Blocked Calendar Dates Repeatedly 'Unblocking'

[Rebecca181]

Hi Everyone,

I am very vigilant with my calendar and quadruple-check it frequently to avoid double-bookings (I have Instant Book on and list on a couple of other channels / booking sites). I have some dates blocked off (bookings from these other channels) that have magically unblocked themselves several times. It is definitely not me doing it. At this point I have taken photos of the blocked dates in case someone Instant Books dates that were blocked off, then unblocked (not by me). However, I am at this point thinking I need to go off Instant Book, which is unfortunate, as I actually have had great success with it (I am booked most of the time year round at this point). 

I do plan to call Airbnb about this but looking at old discussion threads it seems that it has never been successfully addressed or resolved for anyone who has had this difficulty who tried to get help from Airbnb.  Has this happened to others here? If so, what happens if someone Instant Books a date you can prove was blocked on your end? Will Airbnb have to do the cancellation so that the host (I'm a Super Host) remains penalty-free?

I am busy enough as it is without having to check my calendar every day to make sure that dates I dutifully and conscientiously blocked off are still blocked. The fact that this apparent software glitch is still going on (seems like the issue has been reported for over a year) is most concerning to me.

Thanks in advance for sharing your experience. - Rebecca

[Matthew285]

@Rebecca181, do you think the unintended unblocking of days happens because of the need to sync your calendar with the outside channels?

Obviously you are not changing your calendar personally. But since you need to synchronize the AirBnB calendar with other calendars, that seems to be an obvious possible cause for the AirBnB calendar to change unexpectedly.

[Rebecca181]

@Matthew285 I had wondered about this myself so I unsynched all my channels with Airbnb (another inconvenience). But it happened again this week. It is not a great feeling to see all your blocked dates unblocked and then have to stop everything you are doing to see if you now have an unintentional double-booking. One thing I did learn was that if you change your price settings from 'smart (dynamic)' pricing (e.g., turn it off or on) all of your blocked dates become unblocked. That is also most inconvenient. But the listing that is repeatedly unblocking is not on dynamic pricing. There is simply no explanation for it.

[Matthew285]

@Rebecca181 well, there goes *that* theory.

So one listing has the rogue unblocking issue, and one does not?

And the listing that does NOT have dynamic pricing is the listing that has the self-unblocking date problem?

[Rebecca181]

@Matthew0 - Yep. That about sums it up. And searching on this forum, it has happened to many others, and is still happening with no resolution. I will try and kick it up to the technical level - From what I've read, hosts that have contacted Airbnb about it are not aware that a s/w guru ever looked into it. In the meantime, I am photographing every blocked date so that I can prove I had it blocked to Airbnb and even the guest, if I have to have Airbnb cancel it. And notice that I say that Airbnb will cancel it. Not me.

[Kelly149]

@Rebecca181 ok, but how would you PROVE that it wasn't you that unblocked the dates?? (I've had a similar convo with CS and yes, they'll say this)

Yes, ABB SHOULD take care of this for you, but WILL THEY? That's the million dollar question

[Rebecca181]

@Kelly-And-Dan0 This could certainly be presented to me by C/S, but thus far I have had very good experiences with their C/S department, and they have helped me through some difficult things and not questioned or challenged me when I stated the facts, including when I told them they needed to cancel a guest that had managed to Instant Book without a verified ID. However, I do understand that this may not hold true over time. It may help that I am fortunate to be a bit of a 'cash cow' for the company (my listing is ideal in many ways, not all by my own doing, the owners I bought the home from were geniuses in how they designed the space and where they placed the home) - If I were not, perhaps I would not be treated in the Grand Manner I have been thus far. With that said, I have interacted with some really fantastic C/S people, especially late at night or early in the morning when my call went to their Florida offices. I've invited several to stay at my Cottage, my sense of community connection with them was that strong.

[Marzena4]

@Rebecca181 @Kelly149 Just an idea - it might be the way your browser handles cookies - are you sure you accepted them from Airbnb? I have been using Airbnb on numerous devices (phone, PC/laptops with various systems fromincarnations of linux to windows to OSX), from many places (sometimes I need to quickly block dates because I am also on booking.com and, as most hosts know, ABB and that will not sync) and I have never had any issues with my calendar. Or that some changes have not been saved. Never. But in each case I was using an updated browser.

[Myra24]

This is happening to me as well! Could it be an app update or something? I don’t have any other 

[Marit-Anne0]

@Rebecca181

It happened to me last year and it is a common bug that now has resurfaced.  I even had the dates booked, so I had to contact airbnb and cancel their chosen accomodation for their honeymoon.  They cancelled penaty free, no questions asked, but I did refer to the discussions on the CC regarding the issue of dates unblocking.

Dates were blocked for a booking from a different source, but I had no calendar sync in place.  

If this happens repeatedly @Rebecca181 I would take screenshots of your calendar for further proof.  

[Selam2]

unfortunately, this happened to me few months back and costed me super host entitlment for cancelation . Is there any app that anyone recommened to cinchronize the calander across many listing sites for multiple properties.

[Penelope0]

I haad mystery prices appear on which someone immediately booked, when Airbnb canceled my guest's reservation at the last minute and cleared my calendar. The regular price was $140/night. The mystery price for the cleared dates was $69! [for waterfront home with boat dock !] Has anyone had this happen?

[James2815]

Just an update for anyone else who is searching this:

The magical unblocking problem persists still.  Today I had folks book Christmas week, which has been blocked since I first started on Airbnb in June.  I looked at Thanksgiving week, which has also been blocked off since the beginning, and found that it too had been magically unblocked.

So much for the "You have control of your calendar" assertion.  This is very disconcerting.