Calendar's misleading design

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

Calendar's misleading design

I have just had yet another guest confused by Airbnb's calendar design. He wrote:

 

''I'm looking at your cottage and wanted to check if it's available on the dates I selected. am a little confused because the dates in between the 3rd and 10th appear to be crossed out.''

 

The days he refers to are available, but they are crossed out because they are not available as check-in days. This design is misleading and confusing.

 

Just looking at the calendar, i.e. if guests do not interact with it, they think the days are booked but the dates are simply not available as check-in days. The difference between the booked dates and the dates available - but not as check-in days - should be made clear.

 

I would suggest an obvious colour code system with explanatory symbols below the calendar alongside the minimum stay information.

 

Many people contact me because of this, but many don’t bother, they simply move on and we have lost bookings because of this problem. After seeing the Airbnb calendar looking 'booked' some of my previous guests have then gone to TripAdvisor to check dates and booked there - so the design flaw is losing Airbnb business too. I would much rather they booked at Airbnb!

 

PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE do something about the calendar design to make it clearer: differentiate between booked days and days simply not available as check-in days - not every potential guest interacts with the calendar if they think the days are unavailable!

22 Replies 22
Beach-House-Boutique0
Level 2
Hilton Head Island, SC

Yes!!! So frustrating. We have lost so many bookings.. Vrbo has check in dates as blue and the others are black. Not grated or crossed out.  When you click a black itvtells you check in must be on ablue date. Simple fix.  It’s so annoying to get this question nonstop from guests and my homeowners wanting to know why their calendar ia blocked off .

Hi,

Good to get your comments and know I’m not alone in this. Can’t believe there aren’t many others frustrated by the calendar design. Please keep sending your frustrations to Airbnb as feedback, I do regularly. At some point, if we can get enough people to do it, hopefully the designers responsible will finally see sense!

Best regards,

Ian

 

Riley10
Level 2
Sleepy Hollow, NY

Ian - You have explained this so well with the concept of avaiable days vs check-in days. I share your frustration and I have also lost business due to the poor calendar design in Airbnb's mobile app. I try and address the issue head-on by posting a disclaimer at the top of my description for the specific dates that are available but appear blocked/booked: "If you are viewing our listing on Airbnb's mobile app, the availability calendar can be misleading. As of TODAY datesXYZ ARE AVAILABLE". I hate having to do this, but its the only way I can get guests to interact with my calendar, otherwise they take a quick look and move on.

 

Airbnb - are you listening?? Its been more than 6 months (or more) since this issue was raised and the poor design functionality has not changed. You are loosing business to other travel sites b/c your mobile calendar design is missleading and hosts are loosing bookings! Please read Ian's description above and see my photo examples below. 

 

@Lizzie, the online community manager from the UK, please help! How can we get Airbnb to address this?

 

Example:

June 30 - July 7 are avialable, but all of those days are not available as check-in days. Guests looking to stay with me for the 4th of July (which is 1 of 3 summer holidays in my seasonal beach town) see this when they first view my calendar on the Airbnb mobile app:

 

fullsizeoutput_26e3.jpeg

Only if they interact with my calendar can they see that June 30 through July 7 are in fact available and not just June 1 - July 2. The problem is, so many guests take a quick look and move on. 

 

So frustrating!

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

Hi Riley,

 

Many thanks for your feedback and support in this, i.e. flagging it up to @Lizzie. I've sent my description of the issue to airbnb feedback a few times, but nothing seems to happen.

 

I find it unbelievable that airbnb does not address this, it would be so easy to reslove the issue with an obvious colour code system with explanatory symbols below the calendar alongside the minimum stay information, as I described in my initial post.

 

Good idea with posting the disclaimer. I post this mesage at the top of my listings and within the space description text:

➤ PLEASE NOTE: AIRBNB CALENDAR DOES NOT DISPLAY ALL AVAILABLE DAYS UNTIL A CHECK-IN DATE IS ENTERED/CLICKED!

 

Just in the last month I have had at least three guests (that I know of) search my listings online after confusion over conflicting available dates between airbnb and other online travel agents' calenders. Luckily they have taken the time and initiative to search and then contact me directly through our own websites or the other OTAs. In the end they have booked either through TripAdvisor, HomeAway or direct with me, so although airbnb lost itself new bookings due to the poor calendar design, luckily I didn't lose the business - this time. But these are just a few bookings, I hate to imagine how many people simply skip over my listings after looking at the calender and, mislead by the seemingly 'unavailable' dates, simply move on.

 

The 1st screen shot below is the July calendar for one of my listings. We can only accept weekly bookings checking in/out on Fridays in summer. One look at the calendar (before entering a check-in date) and anyone would think, with the dates crossed out and inactive, we are fully booked except for Fridays! This is especially misleading for new airbnb users.

 

2nd screen shot, I have entered a check-in date and now available dates are 'active' (although no mention of the seven night minimum stay!) but how many potetial guests would bother entering the check-in date if all the dates are inactive and crossed out. As you quite rightly say: 'So frustrating!'

 

Surely if we keep reporting this issue, and flagging it up here and via feedback at some point airbnb will listen, take note that they are losing bookings and finally redesign the calender making it more logical and less misleading.

 

Should I hear any feedback from airbnb I will post here immediately.

 

 

Best regards,

Ian

Screen Shot 1 - No Check-In date entered.Screen Shot 1 - No Check-In date entered.Screen Shot 2 - Check-In date entered.Screen Shot 2 - Check-In date entered.

