This is in response to my conversation with a member of the Airbnb staff yesterday afternoon. I lost a 3 day booking by being blocked with certain settings that truly interfere with the proper flow of information between guest and host as I see it.
It seems that the reservation settings have only three [3] choices and since those settings cost me the ability to accept a booking, then, perhaps some other choices should be considered.
At this time, the prep time setting choices are: NONE, blocking one day before and after AND 2 days before and after reservations are to begin. I suggest that another choice be added. That additional choice should be: immediate occupancy and either one [1] or two [2] after each reservation would provide needed flexibility that is not included within your system.
Another componenet to those settings is the time of day that requests for reservations are made. if the request is made after 3:30 pm [not sure what time zone applies], And there is a one day before and after preparation hold, then for all pratical purposes, reservations can not be taken for 2 days, since anything after 3:30 is automatically deferred to the next day. For example: any booking request at 4pm on a Tuesday, and there is a one day hold, the earliest a guest could book space would be Friday, since as it was explained to me, anything after 3:30 pm is considered the next day and a one day hold does not beging for another day. that my fellow participants, is extreme in my view.
I also disagree with the default of blocking all phone number and website blocking that I have found disrupts the conversational flow necessary for proper negotiations between host and guest. I had to cancel my first guest transaction and wanted to transmit alternate lodging options as a measure of good will. That information was blocked, making me very unhappy. My most recent request for lodging needed a similar need for a conversation between the guest and myself and all means were blocked by Airbnb, meaning lost lodging for the guest and lost booking for the host.
I realize the need for privacy for the beginning of these types of transactions, however, there comes a point where either the guest and/or host should be able to opt in or opt out of these restrictions and allow for transparency in the interest of verification and communication needs.
I hope that these suggestions might be taken seriously because the more choices there are, the more prosperous we might all become.
I am open to further conversation and communication if folks on staff care to talk about this issue further.
Merry Christmas