Calendar blocking

[Julia1]

As a live in host there are often dates when I cannot check in guest but there is no problem having guests stay who have arrived e.g. the day before.  The calandar facility does not allow for stating dates on whihc check in is not available, this once again leads to cancelling some reservation requests which again leads to threats of delisting.  I do not want a key safe or any other form of self check in - this ismy home and not a business premises, what I offer guests is a stay in a home and I want to keep it as that.

[Christina456]

My take is that Airbnb could allow all these features but they are trying to be like a "hotel" system.  This gives them more legitimacy with city authorities.  Which is why they penalize you for canceling bookings since a normal hotel wouldn't do that.  

Your options for a more flexible system is to use their competitors like vrbo but those feel less safe then airbnb.  

I think all these systems are still evolving.  

Maybe you could try explaining all this on your listing description.   Most of my guests msg me before making the booking which would give you a chance to explain also. 

Are you using the autobook feature?  If you dont use that then even if a guest makes a booking you have 24hrs to respond.  Instead of accepting their booking - msg them and explain your situation and ask them to remove their request or just don't accept it.  Do not click the decline button.  

Hope some of this helps you. 

[Steve143]

Hello Julia,

It is possible, using rule-sets,  to set no checkins on a particular date while allowing guests to stay through that date, but it's definitely not straightforward to do so.

You first enable rule sets, then you create a rule-set that disallows checkins on whatever day of the week the date is and then apply it to that date.

Enable rule sets:

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Go to the link below.

https://www.airbnb.com/hosttools

On that page scroll down to the "Work the way you want" section and click on "Use the tools now" link. On the next page scroll to the "reservations" section and click on "Use the multi-calendar".

It then set the multicalendar as the default calendar view even though I have only one listing.

To see the full size month calendar view click on a listing's title. You can then click on the date for which you wish to disallow checkins

Create and apply a "no checkins" rule:

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Go to the month view of your calendar and click on the date. In the box that appears on the right scroll down and click in the "Rule-sets" box and choose "Add rule-set". Then scroll down to the "Availability" section and click on "Customise" for the "Check-in and checkout days". Now check the "Guests can't check in on" box for the day of the week corresponding to your desired date.

You can choose to save this rule for use on other dates. If you do, you must name it probably "no checkin Monday" or whatever day of the week it refers to. Then click "Save" and "Save" again.

I tried it for my listing for the 27th of August which is a Monday so I selected that guests can't check in on Mondays. When I searched for my listing on the map it then allowed me to select a checkin date of the 26th of August and checkout on the 28th but, as hoped, didn't allow selecting a checkin on the 27th. It still allowed check-in on other Mondays.

You have to do the above creation and application for each date that you wish do disallow checkins for. That is, you could have 7 rules, one for each day of the week and select which one is right for the date in question.

Steve.

[Helen56]

Thank you, Steve.  This is amazingly useful - I've actually printed off your post as I know I'll never findi it again here.

We should be able to do this in a much easier way directly from the calendar page.

[Kathie21]

Hooray!  Thanks for this.  Dunno why they couldn't just make it easy though!

[Steve143]

Hello,

Aye, I don't know why there couldn't be a section under "Availability" where you just select "Not available for checkins" when you click on a date. It should be there where you now see "Available" and "Blocked".

It should also be possible to set "Not available for checkouts" there too.

Steve.

[Julia1]

 Unfortunately that link does not work, it seems to be only for professional hosts and as a live in host renting one room in my home I am certainly not in that category.  Thanks for the help, I now ahve to wait for Airbnb to decide us meer mortals can have the technology!

[Kathie21]

It does work - as Steve says, just scroll down to where it says Work the Way You Want and click on Use the Tools Now (ignore the bit about multiple listings).  Just follow Steve's instructions carefully.  Are you trying to do it on a mobile device? - sometimes Airbnb doesn't seem to have the same functionality as on  a PC.

[Julia1]

Thanks, it does work once I ignored the business use nonsense, a useful tool.  

[Julia1]

Thank you so much for this I will try it shortly.

[Linda108]

If your dates that you cannot allow check in usually fall on a specfic day of the week, , it is a very simple setting.  Go to Availability, and under check in and check out you can "specify days of the week that guests cannot check in".

[Julia1]

Just tried to set a couple of dates for no check in and the link no longer works.