Calendar for Sat to Sat stays

[Corinne227]

I am a new host on Airbnb.  My cottage rental is a Saturday to Saturday rental only and I find that the option to block the check in for the other days makes the calendar look as though it is all booked up and not available.  It is only showing Sat as an open day and appears everything else is booked.  I believe it could turn people away because it looks unavailable.    I have it noted on the top of the listing that it is Sat to Sat only and it is a 7 day minimum, but it seems as though someone could rent it for 7 day minimum on an off day (not Saturday) and book it if they fall under the criteria I have set for instant book.    Any suggestions on how to manage that?  My first thought was to set it up so I have to approve any requests, but Airbnb suggests the instant book so I followed that.   

Thank you!

Corinne

[Rebecca181]

@Corinne227 Many of us have been posting and commenting on this recently. I called Airbnb Customer Support about it and apparently this is just how they do things. I was not having 3 day holiday weekends booked because of the way the dates are displayed on the calendar - All but the check-in day look unavailable! I think at this point one of us needs to post on Host Voice the 'idea' to fix this. No other booking site does it this way and I am certain that this is resulting in lost bookings and lost revenues for Airbnb and us hosts. Maybe Lizzie, our community moderator, will see this and help bring this concern to the team at ABB as well. 

[Terry716]

Its a silly system alright. I wonder is there a way of dividing the calendar into weekly blocks only.  Then how do we compensate a guest wanting only to stay ten days?? 

[Dean110]

Hello,

I just posted the same question.   Did you ever resolve this issue?    We have not had one Airbnb rental since we set up Sat - Sat.   Our sites are booking fine.  I agree that it looks like only Saturdays are available the rest of week is not.  I think this issue has reduced our Airbnb to zero.

[James415]

I have the same problem.

When I set a particular day,e.g. Saturday, as the check in day, then the intervening days will appear booked. Although Instant Book is very good, the only way to show the intervening days as available is to turn off the requirement for a particular book in day. Then to stop guests making a midweek or another undesired booking you will have to turn of Instant Booking and make all guests send a request. One can then refuse bookings that do not commence on the Saturday.

IMO AirBnB need to show two options for the calendar-one for dates to check in & out and another that shows availability. Either that or just have a calendar which is an availability calendar but which also shows the days on which a guest can book in & out.

I also have raised this with AirBnB but it remains the same.

[Alexandra316]

I'm in the same boat, and I'm fairly sure it's one of the reasons I get so few booking with Airbnb on that particular property. It's a very silly system.

[Thomas977]

I completely agree; this is a big issue that Airbnb needs to correct.

In the summer season, I have check-in and check-out only on Saturdays (rule in professional version of the calendar saying that check-in and check-out on sunday, monday, tuesday, wednesday, thursday and friday is not allowed). This means that Sunday to Friday is marked as booked (gray with lines on) in the calendar, even though these days are not booked. Days are only opened when the guest selects Saturdays for check-in and check-out. This causes many guests to misunderstand as they think the days in the calendar are booked, even if they are available. This is therefore very negative because I lose potential bookings. Airbnb must change the view from Sunday to Friday from "gray with lines on" (booked) to for example "GREEN with lines on". This is important for potential guests to understand that the days are available, even though check-in and check-out is not possible on these days.

[Thomas977]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/Availability-on-Calendar-Sat-Sat-only-showing-Saturday-avai...

[Thomas977]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Host-Q-A/Weekly-rentals-on-calendar/idi-p/794399

[Thomas977]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Hosting/Why-does-the-calendar-looked-blocked-off-when-i-set-up-a...

[Thomas977]

https://community.withairbnb.com/t5/Help/2-Night-Fri-Sat-Minimum-but-when-I-quot-Check-Availability-...

[Wendy716]

I am having the same problem. I am losing bookings because they can't go in and book from Saturday to 

Saturday because it looks like it isn't available. I made calls for help and they sent me directions but they don't work.... Frustrating