Block these dates from being booked option not working

[Zina4]

Not sure if anyone else has experienced this.  I am new to airbnb as of last week so perhaps I'm not doing something correctly...but I've had two potential guests miss out on being able to book with me.  They each sent an inquiry and I pre-approved.  There is an option that says "Mike has 24 hours to book. You can still accept or pre-approve requests for these dates. Block these dates from being booked instantly by other guests".  I've checked the box that says block these dates, but they don't block off on the calendar.  

Has anyone had this issue and is there a way to fix this??

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

You can pre-approve as many guests as you wish with the same or overlapping dates. It's then first come, first served. But I think it's good manners if you are pre-approving a second guest to let them know that someone else is also interested in those dates. 

It sounds like you also have Instant Booking turned on - which means that anyone else could, without emailing you, book the same dates and cancel any other existing pre-approvals.

The dates will not show as blocked on your calendar as they are still open to your pre-approvals to book (and new requests), but not to people using IB.

Hope that makes sense...

[Jp8]

I have a question about the checkbox for "Block these dates from being booked instantly by other guests"

It seems to me this used to show on the page before you click pre-approve. 

Now it comes up after you pre-approve. 

Nothing visibly happens when you click on it, so I wonder if it really works? There is no button to click to submit or confirm that you've clicked the box.

[Jp8]

So I tested this from another person's account. It does now say "Request to Book" instead of "Book." So instant booking is off for now.

[Paolo-and-Valentino0]

@ Zina. Yes, unfortunately we experienced the same issue, already twice. The last one today, I had pre-approved a request for 7 days in a busy period and I checked the box saying "Block these dates from being booked instantly by other guests". Unfortunately only a few hours later the flat got a pending reservation from another guest for an overlapping, but shorter period. The first guest was very disappointed when she saw that the apartment was not available anymore.

[City-Limits-Ranch0]

You are only blocking instant bookings.  A request will still come through and might block an inquiry even if the inquiry was first and maybe even if it has been pre-approved.

If you got a request and didn't want to let them book then when you get the request you would need to decline it so that you could preapprove and wait for the inquiry to book.  If the inquiry or preapproval never booked then you would have nothing.

Last time I had this situation the site would not let me decline the request even though I tried.  The decline button was greyed out.  I had to call Airbnb, tell them I wanted to decline the request so the inquiry could book and they had to fix it for me.  They questioned my decision but then reviewed the message thread with the inquiry and saw that they were waiting for their preapproval so they could book.  They did end up booking so it all worked out.

If you really want to be sure of a booking, tell your inquiries that they have to act fast or someone might get in ahead of them and you cannot prevent that.

[Ed92]

Happened to me just today. And now I can't set it to reserve the dates.

I just hope that the wrong group does not book it now, since the dates are set as 'available' 😞