Incorrect availability has led to 5 declines

[Ashley-And-Brendan0]

My husband and I are hosts in the US and traveling to EU in the summer. I've started searching for where we'll stay on Airbnb and noticed one of our locations Amsterdam has low availability for that time (8%). But most of the time when I check the availability for an apartment, the availability is limited until about June/July then it's just fully available after that. Hundreds of places I've checked are like this. I know there is a setting to NOT let guests book more than 3 or 6 months or a year in advance, but why would all of these places show full availability 6+ months out? Each request I've sent (5 now) after painstaking research and decisions have been declined due to availability. And each time I've let the host know that their place is showing full availability 6+ months down the line, they are shocked. 


Is this some sort of setting change that they don't know about? Is there any way to remind hosts to update their availability or remind them to set it so no one can book a certain amount of time in advance?

More importantly how am I supposed to find a place if availability is incorrect for so many places?

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

There is a limit to the number of days a host can rent their space in Amsterdam to 60 days which is why you are finding a very low availability.  The best hosts will have exhausted their amount by the time summer rolls around. http://fortune.com/2016/12/01/airbnb-rental-limits-amsterdam-london/.

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1624/i-rent-out-my-home-in-amsterdam--what-short-term-rental-law...

As a host yourself, you have probably heard guests complain about how many requests they need to go through to get a reservation.  Not all hosts are as vigilent as they need to be about their calendars or their settings. Going through this the way you are is what gives Airbnb a bad name - unattentive hosts who decline because they aren't paying attention to their listing.  I would recommend a host with Instant Book turned on and the Superhost logo, then look at how long they've been listed on the Airbnb (#of reviews and the dates of those reviews plus on the host profile when they joined Airbnb).  Someone with some time under their belt will be more knowledgable and likely to upkeep their listing information appropriately.  Of course, this is not a fail safe.  

As a fellow host, you get reminders from Airbnb all the time to help keep you current on your reservation requests and calendar.  When these hosts decline, they will be prompted to update their calendars.  You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink, I'm afraid. 

Good luck and have a great vacation. 

[David126]

Look for somebody using Instant Book, I assume these people are using a variety of sites and not updating.

[Nu0]

AirBnB uses an alogorithm similar to Uber (in their deceptive tracking system) that adjusts availability and dates based on browser history, IP address etc. In short your requests are being tracked and the system dynamically adjusts rates and availability based on code. More views and interest, supply and price changes. Example: the exact same property I viewed shows a price of $90 and $108 when viewed in 2 tabs concurrently. Sadly this is ABB.