Start date & End date

[Hunt0]

Hi

When setting the dates that my listing is available, is the end date, the date that the guests are checking out? Or is the end date the last night that they'll be staying? i.e. if I have my listing available from 23/03/2016-28/03/2016 (Wednesday - Monday), does that mean the guests are able to stay the night of the 28th and check out on the 29th? Or are they staying the night of the 27th and checking out the 28th?

Cheers

Hunt

[Sarah977]

@Tammy163  I agree it can be confusing. But if a guest books Monday the 1st and Tuesday the 2nd, they have booked 2 nights- they check in on Monday and check out on Wednesday the 3rd. The reservation will read the 1st-3rd. That is actually 2 nights and if the host takes back-to- back bookings, doing same day turnovers, the 3rd will show as available to book. 

[Angie29]

@Hunt0   It means the guests are staying for the nights of 23rd INCLUDING the 28th and they will check out on Tuesday the 29th NOT on Monday the 28th.  This is all about available NIGHTS for the guests to stay.  I didn't realize how old this post is (2016) but I hope this helps others with the same question.       

[Simon279]

Angie, this is NOT the way every other booking engine works. On every other site, if I book 23rd to 28th it means I'm leaving/checking-out on the 28th. Everyone understands that. Why would Airbnb do it differently?

The big problem is that this is not consistent on Airbnb calendar for hosts (I'm not sure about for guests). When trying to set your calendar it sometimes looks like check-out is the 28th and in other places it looks like the 29th. It is incredibly confusing.  I can't believe Airbnb haven't been forced to fix this.

[Simon279]

Angie, see example below. I have the calendar blocked (for myself) from Thursday 17th, but it won't let me send a special offer to someone to stay until the 17th. I can only offer until the 16th. I'm pretty sure this is a new glitch.

[Simon279]

I've been listing a holiday home on Airbnb for over 10 years and this has always been, and still is, a major issue. The calendar and booking/rate settings in general are a total nightmare to negotiate which results in potential guests getting annoyed. 

I normally just rent Saturday to Saturday, but sometimes I offer shorter stays, for example I am using the house myself from a Thursday so want to make calendar available from the previous Saturday to Thursday but it is impossible. I can only offer it Sat to Wed, the work around is that I have to unblock the Thursday.

I also have a setting that only allows people book/enquire for Sat to Sat. I used to be able to over-ride this for Special Offers but not any longer.  So now I have to temporarily allow a check-in/check-out on another day, and once I get the booking confirmed I have to remember to change the setting back back.

Incredibly frustrating.  I would happily switch to a different platform if there was one.