Calendar options

[Katrina79]

I’m looking for some information from all you lovely experienced hosts! I want to start up a new listing with a minimum four nights stay during the week and minimum 2 nights during the weekend. I am familiar with how to block off dates for the weekend by requesting a minimum 2 nights for both Saturday and Sunday. However, how would I go about putting in a restriction for a minimum of four nights excluding the weekend? Also if I have a few nights available between stays am I able to alter my minimum stay to fill those dates? I’ve heard about the rule sets but not actually used them in the past. I’m hoping to encourage weekly stays but also have the flexibility to fill nights between. My theory here is to encourage five night stays or longer and reduce the number of cleanings. Also, I want my calendar to be available for those guests looking to stay four days or longer. Ideally I can choose to allow shorter stays if I can manage the cleaning, where I assume the rule sets would help me out to accomplish this! Your advice and knowledge please. 

[Helen427]

Ok @Katrina79  let's see if The Sherlock Club can help come to a solution

Come on in @Fred13 

@Kelly149 @Heidi588 @Inna22 @Alexandra316 @Ann72 @Ian-And-Anne-Marie0 and everybody-else...

[Fred13]

     I have tried this in the past and if the rule set allows you to do it, I haven't figured out how. 

Instead I started blocking of certain days in the calendar manually so that all my guests were forced to stay only 4 days.

    In your case, I am wondering if blocking off Fridays and Mondays (with a minimum if 2 day stay) it will bring you a desired uniformity; it will always leave a day in between guests and eliminates the back-to-back single stays (aka too much cleaning). You can always say - "Minimum stay 4 days during weekdays".  I am assuming you are not on IB.

   I have changed my mind about hosting over the years; today I rather only book the amount that keeps it fun, because 'happiness is worth every penny'. I no longer feel I am loosing something when it is not booked.

[Anna9170]

@Katrina79  

Calendar - availability settings - travel details - set the minimum period of stay on the days of the week.

Once the main "large" reservations are made and there are days between them, already in the same section, manually set the specific dates and a specific minimum stay, this is the best way.

You can also raise the fee for cleaning a little, at four days it will be almost invisible, and one night will not be profitable for the guest. 
And I think you can hardly not know such things, because by your profile you are a very experienced host.😎

@Helen427  We meant the investigation of guests' personal intrigues and dramatic moments of their personal life, not the settings in the host profile, ah.....😂

[Emilia42]

@Katrina79 I have a ton of rule sets on my calendar. Essentially, I have a color-coded rule set for a 1-night min, 2-night min, 3-night min, etc and I apply them to specific dates as needed. In your case, I would set a standard 2-night minimum and then go into your calendar and apply the 4-night min rule set to every weekday. When you get bookings here and there, you can override with additional minimum night stay rule sets to fill in the holes.

[Katrina79]

@Emilia42Thank you for this! I think this is exactly the info I’m looking for. Let’s say I do a one week minimum, once I have some bookings I can fill in the dates with minimum night rule sets, which may also give me some control over what date checkout would be so I can plan in advance if I can clean. You would think I would know this by now @Anna9170 but I’ve honestly never worked with rule sets. I do know how to set minimum nights per day of the  week but anytime I’ve tried to use that method to fill in dates I’ve ended up with reservations a month or two in the future and it messes up my system all over again lol. @Fred13 @Yes I am on IB and I don’t mind it for the most part, it has some set backs but nothing is perfect. My main concern opening another house is the number of cleans I can accomplish. I don’t like rushing and I don’t like hiring out the cleaning if I can avoid it. Thanks for your responses and help! 

[Emilia42]

@Katrina79 When you get your listing set up, play around with the ruleset options. I open two browser windows - one with my actual live listing and the other on the multi-calendar. I create rule sets and apply them to dates then I go to my listing (as a guest) and play around with different sets of dates. This way I can see if the rule sets are doing what I want them to do. 

[Kelly149]

@Katrina79 if it's really about not wanting to clean too often, then a higher cleaning fee could be the simpler easier way to go. Or use the % discounts for 4+ day stays.