@Kirk52 the penalty for cancelling a guest is usually a fine and the dates are blocked forever. Depending on the circumstances you might persuade customer support to open up the dates but technically they shouldn't.
@Kirk52 "I cannot find anything helpful through the site."
On the main Airbnb site, if you go to the Help pages, there are numerous articles for hosts, all of which you should read.
One clearly outlines the penalties for a host cancelling.
If you explain here why you cancelled, other hosts may be able to give you advice on how you might have handled it differently so as to avoid having to cancel and incurring penalties.