Asking Airbnb to not touch Calendar after a Decline Request

[Nia0]

Below is the Feedback I sent to Airbnb.com/feedback

I don't want Airbnb to block my dates when I decline a booking or a even an inquiry.

You may think you unblock your dates after you decline but I found out the calendar looks open but new requests get a notice that "Dates are not available."  Go check your own listings by trying to make a booking on dates you declined.

I am posting this here to see if other hosts have more issues or arguements that I can use when I address the support person who might eventually reach out to me.  Do they actually look at the Feedback?  I have a trouble ticket (no number but a support guy said that tech help will get back to me.) so hopefully I will be able to bring our concerns to their attention.

WHO WANTS AIRBNB TO NOT BLOCK OUR DATES WHEN WE DECLINE A BOOKING?

"I formally request that Airbnb change the way Declines are handled. When I or any host decline a reservation or an inquiry, the dates on our calendars should not be blocked in any way. The reasons we decline range from guests not reading the listing, to different time zones making communications hard, to Airbnb suggesting locations that are 11 hours driving distance to the requested location. (Mammoth to Yosemite is 35 miles as a bird flies, 110 miles (3 hours) in summer by mountain roads, or 350 miles (11 hours) by roads without winter closures). None of these are my fault and should not result in my dates being blocked. Worse yet, when I try to unblock dates they show up on my calendar as available but your program does not release them. If a friend logs on to try and book my listing the calendar is clear but they get a notice that those dates are not available. The support person said that if I unblock the dates it should only take an hour to be processed. Why should I even miss an hour of booking time? Now since the application isn't working right and releasing my dates, I will have to check my listing dates after ever time I decline. How can I trust your program? Just let us decline and don't touch our calendar. More reasons for declining would be great also. Maybe you should even give time extensions for different time zone conversations."

[Branka-and-Silvia0]

@Nia0

if you get an INQUIRY and you decline it - nothing will happend. You are not punished, calendar remains open.

If you get an REQUEST and you decline it within 24 h periond - nothing will happend , calendar remains open ... but don't do it to many times or you will get a warning from ABB and your listing can be suspended. If you don't accept or decline within 24 h then booking will authomaticaly be made or your calendar will be  blocked (I am not sure what of those two)

If you have INSTANT BOOKING turned on and you get a BOOKING and you cancel the booking then your calendar is blocked for those days, you are penalized with 50-100 $ and you get authomated review "host cancelled a reservation x days before check in"

To gain more control about your bookings and guests you can turn off Instant booking option 

[Nia0]

I don't know where you get your information from but every time I decline a booking my dates get blocked (always within the 24hours).  I have to go to my calendar and make them available.  I had instant book on for a few days last year but it was a nightmare.  People booked who wanted to see Yosemite.  Airbnb brought up my listing as a viable alternative even though it is an 11 hour drive.  I had to cancell the bookings and spend hours on the phone with Airbnb to resolve.  I do not have instant book on now so by your information my dates shouldn't be getting blocked.  Maybe if you ever turn on instant booking then your dates get blocked even after you turn instant booking off.  I have seen dozens of posts by hosts complaining about their dates getting blocked after a request.  Some say they get blocked by declining an inquiry.  I think this has happened to me but I wasn't watching for it before.

Maybe there should be a place where people can post problems they are having and others can hit a ME TOO button.  Then the tech people could isolate and fix these issues.  It seems like each of our complaints gets handled separately by different Helpers giving us conflicting information.

[Valerie-and-Jonathan0]

I am absolutely in favor of asking Airbnb not to mess with my calendar. 

I didn't know Instant Booking was on (first time host, that was unclear to me) and when it came through I declined it because we want to confirm before all bookings that our guests understand that there are stairs in our listing. Now, my very first ever review is a cancel on my profile, the dates are blocked and I can't unblock them. I have a ticket in via customer service but they will give me no indication on if it will take them 2 hours, 2 weeks, or 2 months to get to my "ticket".  There must be a better way. AND, please don't mess with my calendar!