Scheduling my property to be unlisting during certain hours of the day

[Todd-Brown0]

We have a need where we would like to schedule our property to be listing only during the weekday evenings and weekends. I know this sounds like a strange request, but we've found this to be the easiest and best way to avoid interactions with public servants within a certain department at our townhall.

Currently, I am doing it manually, but it would be nice if there was a feature to automatically do this for us and I am sure other in the community would be grateful for this feature if they have similar interactions.

Todd

[Bettye6]

Hi Todd-Brown0,

Yes this request is a first for me. I sadly do not know how one could do that via the app. 

My concern here, if I'm understanding your request correctly, is that you would like to hold oe accept reservation requests until certain hours of the day. I find this could lead to difficulties with guests as when I am looking for a place to stay I want to book when I have the time to look at perspective properties. If I reached out to you, unless you use Instant Booking, to wait possibly for hours to get a response from you would not be pleasing and could even lower your rank for response time, even loose potential guests.

Hopefully there are others out there with a more definitive answer.

Kind regards,

Bettye6

[Todd-Brown0]

What I am looking for is my listing to not be visible to the public during certain daytime hours during the week, not hold/delay accepting reservations.

We do use instant book, so we wouldn't have the issue you described.

Guest that have already booked would still have access to the listing via their reservation.

Without putting too fine of point on my issue, it is buried in this comment from above "we've found this to be the easiest and best way to avoid interactions with public servants within a certain department at our townhall."

Todd

[Karen114]

@Todd-Brown0   Well public servants don't work on the weekend generally and holidays so I suppose you can hide your listing and make it active from Friday at 5:00 PM to Monday at 9AM.

Seems like a lot of work though and the better solution would be to figure out why this is happening and what can be done about it. 

Like Mike-and-Jane0 said, if you aren't supposed to be renting you probably shouldn't .  If you are legal and are being harassed I would look into legal avenue. 

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Todd-Brown0 Either it is legal to list your place or it is not. If it is then ignore/push back on the town hall department causing the issue. If it is not legal to list then I don't see Airbnb making a feature available to you that helps you break the law.

[Todd-Brown0 · Accepted solution]

Thank you Community, I see how silly my request was and will now run for the mayor of my town, since that will be the easier path than a few lines of code.

Todd

[Helen3]

Wow @Todd-Brown0 it is indeed a silly request to want an STR channel to collude with hosts to break STR regulations in their locations. 

Or to expect an OTA to put their operation at risk in that location/that your local government won't have software that can scrape data 24:7. 😀

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Todd-Brown0 I think you may be missing the point - A few lines of code will never happen if they are designed to help hosts circumvent legislation.

Now the other part of your post makes eminently good sense. Do run for mayor and/or work to change any anti Airbnb sentiment in your town. Perhaps get local restaurants/shops who benefit from tourists to join you in your crusade.

[Todd-Brown0]

My situation is not so cut and dry, my town allows you to STR in your primary residences - which is what I am doing.

I built out a portion of my house as an STR unit with a building permit and was inspected over 4 years. I have the permits from both the provincial and local governments to run a STR.

The town changed the by-laws late last year and want me to pull another building permit so they can re-inspect and deem part of my primary residence as a accessory building, then they want to shut it down because STR are not allowed in accessory buildings.

[Jeremy683]

I feel you @Todd-Brown0 

You're absolutely right - things are not black and white with STR legislation. The Airbnb host community should support each other while not judging others who are in difficult situations or long transitions with county laws.

[Todd-Brown0]

Thank you, Jeremy

[Helen3]

Its not about judging, its that an  STR marketing company clearly can't help individual STR business owners circumvent local STR regulations in their locations, however unfair they may appear @Jeremy683 

That way madness lies. Airbnb has to walk a careful line if it doesn't want local authorities to bring in further STR restrictions. Can you imagine what the impact would be if local government knew Airbnb was helping hosts accept bookings outside of their local regulations.