I have a property with airbnb and I have the winter months blocked, yet I still get people trying to

[Dan162]

I have a property with airbnb and I have the winter months blocked, yet I still get people trying to book the property and I have to "decline" them.  Now I am getting nastygrams from airbnb that if I don't stop declining tenants they may have to suspend my listing?  What gives?

[Tania-and-Andrew0]

Have you checked your calendar directly on the website? Sometimes the app fails horribly and does not block off dates. Maybe with an update your dates were changed to available. If you don't have availability you shouldn't get requests unless the guests are putting the wrong date (i.e. putting April 20th but inquiry about December 21st). When you decline, what option do you choose?

Regards

[Tania-and-Andrew0]

Have you checked your calendar directly on the website? Sometimes the app fails horribly and does not block off dates. Maybe with an update your dates were changed to available. If you don't have availability you shouldn't get requests unless the guests are putting the wrong date (i.e. putting April 20th but inquiry about December 21st). When you decline, what option do you choose?

Regards

[Anne415]

I just had a guest instant book on a date that should have been blocked according to my preference to have one day on either side of a booking for "turnaround time".  I had to cancel the booking - my first ever - because I just didn't have time to prep the room for a guest immediately following another guest.  Then, when I checked my calendar (on the website), I discovered that all the dates that I had previously blocked had been re-opened!  I had to re-block everything, but now I am worried that if that happens again, that I will get unwanted bookings through no fault of my own.  I sent a message to AirBnb and will let you know if I get a response. 

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

You have a couple of ways to combat this:

1. You can create a calendar setting that says you will only take reservations for the next 3, 6, or 12 months.  IF you are trying to avoid the winter months, start with this setting.  Just know that the days "roll on" so eventually you will need to go in and block days at the end of the period that start to head into "winter".  If that's Nov 1, and you only take the next 3 months, you don't have worry about blocking days until August.   

2. You can make a separate requirement  for  all the days you want to be unavailable.  In calendar settings, under min/max days, add another requirement that says from Nov 1 to March 1 the minimum number of days you'll take a rental is 120.  That means no one can book unless they are willing to book for the entire time.  Then go into each one of those months and "block" a couple of days which means IF someone is searching for a 120 day rental from Nov 1 to March 1 (not likely), they couldn't book with you anyway, because the minimum number of days cannot be met.