Making dates available, but disable guests coming on those dates

[Katarina-and-Ante0]

As a host, I would like to have the possibility to make some date available, but disable guests coming on that day.

For example, I will be away from October 3 to October 5. So, I can't welcome my guests in any of those days, but I would be perfectly happy if someone comes on October 2 and leaves on October 6.

Now, when I go on a trip, I have to make all those days unavailable, although I could have guests staying in longer period that covers my entire trip.
So, I would like to have my away days available for guests coming and leaving outside that period. And, if possible, I would like to chose if I want to disable guests coming and leaving or only coming (I'm ok with leaving when I'm not there).

Ante

[Lyndsey2]

Yes! This would help us make more money and open up more options for guests. Right now, I have to block off dates when I can't accommodate arrivals. Great idea!

[Deborah1]

You can go into availibility and set a different limit on number of days for a specific period of time. Hope this helps.

[Dede0]

@Katarina-and-Ante0 See @Deborah1's comment. You can set "minimum stays" for ANY specific dates, and you can also have a stay begin on a specific day of the week. So, going with your example, set a four-night min for the Oct 2-6 period, and specify that the booking must start on whatever day of the week Oct 2 happens to be.

[Katarina-and-Ante0]

@Dede0, @Deborah

1) If I set that guests *must* come on October 2nd, then he can't arrive on October 1st. And I loose possible booking.

2) If I set minimum to 4 days, then what stops the guests from leaving between Oct 3 and 5th? He can easily book Sep 28th - Oct 4th.

Your solution doesn't solve my problem and creates new ones.

Ante

[Dede0]

@Katarina-and-Ante0 Try being creative. What I mean is that if you have a block of days within which you don't want a guest to arrive or depart (let's use your original October 3 to October 5 block), then go set minimum-stay requirements for as many of the days *preceding* that block as you have the time for and/or believe necessary. Set the min requirements in non-overlapping 2-day spans; that is, one setting for Oct 1-2, one for Sept 29-30, and so on. For each of those, set a minimum stay that pushes the booker out past the dates that you won't be around.

Then, go set some absurdly long minimums for each of the days within the block of dates that you'll be unavailable. For instance, set mins of 90 days (or 30 or whatever) for Oct 3, 4, and 5. That will leave the dates open, but make them not really available as start-dates for bookings.

Yes, this is tedious work. Yes, it's a bit complicated. Yes, it won't make every possible combination of possible bookings available. But it will, if done right, make more date-ranges available than if you simply close off a set of days.

[Katarina-and-Ante0]

@Dede1

Please do not start typing before You are sure that what You are about to type makes any sense. This is already second time, so 

I have to change my tone.

If I set abusrdly long minimum stay for days when I'm away, then it also blocks people from staying there *regardless* of their day or arrival. It doesn't really help.
@Lizzie

I don't see why this should be archived.

Ante

[Katarina-and-Ante0]

Please don't try to be creative with proposed solution since there is none, except the one I suggested. Instead, I would suggest Airbnb to try to be creative with implementing this feature.

Ante

[Marshall1]

I came here to suggest this.

Specifically... Thanksgiving Day.  I had multiple guests arrive on Thanksgiving.  I would not do this again this year.  However, someone arriving Wednesday thru Friday would be fine.  Adding a setting that says 'available', 'blocked', 'no arrivals' would make more money for the host, and Airbnb.

[Paula66]

Has Airbnb come up with a way to say No check-in for specific dates yet, Im wanting to do this.

looking forward to an answer thanks

[Marshall1]

Using the rule-sets, you can do this now.

[Zrinka0]

Marshall, could You please explain "rule sets" idea.

[Bella25]

I've just figured out how to do this myself. First, go to...

'Listings'

'Manage listing'

'Availability'

next to 'Trip length', click 'Edit'

At the bottom of that box in teal it says, 'Add A Requirement'

in the 'During' dropdown select 'Specific Dates',

As a made up example, let's say I am going on holiday for 9 days, from Saturday 5th May to Sunday 13th May, so I don't want to any guests to arrive at that time (as I can't let them in & welcome them) but am happy for them to arrive before, be there whilst i'm away and leave whilst I'm away. So, to achieve this I need to create two 'Requirements' (rules).

My first requirement is...

...I select from Friday 4th May (the day before I'm leaving) to Thursday 10th Mayand in the 'Check-in day' dropdown, I select 'Only Friday'. Note: put the 'minimum stay' as whatever you want, I decided on 4 days minimum stay, as a comprimise between my usual 2 and the ideal possible of 9, to hopefully encourage longer visiters.

My second requirement is...

...I select from Friday 11th May (the day after the previous requirement ends) to Tuesday 15th May (two days after I get back, as I don't want anyone arriving the day after I get back from holiday, and to give me 48 hours to catch up with laundry etc.) and this time I select the 'Check-in day' dropdown as 'Only Tuesday'.

So, what I end up with is that if anyone wants to stay in the 12 days containing my 9 days away, they absolutely can stay for even the entire 12 or more if they like. But they will only be able to check in on the day before I leave (or earlier) or two days after I get back. 

I would also slightly increase the minimum stay amounts for the few days before that Friday too. 

Hope this helps

Bella

[Bernard108]

Ante perfectly states what I have considered for years as the greatest problem with the Airbnb calendar. 

Deborah's reply is, in principle, clever, but I've always found it most difficult to set "minimal duration" for a specific period; and sometimes, when I managed it with the kind assistance of the superhost helpline, this did not prevent guest from booking single nights, complling me to decline a request, which is rude, or worse, to cancel a direct booking...

An easy tool to mark some nights as "available, but no possible check-in" would be most usefull.