I am taking Calendar issues to the top!

[Robin4]

I think enough is enough, and time has come for the hosting community to become pro-active.

Contributor Nikki from London reported in a post on January 20th 2016 that her booking calendar was randomly unblocking dates that she had blocked!

Since that post there have been over 300 posts in this past year reporting exactly the same issue….and these are just the tip of the iceberg, these are the ones that have come to the forum! The common thread in almost all of these instances is the use of Instant Book where the rolling calendar window is concerned. The Airbnb program is unblocking dates a host has blocked. And what is totally reprehensible is Airbnb are punishing hosts who cancel bookings as a result of dates they had legitimately blocked and which the system has, behind the hosts back, unblocked. Superhosts, who strive to do so much good for Airbnb, are loosing their status through an Airbnb fault.....not their own!

Here is a typical example.....

Chris

Level 2

in

Lawrence Township, NJ

‎03-10-2016 07:02 AM

I have my listing set so it won't receive reservations more than 90 days out. Every day, it unblocks a day at that borderland. It seems like when they release the day internally because it's no longer more than 90 days out, that unblock overrides the dates I have manually blocked in the calendar.

Because I have limited availability, this pattern has become obvious to me.  If you only blocked dates occassionally, it would be a huge mystery.  I've brought the issue to the attention of AirBNB and they told me to clear my browser data. I've explained in more detail and am providing screenshots, but they haven't even been willing to tell me the status of my ticket."

There are dozens more just like this one!!! This fault….and that is exactly what it is….it’s a fault, has been reported to Airbnb staff on numerous occasions and the complaints just keep growing and growing! More reports come to this forum daily. Obviously nobody is taking the slightest notice.

With all due respect to the Community Centre moderators, I am not convinced that posting on ‘Host Voice’ does any good whatsoever. I have not seen a solitary change as a result of any topic raised through Host Voice.

I am going to send this post to brian.chesky@airbnb.com  and see what happens. I would like as many other hosts as possible to paste this post into an email and do the same thing.

This issue has been with us for more than a year, If we can’t get those responsible for sorting this mess out to take action, then we have to go further up the chain until someone does!!!

Cheers....Rob

[Robin4]

I have my listing set so it won't receive reservations more than 90 days out. Every day, it unblocks a day at that borderland. It seems like when they release the day internally because it's no longer more than 90 days out, that unblock overrides the dates I have manually blocked in the calendar.

Because I have limited availability, this pattern has become obvious to me.  If you only blocked dates occassionally, it would be a huge mystery.  I've brought the issue to the attention of AirBNB and they told me to clear my browser data. I've explained in more detail and am providing screenshots, but they haven't even been willing to tell me the status of my ticket."

There are dozens more just like this one!!! This fault….and that is exactly what it is….it’s a fault, has been reported to Airbnb staff on numerous occasions and the complaints just keep growing and growing! More reports come to this forum daily. Obviously nobody is taking the slightest notice.

[Rebecca179]

My name is Rebecca,

I live near Yellowstone and have been inundated with requests for rooms during the eclipse in August. I have repeatedly had to reblock dates as I am booked for the 20th and 21st. It has been a weekly occurance that someone says "I see that you have availability" for those dates and I have to go and reblock them. I have tried submitting this question myself, but it was completely disregaurded 6 weeks ago, and I am still reblocking on a weekly basis.

Please Help!

Rebecca ****

[Crustt0]

@Louise47, Just cancel it and you will not have to worry about losing your superhost status ever again, your letting people into your home while your not there and your worried out of your mind while it's happening? Sounds like a fun weekend for you.  All the tea in china is not worth that uneasy feeling, rule of thumb for hosting, if it does not feel right,cancel. Really your only blackmailing yourself  for a fairly worthless superhost status, many people on airbnb have lost or never were superhosts and the sky didn't fall in.

[Justin102]

Having more and more calendar issues, seems like Airbnb is ignoring the problem, doesnt make sense.

[Richard240]

AirBNB wont accept the VRBO calendar import, incredibly frustrating and of course AirBNB has no phone support. Infuriating.

[Brendan27]

Yes, I'm having the same problem.  I have 10 different listings and even though I go in and block the dates on the calendar the rolling calendar re-opens them up 3 months from the current date, which is hugely frustrating and time consuming to go into all the listings each day and close block the date that has opened up.  I think if I block a date it should stay blocked, regardless of the rolling calendar.

