entire calendar for all future dates. (No 3 or 6 month cap) then block the dates you want closed to guests. Now set your calendar to the usual setting of 3 or 6 months out.

[Joan2709]

@Sunday2 Great idea! Will have to try this. I would turn off Instant Book (if using) before doing it though. Might take awhile to do all the blocking & unblocking?

[Sean1030]

@Sunday2  Very interesting. How are you sure they are still blocked after the dates become available?

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Sean1030 when I highlight dates in my calendar that are outside my booking window I get 3 options

Available

Blocked

Outside your booking window

So I can block any future dates I want. Do you not see these options?