AirbandB closed my calendar !

[Colin25]

I have just been notified that I have had my calander closed becose i have declined to many booking requests ( they say 15 which is incorrect) . This seems very odd as so far i have taken 9 booking in 18 months all have been at least a week in length and one next month is 3 weeks. From what i can see I have only declined 7 and many of these were less than the required minum period or had not read my booking terms correctly.

Additionally I live and work in my apartment and so I have to make other arragmenments if I am to rent. I thought the whole point of airbanadb was to allow people to rent out thier home when they were away. I realise I can remove dates off the calande but I prefer toget the booking then see if I can take time of work ( I am self employed) and then if I can reply to the request. In other words i try to fit my time off arpund the request and not the other way around!

One of the request was for a 6 month period ( to me it seemed almost fraudulant ) which clearly was not going to be possible.

Has any one else experienced this?

How does one get to actually communicate with airbandb to discuss this as i cant see anywhere on this site to contact them direct.

Hence I am wring in this forum.

I have now re activated my profile 

Colin

[Michelle144]

Hi Colin,
Airbnb has been really well designed to allow you to create parameters to suit your needs. You can set your listing to allow a minimum amount of nights to a maximum number of nights stay, you can also set the dates you are willing/ able to make your space available. I have been hosting for 2 years and have declined only one request. 7 seems like a lot to me. From a travelers perspective it's frustrating to search through listings, read the details, short list your picks finally decide on a place and then have your request declined. I am not of the impression that Airbnb was intended for persons to rent their place when they were away, I always thought the idea came out of persons having space available that could be rented out at a lower cost for budget travelers - couch surfing travelers.
I hope that helps. Getting an Airbnb rep is not easy, but you can go through 'help' and select the type of issue you need help with, then indicating that their generic answers are not helpful, it will then give you an option to contact them directly.
Best of luck to you. Hope this helps.

[Raymond-and-Elaine0]

 @Colin25  We are warned about this possibilty in the Hosts Standards,   see here  "Travelers looking for a place to stay tell us that getting rejected can be discouraging, so if you decline an excess number of reservation requests, your listing may be temporarily deactivated." Your method of letting guests book first then looking to see if you are free will not work. However if you are contacted by guests asking for something that you do not offer ie min/max stays etc and it's clearly stated on your listing, then I would contact airbnb , explain the situation and ask them to reinstate you.  United Kingdom+44 203 318 1111        

[Andrea9]

@Colin25

When I look at one of you listings the minimum # of days is 3, but in your text it says 5.

In the other listing the minimum # of days is 2.

Make sure that the # of days set under availability is in fact the # you accept, otherwise guests will, as you state inquire or request to book for less days than you think you stipulated. And that is thus not fair to them.

If you don't like inquiries/requests for longer periods of time, then there too you should set the maximum # of days you are willing to accept. 

Important is that you don't simply state this in your text body but in your settings, since that is what determines for how long guests may book.

[Sandra126]

Thank you for pointing this out, I didn't know! I decline bookings which are not suitable, eg children, dogs, one night Saturdays. This I do regularly, despite what I say on my listing as guests say ''please please please, I see that you don't allow this but could you do it for us just this once???""

Decline.

What I LOVE is the option which sometimes comes up on Air and sometimes not: MAKE SPECIAL OFFER. This allows me not to decline, but instead change the one night Sats to a full weekend, the child full to no child etc.

So if you see this option when someone asks next time, click the ''offer'' button and amend the booking to something which works for you. You have been positive, yet declined simultaneously!

[Carol102]

Just started listing and have the same issue.
I did call and work with the customer service rep.
My condo requires a minimum of thirty nights.
I need to confirm with people my spec. Dates but the program isn't set up for this.
Solution they need to re-program for those doing long term or part-time.
Hope the do this; otherwise zInrecommend Home Away vacation tentacle.
Not as easy to use as AirBandB.