Speaking as someone who has just taken up hosting and also has experience working with usability issues, I thought it might be helpful to provide some feedback as to how the system can be improved for first time hosts and specifically, how to avoid having to cancel reservations because of the way availability settings are presented and explained.
What is particularly misleading is the 'Booking Window' drop down menu under 'Availibility Settings'.
I assumed that this was to indicate 'how much of the year to be able to view yourself on your own calendar' as you set your dates and prices. It is in no way clear that choosing anything other than ‘dates unavailable by default’ will mean that your calendar is automatically opened up to guests on a rolling basis.
In my case the calendar auto-opened availability for the Christmas and New Year period, which, at the time, I had yet to decide on. I acted as swiftly as I could, cancelled the booking and wrote an explanation and apology to the person. AirBnB's cancellation conditions are punative, it has resulted in my Calendar being blocked for the two most important dates in January as well as having a cancellation on the listing and also a fine.
This was very frustrating to me as someone just starting out as a host.
I’m am quite sure that I’m not the first host to have fallen into this trap and as long as its presented the way it is now, there will be more hosts cancelling because of it.
Sincerely
Brian **
