Unblocked Dates From A Cancelled Reservation

[Julie1293]

Hello Fellow Hosts

I had a reservation go through with the wrong pricing by accident that I then cancelled.

Now the dates are blocked on my calendar but I want to rebook at the higher price.

Do any of you know how to unblock those dates on the Calendar once there has been a cancellation?

Thanks Julie

[Emiel1]

hello @Julie1293 ,

If you cancel a reservation, Airbnb will block the dates and they can not be made available.

You are responsible for setting up the right price. If it would be a really strange mistake you could have contacted Airbnb and ask them to cancel (without penalties like blocking the dates).

[Steve143]

Hello @Julie1293,

Having the dates blocked is one of the penalties exacted by Airbnb when hosts cancel a reservation.

It, and the other penalties are listed in the article below.

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

Hosts can have a cancellation done  penalty free by contacting Airbnb support if there are extenuating circumstances, but incorrect pricing isn't one of them.

What is Airbnb's Extenuating Circumstances Policy?

For information on ways to contact Airbnb support type "contact airbnb" in the "Search the community" box on these forum pages where you posted your question. Scroll down a little in the list of suggestions that appears and click on the "Contact Airbnb: A Community Help Guide[UPDATED]" one. That lists phone numbers and ways to contact them via Twitter or Facebook.

Steve.

Steve.

[Robin4]

@Julie1293

Gosh Julie, you have been hosting for at least two years and you had a host cancellation back in December 2016 and you still are not aware of the penalties when you cancel a guests reservation. That is amazing!

@Steve143 has pointed out the host cancellation help bulletin, please read it Julie and if the situation comes up that you cannot honour a guests booking in the future get onto Airbnb support and ask them to cancel or relocate the guest for you. That way you won't be penalised. Because you have cancelled a guest reservation in the past, apart from the blocked dates, you may find that Airbnb will impose a monetary fine on you for this cancellation.

One thing you may not be aware of. You have the right to leave a public response to that latest cancellation notice. You are given 1 month to write a reason why you had to cancel this booking and if you have a good valid reason it pays to state that reason, and it will appear directly below the cancellation notice in your reviews.

Future guests are very hesitant to book with hosts who cancel bookings....particularly hosts who cancel bookings to chase a more lucrative booking.

Sorry but that is not good form Julie...you never cancel a confirmed guest booking!

Cheers......Rob

[Clara116]

@Robin4 @Julie1293 I am with you Robin and was also surprised that after 2 yrs. ???? still not sure how things are best managed. 

It is so so important to keep our calendars up to date at all times - and check our pricing as well. If we don't do that I think it is our fault and we must honor our mistake. But to want a higher fee and cancel - totally uncool. Airbnb understands that hosts attempt to do this THUS them blocking those dates to discourage this  behavior by hosts. 

Peace.....Clara

[Fred13]

@Julie1293 Anytime not sure about Airbnb policy do not hesitate to post here and double check; that is how 99% of us have learned 'the ways'.

[Kath9]

@Julie1293, sorry, but I'm with the others on this. It's just not OK to cancel a guest and then hope to rebook at a higher price. If you didn't set your pricing right, then you need to take responsibility for that, not penalise the guest! And after 2 years of hosting, you should really know that cancelling a guest means your calendar stays blocked. I guess you'll know now...

[Julie1293]

Hi All; Wow I was hoping for help but I got a lot of judgement.

If anyone know how to fix this the guests still want to book and I would like help.

Here are the details so you all can at least know what you are judging.

I lowered my rates for a couple in need affected by Austin Flooding as a kind gesture for a 60 day booking.

Unfortunately there was some kind of glitch that extended that rate far beyond their booking that I did not pick up on.  I usually don't mess with my rates a lot so this was probably my unintentional error.

The new guests (not affected by flooding) tried to book at that very low rate for several months its a 3 month booking (not a small anount of money here) and when I was trying to change the reservation dates and nightly amount I accidentally approved their booking.

I immediately sent them a new booking with the correct price and explained what happened but they had already confirmed.  Throughout my communications I have explained that those were not the correct rates and apologized for any confusion.

They initially decided not to pursue the booking but now say they actually want the house and the rates that I have which I do think are fair.  Just not the reduced flood rates they initailly saw.

Problem is now those dates are cancelled, I can't unblock to book them.

Look at my track record, Superhost many great reviews but you know mistakes can still happen.

I thought the purpose of the forum was to help each other.

Thanks Julie

[Mark116]

You're going to have to contact airbnb and see if they will help you out, that is the only option. 

But, I have to echo other hosts, that this is a lot of mistakes on your part...and while airbnb is certainly glitchy, it sounds like you changed the price and didn't limit the dates or reset it in time, and then you 'accidentally' approved the booking without paying attention to the pricing.  

I doubt you can get your superhost status back, but since it's the same set of guests who still want to book, I imagine that airbnb will allow that.

[Paul1255]

Hi @Julie1293 you could get in touch with Airbnb support and explain as you have above- and that it is actually the same guests that wish to make the booking at the revised price, that is probably your only course of action at this point- unless you list on another booking site and you can direct your guest to book with you on there instead?

I am sure that if you'd give the level of detail you did above in your original post some of the replies may have been somewhat more gentle- but you're right the purpose of the forum is to help eachother.

There are certain things that underhand hosts can do that give all hosts a bad reputation, and cancelling a stay because pricing hasn't been updated to peak prices is one of those- and one that many hosts here feel very strongly about. (In no way am I saying this is what you've done, I am simply pointing out why some of the responses to your original post have been strong)

I hope you'll find a solution that works for you and your guests.

Paul 🙂

[Robin4]

@Julie1293

Julie if you had described this incident initially the way you have just described it, we would have advised you and made comment entirely differently.

In this situation your best course of action is to contact Airbnb and explain as you have to us here and they will in all probability release you from this penalty and open those dates again for booking. Here are the contact numbers for the US and Canada....

+1-415-800-5959
+1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)

Having not been in a disaster type situation where I felt the need to provide assistance hosting I am not sure of the proceedure when you set an offer like that in place.

Is it your responsibility to remove the offer after that hosting had taken place? It may be that the system has accepted that lower rate as ongoing.

In these situations it is best to just send an individual guest a special offer. That does not affect your ongoing pricing structure, it only affects that one reservation!

Sorry if I and others sounded critical of you Julie but, with the information you gave in that first post it sounded like you had not been keeping your calendar updated, and simply cancelled a booking to chase a higher paying one.....

And as hosts Julie, we don't like that, it doesn't reflect well on any of us!

Get onto Airbnb and see what they will do for you....and please, keep us up-dated, we would like to know the outcome.

Cheers.....Rob

[Sarah977]

@Julie1293  What you need to understand is that there are posts here all the time from hosts who "forget"to update their calendars, or suddenly realize that some date is a holiday which they could charge more money for and try to change it up on a guest after the booking has been confirmed, which of course isn't fair. 

Sorry that you felt you were being judged- as Paul said, if you had been clearer about the specifics in the topic post, you'd probably have received more on-point answers to start with. We often don't realize what we need to make clear at the outset so as get help quickly.

[Quincy]

Hi @Julie1293,

Welcome to the Community Center!

I am sorry to hear about this. I was wondering if you have any updates on this? 

[Avril26]

@Quincy

I see from @Robin4 that there are numbers in the US. 

What are the contact numbers for the UK please?  I am in a similar situation with blocked dates in May/June?

[Quincy]

Hello @Avril26, please take a look here https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/forums/v3_1/forumtopicpage/board-id/Community-Help-EN/page/1/thr....

I hope this helps.

Quincy