Awaiting verification blocking dates on calendar? What's that all about...

[Amy-and-Brian0]

Never seen this one before but someone has blocked dates on our calendar without actually booking.

Double checked if the listing itself was blocking those dates and yep...no one else can get them, they are blocked from others.

That's a new one...wonder how long they keep the dates blocked from others?

It also propagates to our other, linked sites as "booked"...so no one can get them - including other websites we advertise on.

Neat stuff...

Oh and bonus: there's no possible way for us to do anything about it. We can't deny the booking or message the party or anything. It's just blocked.

Edit to say: here's the response from support:
"We are awaiting Donald to verify his identity."
My question to that was:
"How was he able to block dates off my calendar at all without first verifying his identity?"

Answer:
"..."

[Michael1812]

This is completely unbelievable.  I just happened to notice today on my calendar that it was blocked for a week.  Another guest on another site that I have linked to my Airbnb calendar mentioned to me that my apartment was showing as booked when it's not.   I came to Airbnb and was shocked to see my calendar booked without my consent.    Airbnb doesn't even contact us as hosts/owners which is shocking to let us know that we have a request and it's pending verification.

This really needs to be changed ASAP.

[Bob349]

I'm in the same boat right now. I got a message from the guest stating that they are arriving. I looked at my calendar and found the blocked dates and marked awaiting verification. Talking with customer support lead nowhere. Obviously they aren't staying tonight. Airbnb refused to unblock the dates, so I guess I'll have to un-sync my calendars with the other sites. Support kept telling me to cancel the reservation and I kept telling them we never received anything at all. The final resolution from support was for me to try and message the guest and request that they cancel whatever request they made on their end. Its very frustrating to have zero control over your own calendar for dates that haven't even been requested!

[Annie623]

I just noticed I have a week blocked too during our biggest time. Two questions.

Does this only last 24 hours or have you guys had it blocked longer?

A few weeks ago, I signed up for the Beta thing where guests can get 10% off but if they cancel, they lose their whole fee. Did anyone else sign up for that? Could it be related or a bug?

[Annie623]

In answer to Question 1, it did expire in 24 hours, so that was good to see. The same person got verified and booked the next day.

[Kalyn7]

This just happened to me! I told the guest to submit their ID and it fixed right away. Unfortunately, this will only work if you know which guest tried to book those days because the block off is blanked out like in the OP’s photo. Hope this can help someone in the future though.

[Lucija15]

 Here's how it looked for me on my calendar. I noticed it about 1 hour ago by randomly scrolling through my calendar and I called Airbnb 10 minutes later. The agent wasn't very helpful needless to say and he only said the guest needs to verify themselves and that they've been sent a notification. I asked how long my calendar will be blocked off and he said 24-48 hours. This would be a pain in the asss if it was a last minute reservation, but it's annoying if it's also a regular booking.

The second screenshot is of me trying to message the guest, but the page is blank and contains no details about the guest like it usually does. No idea if they'll recieve it, but the previous messages on this thread have given me hope haha.

Hopefully it will clear out within a day and won't get stuck for days like for other people. I find it weird that the guest needs to verify themselves when it says they've joined Airbnb 2.5 years ago and they have a profile photo of a flower, and I don't have any extra verifications ticked off.

[Lucija15]

UPDATE: 

my guest was verified 10 hours later and the booking was accepted. Once they were verified, their messages came through, so they were able to see my messages, but I couldn't see their replies.

[Kate171]

What the bloody hell???????

[T-J--and-Monique0]

I had this happen last night, for three days, then this morning booking has vanished.  Still not sure how they manage to block dates with an incomplete airbnb account.

[Larisa4]

I saw this problem for the first time this morning.  Dates are 3 days away.  If they block for upwards of 48 hours, I have no hope of filling that.  I thought it was bad enough that Airbnb allowed guests to book without paying (never did figure out that one -- I've never been given that option as a guest), but this is ridiculous.

[Jennifer2010]

I just came across this issue for a weekend stay at the beginning of November. I don't know how long it has been pending, but I'll be checking back tomorrow for certain. The lack of any kind of notice via text or email is super annoying. The system is now saying pending ID verification, even though my settings don't require ID verification. 

[Yan3]

I ran into this issue yesterday where an unauthorized reservation blocked my calendar.  My immediate thought was how did the person managed to book without verifying his account in the first place?  I cannot remove it because the reservation is grayed out. How long exactly will it remain there until it expires and gets removed from the calendar?  Does anyone have an official figure?

[Jack467]

Same thing happened to me couple days ago. A guest requested to book my place and I did not want to because they had 0 review, but Airbnb notifications show up on my phone's home screen and I accidentally accepted while picking up my phone from the charger (just one wrong tap on my screen).

Now I have had a zombie booking for more than one day ...

[Andrea1729]

How can air bnb allow people to book or attempt to then block our dates without verification, someone attempted to book my property for this evening last night (i only found this out when person messaged me) it shows they need verification, and to give them 7 hours that has passed and listing still blocked, they then  attempted to book two days ahead and they can they explained that they were having issues so tried to book two days further on and its showing them verified now, but on there original booking with the date blocked it still says they need verification !!! So i have no guest and lost a nights booking and arguing with help centre who are not helping ! Very upset and disappointed 

[Joe492]

I had this experiences three times in this month, few unverified new members request to book my place few hours before cut off time at 12am(last minute booking). They did not provide ID for verification but just ignore, the system will automatically blocked my calendar until they verify their account. End up my date is blocked for 10hrs, I lost the night because I cant do anything until they verify their account.

I know this is for safety reason, but the system should not accept an unverified account to make any booking request and automatically block the date for them! This is not fair for host!