AirBnB is allowing reservations on blocked dates

[Martin640]

I just got a request for a date which shows it is blocked on my calendar.  

[Mike340]

@Martin640

Is the blocked date :

a. an Airbnb system auto blocking as a result of one of your Airbnb listing bookings

b. a block date as a result of you personally blocking the dates as a result of a booking from another site 

c. a sync calendar blocked date 

I just would like to know first, how did that date first become blocked ? 

[Martin640]

Thank you!  The answer is b.  We blocked it a long time ago, and it shows as blocked on our calendar.  But today we got a request for it.

[Hilary79]

CHECK YOUR AUTO SYNC HOSTS!!

This past Friday (5/25)  I received an instant book on for a weekend that was ALREADY booked.  Long story short, my calendar sync from VRBO & HA isn't "holding" the block.  It has been working beautifully for months but just stopped.   If I do a manual calendar sync, my calendar shows the blocked reservations BUT THEN the block disappears and my calendar is again open within the hour.   

I've already re-linked the calendars, same problem.   I then manually blocked those reserved dates in the AirBNB calendar - those DATE BLOCKS disappeared too!   

After about 3 phone calls, and even having a customer service rep 'block' dates for me, the calendar block continues to disappear after a little while.   Yes, a ticket has been openned.  I've had to snooze my calendar awaiting resolution from AirBnB.   Strangely, the date blocks for reservations from Booking.com is working fine.   

To date the issue remains unresolved and my listing is snoozed to ensure no more guests are disrupted by this system issue.   Ugh!

[Sarah977]

@Martin640 Was it a Booking Request or an Inquiry?  If it's an Inquiry, I'm not sure, but guests may be able to enter any dates in order to contact you. If it was a booking request, they shouldn't have been able to do that on blocked dates.

[Martin640]

Yes, it was a booking request.  I had the button in the email to accept it.  I should say it IS a request, I don't know what to do about it, and I don't want to reject it since they penalize you for that.

[Sarah977]

@Martin640  Sounds like you need to contact airbnb to find out how this person was able to put in a booking request for blocked dates. Do it soon, before you get dinged on response rate. In the meantime, you could just message the guest (without accepting or declining) to let them know that you're very sorry, but those dates are in fact not available, that they are blocked on your calendar and you are dealing with airbnb to find out how this happened, but you wanted the guest to know ASAP, so they have as much time as possible to look for another place. And ask the guest if they would kindly withdraw the booking request. 

[Martin640]

Yes, I guess I have to do that.  Thank you.  Good to know it isn't just a mistake I made.

[Martin640]

See how they were able to request on a blocked date?

[Kathie21]

@Martin640I'm not seeing it - which date have they requested that is blocked?

[Patrick180]

Just checking-- were both dates (12 & 13) blocked?   If so, then that's some serious system failure.

BUT if only the 13th was blocked, then I understand because this happens to me ALL the time.  Airbnb's system doesn't count the day of departure as a "booked" day, because they are departing.  It's set up as if you were a hotel and can prepare the space for a new guest to arrive the same day that someone else checks out.  😕

[Letti0]

 I had  the exact opposite happen on June 1st HA/VRBO was blocking AirBnB calendar for a pre-approval I sent. The box to not sync tenative days on HA/VRBO keeps checking it's self back on to block the dates when synced with AirBnB. I would uncheck it again and I would unblock on AirBnB and then within an hour it was blocked again. Did this six times and then finally HA CS told me to just cancel the pre-approval. I started a thread about it on the HA forum someone else was having the same issue. I wonder if this is related to your issue?

[Yordan0]

Hi all,

I use the mobile app most of the time. I have some dates blocked in my calendar for room 2 for Anne. But when the guest in room 1 requested a change to room 2 using the app it said that the room was available. I then processed the change. Later I realized that I had a double booking. Why does the app tell me that the room is available when it knows that the room is blocked?  How can this be fixed?