Preparation time - can't unblock dates manually

[Mirco-And-Jasmin0]

Hello 

does anybody have the same problem:

I have the setting applied where it blocks one night before and after each reservation. I like this setting because I work full time and need a day in between bookings for cleaning.

However, today on my weekend when I already cleaned right after my guests left, I wanted to open up the night for another guest. As this night was my "preparation time" however it would not let me change it to "available" based on my settings.
I know for a fact that I used to be able to still manually change the night to available even with the setting "block 1 night before and after each reservation" as I did it many times last year (in July 2019).

It is frustrating that this does not work anymore. I already contacted Airbnb but they don't seem to understand.

[Mikki0]

I used to do this too, and ran into the same problem. So I changed the feature to not block any time before and after, and just manually block dates after people book. 

[Robb203]

Hello,  I am hoping this is what I needed to hear. You are the first person to give me this good news.

I hate to beat the proverbial dead horse but here is my issue

If I have a guest from the 18th leaving the 21st it put the Prep time on 21st & 22nd the 23rd is open,then Prep is on the 24th and on the 25th I have another guest checking leaving the 27th.

Wait there's more!

Then, the prep time starts again on the 27th & 28th and the next guest arrives on the 29th.

So I'm obviously not available when I should be.

Back to what you said,  HOW do you manually block dates after people book?

Thank you so very much for the help in advance.

If I could copy and paste my calendar to this it would make it much easier to understand.

Kim

[Emiel1]

@Robb203 

You probaly have set prep time to 2 days, maybe consider 1 day, as setting is applied before AND after every reservation.

Manually blocking:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/447/how-do-i-make-dates-available-or-blocked-on-my-calendar

[Jo659]

Yes, just ran into the same problem, very frustrating. Will have to stop the auto blocking and manually block until AirBnB fix it.

[Sarah977]

@Jo659  I've always had the one day prep time and never tried to turn it off day-of, but I'm wondering if it's not a glitch, but somehow linked to your check-in time. Like if you try to turn the setting off after your check-in window has started it wouldn't work, but if you try to change it before check-in time, maybe it would?

[Leslie603]

We have the same issue. When we go to make a date available, it says our preparation time doesn’t allow changes.  Seems like it should be an easy fix I order to allow the host to change a date here and there, rather than do have to do all preparation blocking manually.

[Mirco-And-Jasmin0]

Yes especially now that I have to do it manually I forgot a few times to block the dates. Luckily no one booked.

[Dave355]

Yes, I just experienced the same problem.  I cannot manually make a "preparation day" available for booking.  We have two days blocked before/after a booking ... ensures we have time to clean, but when we have time and the room is ready, we'd like to be able to manually open it for booking.  Tried unsuccessfully on the app and website ... neither worked.   We used to be able to do this and it was a very convenient way to manage bookings with our schedules.  We could go with shorter or no preparation time, but that is risky with our busy schedules.  Would be interested to know if someone figures a work around or if Airbnb restores the functionality to manually override preparation days and make them available ... more potential bookings.

[Mirco-And-Jasmin0]

Yes I agree that it was very convenient when we were able to do this. It seems like the only way now is to manually block the dates before and after a booking. I forgot a few times and was lucky that no one booked until I discovered that I forgot to block.

I forwarded this issue to Airbnb but no one seems to understand what I mean.

[Melanie710]

@Mirco-And-Jasmin0 

I brought the issue to Airbnb as well. The only "solution" they provided was to remove the prep time setting. That can be very risky. We know the ability to unblock days exists, they just chose to not let us do it. It's frustrating when they take this ability away for some unknown reason, yet claim hosts are in control of their calendar.....

[Emilia42]

As of May 2021, I am having this problem also. I have removed the prep-day settings but it is very nerve-racking if I cannot get to my calendar immediately (i.e. booking in the middle of the night, driving, etc.) 

What is going on? @Scott, is this a glitch or what? This problem has been ongoing for at least a year now. 

[Michael2484]

It doesn't allow you to remove it once set.

There is a direction to unblock it but once used it is frozen forever.  

They blame logify but my logify account does show no blocking.   I rent weekend mostly but often get requests for Sunday night leaving Friday morning 

I no.longer can take those reservations- a huge surrender of income.

I have been working on this with airbnb for three months.  They can see ligufy and vrbo does not require it yet they cannot remove it on their own system.

A lot of these were put in place for covid and they simply will n I t put the resources (say one programmer for a day or two) onto the task.

Its frustrating and frankly irresponsible.

[Adam1336]

I do hope AirBNB  fix this issue and if anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them!    In my case I have a one large property (for which I need  preparation time) and I also have 2 smaller lodges which are linked to the listing for the larger property. The lodges can also be rented separately and don't need preparation time.  When a guest books all linked properties I ended up with dates blocked in the smaller lodges at the beginning/end of the rental period which could otherwise be rented.  I would like to be able manually unblock the preparation time on my smaller lodges, however as described in the previous posts it doesn't seem possible.  I can't take the risk of removing the blocking function.

[Chris37]

So it is now January 2022 and the problem STILL remains. I asked Airbnb support, but they just told me it is set in settings, and they didn't seem to acknowledge the fact the controls allow you to set as Available, but it doesn't work at all. Still. 

ALSO, did you know if you link listings, the Prep time syncs as well?

So if you have a private room listing in a whole house, and you set prep time one day for whole house, your private room also gets a one day prep time either side, even if you don't set this for the listing. Because prep time syncs... where min nights auto-blocks do NOT sync, and CAN be manually removed. 

Correct behaviour:
1. We can override prep time manually (Like we used to, and like we can with min nights)
2. If not allowed, the system doesn't allow, and says why in a message. (Not allows but fails to work!)
3. Prep time should NOT be synced between linked listings. If you want a prep time for the linked listing, then just set it. You may need two nights for one listing, but NOT need it for some other listing, especially a private room. Just sync the actual bookings, and maybe the actual manual blocks.
4. Ideally we have these new in sync controls
[ ] Sync preparation time  

[ ] Sync unavailable time (manually applied)