I do not want people to book more than 15 days

[Emiliano124]

Hi guys, I keep having inquires about booking the apartment for 1 month or more, and I do not want people to book for 1 month, the most I can rent it is 15 days, any advice? I do not know how to modify that. 

[Pat271]

Under your listing->Availability, you can set the Maximum stay.

Out of curiosity, why can you only rent for 15 days?

[Emiliano124]

Due to Covid-19, I am living in my hometown while I'm on virtual classes, but there are certain weekends that I need to go to the city where the apartment is, and I have to use it sometimes, so, if I rent for one month and I need to use the apartment, it will not be a nice gesture from me to get out the people in the apartment.

What do you think? I'm new on Airbnb Hosting and I'm trying to do my best, all opinions are welcome.

[Pat271]

That’s fine - I thought a 15 day max might have been imposed on you for some reason, and I was curious about that.  I also prefer shorter stays.

[Sarah977]

@Emiliano124 If you have your booking settings correctly set to 15 days maximum stay, you aren't doing anything wrong. 

Inquiries are simply a way for guests to ask questions and a guest can ask to bring their pet rhinocerous if they want, there's nothing a host can do about that.

It's annoying, for sure when guests ask for things which are clearly not offered in your listing, so all you can do is message back saying something like "Thank you for your inquiry- my listing has a 15 day maximum stay, as is evident in the listing description. You need to look for listings which accept longer term reservations."

If you get a lot of these inquiries, create a saved message you can just send each time so you don't need to write it out.

You could also state prominently in your listing description "Please note: this listing has a 15 day maximum stay length. We don't accept longer bookings"

And FYI an Inquiry message doesn't require that you click on pre-approve or decline- just answering the message within 24 hours is sufficient.

@Pat271  Just because a host has a 15 day or whatever length max doesn't mean they can't host longer bookings, it can just mean they don't want to. I've always had a 2 week maximum because I figured if a guest was objectionable in some way,  I wouldn't want to get stuck with them longer than that. And as a homeshare host, I don't want a full time roommate.

[Emiliano124]

Exactly!!! I keep answering messages, obviously with correct maners, and I tell them that, only 15 days.

Thanks for the information about Pre-Approve- Decline.

Thanks a lot for helping me.

[Sarah977]

@Emiliano124 My listing title is "Unique Tropical for Solo Travelers". Yet I still get some inquiries that ask "So, is it only for one person?" 🙂

[Pat271]

@Sarah977  She said “The most I can rent it is 15 days”, so I assumed this was a requirement on her, not a preference. She explained otherwise above.

[Sarah977]

@Pat271 Ah, I didn't catch that wording. BTW, Emiliano is a man's name, not a "she" 🙂

[John5097]

These is also a toggle box to allow guest to inquire about longer stays. That way host can pick and choose if its a good fit or good timing to allow longer stays. They can also pay up front and you would get a request to reserve booking. I read an ABB help article that said to turn off any feature like this if you don't plan to accept request like this for longer stays. If not it would lower you in the listing search, as ABB doesn't want guest wasting time with a host that doesn't intend to let guest book but still able to ask. Also if you decline a booking request, say for 4 weeks with specific dates, I'm pretty sure the guest can no longer book with you during that duration, unless you had made them a counter offer using the special offer option. This would be different than a general inquiry, where they just pick some random dates and ask any random question, including length of stay.  At least that's been my recent experience, as these options and policies change all the time.   

[John5097]

@Emiliano124 Also if you allow inquiries longer than you max allowed nights and get request to book host has 24hr to accept or decline or those nights are blocked off calendar. 

[Sarah977]

@John5097  Where is this toggle box found? I'm thinking it's only an option for IB hosts?

[John5097]

@Sarah977 ok yes that's all I have used is IB. That was quite a curve for me. 🙂 Had a few inquiries here and there for longer stays, accepted a few, only had to respond, then got a request to book for six weeks, and had option to accept or decline in 24 hr or those nights would be blocked off calendar. Then a lot of explaining to guest how I only had that option, then I last heard from him he couldn't reserve or ask about a shorter stay durning that time frame. Anyway, I'm not interested in longer stays than my max so just keep it off. Too much explaining to guest why host had to decline. Policies keep changing all the time too so good to hear from other host!