[Lisa-and-Scott1]

I have blocked my property off for two weeks this summer for my family to use. No less than 5 times have I had to reblock the dates because they UNBLOCK themsleves. I even ALMOST booked someone until it clicked that that was MY WEEK!? It's not the full two weeks that UNBLOCK themselves, just 1 week or a portion of the week....nearly every other day I log in & its wrong.
I have blocked off dates for friends to stay to & didnt keep track in a calender at home....how would I remember those if it unblocked? I have started putting in notes & looking ahead becasue I cant trust the system.

I also cant find a way to contact AirB&B directly to notify them?

This past weekend, someone was able to grab 2 nights, when I have a 3 night minimum! I hate saying no because the calender is glithcy. It makes me look bad!!

What to do?!

Lisa

[Crustt0]

Give up hosting! 

[Jonathan-And-Janene0]

I have the same issue and they can't fix it!

[Helen3]

Hello

Thanks for raising this issue.

I have a friend coming to stay this weekend and and so have had my calendar blocked out since Christmas.

Imagine my shock this week to find  someone had booked for the Saturday night.

I called Airbnb straight away and asked them to see what had happened and assure them that I knew it had been blocked out for a few months.

They called me back and confirmed that there was a glitch and they couldn't see why this happened. They cancelled the booking  and notified the guest  - but didn't give them an explanation - just messaged them that it had been cancelled.

Fortunately I had messaged the guest and explained the situation and apologised for not being able to host them. They were lovely about it, but this shouldn't be happening.

As others have said it is a basic tenant of the whole system that both hosts and guests should have confidence that if a date shows as available in the calendar, then it should be available not just down to a technical problem.

[Alistair18]

How did you call them , I can't find contact details anywhere?

I have a problem as my partner who is on holiday in Belguim, received a notification of a reservation, but I , who's running things here, didn't get notified at all and when I go to messages or bookings there is no sign of a instant reservation. So we missed out! Frustrating but nothing compared to other peoples problems!

[Grace103]

This just happened to us today. We had one of our units show as available and then a geusts arriving Thursday this week (two days from now) Instant Booked!!

We cancelled immediately. I know these dates were blocked for months on our calendar as unavailable. The terrible thing about this whole thing is twofold: 1) we lost our Super Host status and, 2) the guest is screwed.

Jaime

[Louise47]

@Robin4 Can you tell me how to contact someone from Airbnb about cancelling this booking. In Australia

[Robin4]

 @Louise47....Ah Louise, you are in luck...you are a Superhost. Here in this country you have a registered phone number with Airbnb and this is the number they communicate with you on! If you have a problem make sure you use that registered phone when calling Airbnb. Otherwise you will just go into a queue!

All you do is call the Sydney number 02 8520 3333 and the system will compare the number you are calling from with your Airbnb registered number and if the two numbers match it will sense that you are a Superhost and immediately transfer the call to San Francisco where within less than a minute, before you have had a chance to say a word, someone will pick up the phone and say..."Hello Louise, how may I help you today"!!

I could not believe it the first time it happened but....on the level, that's what happens. The phone call from your number seems to 'spike' the system and obviously brings your profile up on the helpdesk operators screen before they answer!!

After dealing with government departments and large companies whose automated phone gateways keep you hanging on for hours, this system is soooooo refreshing!

Good luck Louise, I can fully understand why you feel a need to do this and I hope they will sort it out quickly for you.

Cheers.....Rob

[Huma0]

@Robin4 it's interesting you say that. I also noticed after getting superhost status that when I called, I was greeted with a nice little message acknowledging me as a superhost. However, I didn't get through any quicker. In fact, it was the first time I was put on hold! I was also put through to the same call centre as normal (Ireland).

I'm not complaining though, as it was still quite quick, just not as quick as when I called before I was a superhost! In general though, I have found it super easy to call Airbnb. We are quite lucky in the UK in that respect.

[Crustt0]

@Robin4 That phone number is available to any airbnb host in Australia, I've been using it since I first registered with airbnb,never been a superhost, never been put on hold. If they match your phone number up with the system, why do they not know who you are and the name of your listing when they  answer your call? They have to ask don't they.

It's really nice that your proud of your superhost status, but superhost is a bit misleading, like the level rating on this forum, some posters that have reached level ten are not so much more experienced than others, just like to think they are and love to tell people about it.