Advance Notice

[Eleanor87]

How do I set up advance notice? I would like to have instant booking, but I want to have at least 24 hours advance notice. 

[Linda108]

Edit your Availability setting to reflect the amount of notice you prefer.

[Eleanor87]

Thank you. I wanted to set up the notice before I went to instant booking. 

[Emilia42 · Accepted solution]

@Eleanor87 go to your Availability setting then edit Reservations preferences. Keep in mind that "At least 1 day's advance notice" really means that your calendar will block out the current day 1 minute after midnight (people will be able to book at 11pm the night before check-in.) If you want a full 24 hours, you may want to set it to 2 days advance notice.  

Make sure that little box for Instant Booking hosts is UNCHECKED. You don't want people requesting to book without advance notice since you will likely be declining them. 

[A113]

I have these settings in place however just this week I had an instant booking that was automatically approved at 11 PM the night before.  I've received reuests before based on this listed time restraint so I know it was working before.  I attempted to contact AirBNB to get this taken care of but had to contact my traveler immediately to let them know I had a problem with the reservation.  Had I cancelled their reservation I would have been penalized, if I hadn't let them know until I was able to discuss this with someone with AirBNB, the traveler would have been very inconvenienced as he had already made the deposit.  Thankfully we were able to work out an acceptable arrangement for both of us.  However, I STILL don't know what happened.  I have double checked the listing to make sure it does have the  "at least one day requirement",  which it does. I was trying to speak with someone to help me that night and they just couldn't quite understand the problem.  This was very frustrating.   I just wanted to know if anyone else has had this problem and how did you correct it.

Thanks

[Emilia42]

@A113, your post is a couple of months old so I don't know if you ever got your questions answered. But "at least 1 days advance notice" does NOT mean 24 hours in advance. It is a calendar day. So guests will be able to book at 11:55pm on the 20th for a reservation on the 21st. One second into the 21st and they will not be able to book for that day. To be safe you should change your settings to "at least 2 days advance notice."

[Paul2000]

Thanks for clarifying Emlia.

I've just fallen foul of this to my massive inconvenience!  The guest booked at 8pm while I was working a night shift so unable to see all my messages - when I got home  in the wee hours I fell asleep almost immediately. Suffice to say that when I woke up today I got quite the shock and was still 'flipping' the bedroom from the previous guest when the next guest arrived.

Now I understand, I've set advance notice to 2 days - however I think it's most fair to say that "1 day= 24 hours" is a natural assumption.  We shouldn't have to discover that Airbnb operates 12 hour days  from a bad experience that might impact our reputation and listing score!

I'll be having a stiff word with Airbnb hosting support - if I can find the bloomin' link ...

[Emilia42]

@Paul2000 

Here is the link with instructions on how to contact Airbnb:

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Contact-Airbnb-A-Community-Help-Guide-UPDATED/m-p/413245

Airbnb support will likely tell you to submit feedback here:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/feedback

Who knows where that will get you. Live and learn, I guess. But I agree. There should be a better way for Airbnb to "train" hosts on their system and how to effectively use each features.

[Elaine116]

Hi. @Emilia42 You seem to know a lot about this issue so hoping you can help me. I have Instant Book turned on. I have Advance Notice set to 1 day and the check box is clear. I got a booking at 3am on the morning of 7th September for arrival at 4pm on 7th Sept. Airbnb support just keep saying I have Instant Booking so people can arrive the same day. I’ve read the Help which agrees with what you have said, I’ve even copied the relevant parts from the Help to the support person but I’m still being told it’s part of Instant Book. I was even asked to check the box to allow reservations without advance notice! Am I going mad or should the Advance Notice setting have prevented that booking?

[Doug-And-Diane0]

We have "at least 2 day's notice" on our bookings settings and do not use Instant Book. We often have guests request early or late check out when they book. If there are no other bookings on either side of theirs, we tell them we will let them know shortly before check in. If someone is checking out at 10:00 am on a Sunday and requests late check out, which day and time are we safely assured of notifying them they can without running into a booking conflict?

[Giovanna478]

Hi all, I have a question regarding this topic. If i select: "For Instant Book hosts: allow guests to send reservation requests without advance notice." Do I receive just a message from a guest requesting if it is possible to book, or do I just receive directly the reservation? Thanks!

[Linda108]

Instant book means the guest will book the listing and you will be notified of the booking.  Request to book means the guest is asking to book and you have to accept or decline.