Holidays on the Host Calendar - Feature Request

[Tom871]

As a busy host, I have missed several important holidays when setting pricing and minimum night stays.  My market is a weekend market so holidays are very important to know in advance and sometimes I just forget to take the extra step.  I wish AirBnb would change the color of Official US holidays so we can adjust as needed.  I know just on my one listing alone I have lost out on thousands of dollars by not optimizing for holidays.  I lost out again for this Labor Day because its earlier than I was expecting.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tom871 Why would I, and the thousands of other non-US hosts, want to have my calendar coloured in for dates that are not relevant to me? I would have thought that if this is causing you to lose thousands of dollars you could perhaps spend 5 minutes every year populating your calendar with holidays.

[Tom871]

Obviously I wasn't implying that US holidays would be marked for non-US listings.  Ideally Airbnb could set a preference by country and allow hosts to apply the holidays to their calendars.  And yes, for the past 5 years i open up a separate calendar and plan ahead to set pricing.  Its an extra step that shouldn't be necessary and Im sure costs Airbnb millions in revenue, mainly because not every host is going to manually adjust for holidays that are not listed on the calendar... but that's up to them.

[Emilia42]

I can see the answer clearly embedded right in your post. Before you impulsively open up your booking calendar far in advance, take the time to recognize the holidays and important dates/events in your area. Then set prices accordingly and use your rule sets to prioritize better bookings. If thousands of dollars are on the line I would pay a little more attention to the details. 

[Tom871]

Again, yes, obviously as I have been doing for 5 years I try to plan for every upcoming holiday by opening up a separate device and compare another calendar to the calendar we need to use for pricing.  But sometimes these dates vary and sometimes it slips my mind to plan for each holiday months in advance.  I wouldnt think it is so difficult for airbnb devs to add this feature and with a country or market preference.  But perhaps this exercise alone will remind me I need to take it upon myself to proactively remind myself about these important pricing factors.

[Kia272]

@Tom871 

As @Mike-And-Jane0 suggested, open up one of your many electronic devices in the beginning of the year, and spend 5 minutes of YOUR time setting up your calendar and scheduling reminders. 

It's called Running A Business and it requires Some Effort on your part. 

[Tom871]

thank you for your clever advice that i should use a separate calendar and for welcoming me to the community!

[Shelley159 · Accepted solution]

Hi @Tom871 

You can suggest that Airbnb adds this feature by clicking on the link below

Feedback - Airbnb Help Center

Just be sure to suggest that they program the calendar to list holidays based on the location of the listing: as @Mike-And-Jane0 has said, we all have different holidays.

The pricing problem is not only holidays, but also events and anything that can draw a higher-than-usual number of visitors to your area. If you haven't turned on Smart Pricing yet, you can give it a try. It's not perfect (I find that events sometimes take long to show up in smart pricing in my area), but maybe it helps to cut some losses. You will have to keep an eye on the prices to see where they trend upward, and manually add your minimum stays for that period.

[Tom871]

Thanks for the tip to use smart pricing.  Perhaps i can toggle it on to see the trends and price accordingly.  My market is very unique and I feel that custom pricing is my best option for the most part, so I cannot simply turn it on and rely simply on that Airbnb feature.  However for projecting future demand it seems like a good option to keep in mind.  I did in fact submit to Airbnb that this feature be added.  I would imagine its something that would be an immediate boost in revenue as hosts could better project into the future.  But maybe the lost revenue from missed holiday price planning isnt as widely impactful as i believe it probably is.

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Tom871 please don't use smart pricing - Its dumb. It doesn't recognise holidays or local events until its too late (if at all)