"Can you let me know first if my dates open" inquiries

[Laura2592]

We are lucky in that we are pretty booked up through  December. We do have additional time built in between guests for the COVID cleaning protocol so our availability is even more limited. I have several inquiries from people who want something sooner and to be notified if specific dates open.  

I work full time, have a side business that is almost full time, and am a landlord in addition to doing my Airbnb activities. We just moved and are in the middle of a remodel.  Frankly don't have time to chase down people if their dates open and keep track of who might want what. I had a cancellation for some dates someone wanted and it booked within a few hours. The person wasn't fast enough on the draw and I got an email upbraiding me for not telling them-- they saw it themselves and for some reason did not book quickly. Another guest did. I made no claim that I would notify them.  It's the old "you snooze you lose" but of course, one can't say as much.  I typically say "Thank you for checking us out! Unfortunately, we can't manage requests for waitlists as our availability is more limited than ever with COVID cleaning and time between guests. We always suggest that guests grab open days and make sure our calendars are accurate about availability. We look forward to hosting you!"

My fellow hosts, do you manage a waitlist for popular dates? Or leave it to the guests to keep an eye out? Do you think its reasonable for hosts to try and keep track of inquiries for booked dates?

[Emiel1]

@Laura2592 

I only do "waitlist" for a few frequently returning guests. They like to be informed as soon a certain week becomes available (again), which i am happy to do so (having the advantage for me offcourse i know who will be on the doorstep) .

But the other potential guests simply need to keep an eye on the calenders themself.

[Nash-Cottages-LLC0]

@Laura2592 We do the same as @Emiel1. We don't write it down, but just keep it in our heads. 

[Lawrene0]

@Laura2592 , your wording is good. Mine is similar. I don't mention that I cannot make the time, but I do say that open dates go very quickly and the best thing is just to watch the calendar. 

Once upon a time I would keep wait lists, but, of course, people had already made plans for something else to do that weekend by the time the cancellation happened and I was writing to them. Or when they got around to looking at and acting upon my message, someone else had swooped in. Waste of time. They're on their own. : )

[Kelly149]

Raise your rates!! 😉

[Ute42]

.

@Kelly149  

😊  exactely.

For quite a while I was having the problem that in the summer of year 01 I was already fully booked out for the summer of year 02.

I contiuousely raised my prices to get rid of that problem but I'm still not where I ought to be.

[Sarah977]

@Laura2592  I only once had that happen. The woman sent a super nice message saying she had stayed just up the block from me the year before, had walked by my house several times and always wanted to stay here, so she had gone to book, only to see that the dates were taken. She asked if I could please let her know if by some chance the guest decided to cancel. I told her I would. 

The bizarre thing is that the booked guest did end up cancelling (bizarre because I almost never get a cancellation), so I messaged that woman right away. She replied "Oh dang, I just booked something else yesterday because time was getting on and I was afraid of not finding anything if I waited. Bummer, but thanks for letting me know. Hopefully next year :-)"

I don't get that many guests, so doing that for someone, especially when they had communicated like she did, I don't mind doing.

But in your case, with so much time-consuming stuff going on in your life, I would do as you are doing. No need to add yet another chore to your list.

[Rossana121]

When you do online shopping (Zalando, Amazon and similar) and they don't have the item you want available, you can ask to be notified if it becomes available again, or re-stocked. They should have such a feature in the airbnb platform, and save hosts a lot of headaches.

[Inna22]

I never keep a list, mainly because I have no bandwidth to keep it up. I do tell the guests to "heart" my listing so they can always quickly find it to check for updates. Hopefully that also gives me a bump in search.