Availability for listings with minimum nights

[Ivan214]

Hi everybody

This is my first message here, and I hope it's the right place for this. I have searched the community center, and haven't found anything on my question, so here we go:

I have a two night minimum during the weekends and a three night minimum during the rest of the week.

In my opinion, the availability calendar on the property listing is very confusing, because it shows many nights as unavailable, even though they are actually available. Example: August 24/25/26 are booked. The nights of August 22 and 23 are shown as unavailable (because of the 3-night minimum, I was told by Airbnb support), and guests will think that those nights are actually not free. Only when a potential guest clicks on the night of August 21, then the other nights are shown as available. I think this prevents guests from booking listings with minimum stays.

In my view, all available nights should be shown right from the start, and not only after a potential guest clicks on a starting date of their trip.

I am not quite sure, but I think that this has been introduced recently (at least, I hadn't noticed it before).

Does anyone else have similar issues with this?

Ivan

[Linda108]

@Ivan214 Showing a calendar on the listing is new and I believe only for guests searching without specific dates.  So if a guest enters specific dates your availability will be reflected precisely.  When I look at my calendar on the listing, it appears that the application of the block day before booking setting is what I see on this calendar.  If you allow same day booking and no day between bookings, then you would not see the general calendar blocking.   I'm kinda guessing so you might experiment with your availability and booking settings.

[Ivan214]

Thanks, @Linda0.

In my view, the problem is not with the "Advance Notice" or the "Preparation Time" settings. If you have set those, then certainly dates will just not be available.

I think the problem is, that the "availability calender" shown on the listing is really a "check-in" calendar, i.e. it only shows those dates as available, when guests can check-in. When you have set a "Minimum Stay" then there is a difference between the dates a guest can check-in and the dates which are actually available. 

From my point of view, the calendar should show all available dates, not only the available check-in dates. Showing more available nights will lead to more bookings, I would guess.

[Steve143]

Hello @Ivan214,

Aye, the fact that Airbnb shows dates that are blocked for checkin and staying in the same way as dates that are available for staying but not checkin is a problem.

Showing the dates of the 22nd and 23rd of August as available would be confusing and frustrating but they should be shown differently than the 24th, 25th and 26th. It's an issue that many hosts have complained about.

If the 22nd and 23rd were shown as available it would also be frustrating as people clicking to check in on those dates would have to be immediately denied with a message saying something like "This date is unavailable for checkin but guests can stay or checkout"

As @Linda108 mentions, only guests who search without dates will see your calendar and hence this issue. Guests who search with dates who want to check out or stay on the 22nd or 23rd will see your listing and be allowed to stay or check out on those dates.

Airbnb claims that most guests search with dates. Yes, it can be a problem for guests who are flexible with their dates and so search without dates.

Steve.

[Pat271]

I’ve noticed that this works correctly on the browser version of Airbnb, but not on the app version.  On the browser version, all available dates show as available when you look at the Availability calendar.  Say you have a 5-day minimum.  When you select the first day, it pops up “5 day minimum”, at the cursor.  If the 5-day minimum requirement can’t be met, it fades out the rest of the days, but only after the first day has been selected.  This is the way it should work.

This is an inconsistency in their software, so don’t let Customer Support try to “explain it away”. I have had to set my minimum to 1 day to get around this problem, and then decline my guests when they “Request to Book” less than my desired minimum!  Not good.