Blocked dates due to cancelled reservation

[Daisy36]

Hello, I've just joined Airbnb as a host so am new to it all. I hadn't realised that there was such a thing as Instant Book which meant that someone who was part of this could make a solid reservation without me confirming it. I have put my lovely 4 bed cottage on at £100 per week as a trial initially and had inadvertently included New Year in this. Within a few hours of putting the cottage on I got my first booking - over NYE. Obviously you can command a great deal more money over New Years Eve than £100 per night for 8 people! I therefore cancelled the booking and have now found out that I can't now book it out again which is a great shame. Is there any way around this? 

Kind regards, 

Daisy

[Marzena4]

Hello @Daisy36. Blocking the dates after a cancellation by a host is a means of punishment, unfortunately. There is nothing you can do about it. Maybe deleting your account.

[Vicki113]

We cancelled a confirmed reservation for personal reasons, which have now been resolved.  Airbnb has blocked us from opening up that time to a future reservation. Does anyone know of any way to unblock it?  Thanks

[David1978]

I have the same problem. A customer was already in the process of reserving when another customer reserved in the middle of the month.

Now my initial  intended traveller cannot reserve.

Airbnb is blocking the cancelled dates in grey. 

What can I do?

[Steve143]

Hello @David1978,

You have instant book turned on and Airbnb operates on a first come first served basis for guests, so whoever books first gets the date. If you want to be able to allow guests some time to think about making a reservation after they contact you then turn off instant book.

When hosts cancel a reservation they are warned that there may be penalties. Permanently blocked dates is one of the penalties. cancellations can be penalty free if the reason is one list in the extenuating circumstances in the article below. Wanting to get a different reservation instead isn't one of those reasons.

You're a new host and have the instant book that they like hosts to have so it may be worth contacting Airbnb support to plead your case.

Steve.

[Steve143]

Hello @Vicki113,

You should always involve Airbnb customer service when cancelling a guest's reservation. If your reason qualifies under their extenuating circumstances policy they may be able to do it for you, penalty free.

When hosts cancel they are warned that there may be panalties. These include having the dates permanently blocked, loosing superhost status and being ineligible for it for a year together with possible monetary fines.

what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoidable-circumstance?

I'm a host. What penalties apply if I need to cancel a reservation?

You could contact Airbnb support to discuss the issue.

Steve.