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Ian20@Riley10 and @Beach-House-Boutique0,

 

Thanks so much for highlighting this design feedback to me and I can understand your feeling on this. 

 

I will pass this back to the tech team, but so that I can get more information. Based on the screenshots you have shared, and the suggestion to have a colour code system, how do you think this should work?

 

Thanks for your help on this. 

 

Lizzie


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I have Googled. and there are literally thousands of posts about this same issue and hosts unhappy.   The blocking out of the date makes it look completely unavailable so it appears in June we only had four Saturdays available.  Our summer bookings are down and I do think this is contributing. Thankfully some people message Us to clarify if we have openings since they are confused. If you look at VRBO the check IN days are blue and the other days are black but they are not GRAYED out like the dates that are unavailable.  They should only be grayed out if they are unavailable because that is the way people interpret it based on  every other experience they had with travel sites. 

 If you click on a black date it will tell you you must click on a blue date for check in .  On yours people won’t even click on the day that appears available because it appears the entire rest of the month is unavailable and they’re not looking for a one night stay.   It’s just the way people are conditioned to think based on the weight every other travel site is. You guys are really doing yourselves and us a disservice because I can guarantee you when people don’t find a house that they want because I think it’s unavailable they’re moving over to your competitor sites to look for houses.   And again I have a red thousand that is not exaggerating post of people annoyed with the same issue. 

Hello @Beach-House-Boutique0@Lizzie, and @Riley 

 

Well said Beach House Boutique, I've also heard from a lot of people outside this platform that they ar eunhappy with this design. Can't believe it's taking this lone for airbnb to notice the design flaw. Hopefully @Lizzie is going to help us out!

 

Fingers crossed!

 

 

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

Hi @Lizzie,

 

Thanks so much for getting back to us on this, appreciate your help enormously!

 

Here are a few ideas/suggestions towards solving the issue.

 

1. Based on my calendar for the Summer Season when we only accept weekly bookings, change-over on Friday: All booked days are pale grey. Make all available dates active, i.e. black. If a guest tries to check-in on any day other than Friday a pop up appears informing them that check-ins for the period (e.g. 31.05.19 - 27.09.19) are Friday only.

 

2. A statement on the calendar saying: '? night minimum stay / Check-In ???day. The calendar can be programmed to display the info added by the host to her/his AVAILABILITY > TRIP LENGTH > ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS for certain periods.

 

3. All booked days are pale grey. Make all available dates active, i.e. black. For non check-in days add a red cross X in the background of that date, at the side of the calendar add a note 'X denotes non check-in day'.

 

4. All booked days are pale grey. Make all available dates active, i.e. black. Include a text box next to the calendar where hosts can add/edit their own booking schedule information.

 

5. A statement on the calendar stating the available Check-In days.

 

6. All available dates in black / Booked dates in pale grey / Check-In dates black with green circle. At side of calendar a footnote: 'Green Circle denotes check-in days).

 

These are just a few ideas, I’m sure once we all put our thoughts together along with those of the airbnb programmers a simple, straightforward user friendly solution could be found.

 

Would be great if you could keep us informed of any feedback and/or updates from Airbnb.

 

Best,

Ian

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

Hi @Lizzie@Beach-House-Boutique0 & @Riley10

 

Here's an example of how another OTA deals with the issue - see screen shot. Booked days are highlighted grey. In my opinion it could be clearer, but this is defintely a better system than the current airbnb one.

 

Screenshot 2019-02-13 at 16.04.27.png

Lizzie
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

Hello @Ian20 and @Beach-House-Boutique0,

 

Thanks again for your additional information, this is incredibly helpful. 

 

I wanted to update you.  I've had a word with a member of our product team and the good news is they are actively working on addressing many of the difficulties you have mentioned here. Which I hope is music to your ears! 

 

To add, the detailed suggestions you have provided here have also been sent directly over to the team working on this to take a look at. It's always fantastic to hear community ideas. 

 

I'm not sure on the timeline for this unfortunately, however I will try to keep you updated as much as possible, anything I hear on this I will let you know. 

 

Thanks again and keep me posted as well. 🙂

 

Lizzie 

 


--------------------


Thank you for the last 7 years, find out more in my Personal Update.


Looking to contact our Support Team, for details...take a look at the Community Help Guides.

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

@Lizzie 

 

That's great, most definitely 'music to my ears'! I look forward to seeing the changes and will certainly keep you posted should I hear anything.

 

Thanks again Lizzie!

 

Kind regards,

Ian

Hi Ian I came across your posts and thought I'd addd this too. I posted it earlier this year. They really need to look at it and take a lesson from someone like Supercontrol who we use elsewhere. Their system is suberb. Airbnb don't seem to have any idea how we finesse the bookings to suit the time of year and how sometimes the pricing and availability is subtly shifted acoordingly. Keeping track of it all on their useless interface is impossible!

 

Greetings everyone

Is it me or is the calendar the WORST piece of graphic interface ever? Managing the booking prices and availability system is maddening enough as it is so unncessesaily complicated. They need to take a look at the many other clear, concise, and user-friendly booking software options. However, the calendar drives me mad. Mine doesn't even have any lines delineating the days of the month and is just a sea of feint (oh sooo trendy grey) lines and numbers. It is truly awful and needs some contrast, some clarity and some indication of where and what you are acually looking at visually.......immediately. This is what 'graphic' means. Instead it is trying to be so self-consciously minimalist, and monochrome that it fails all the requirements of good design. The people who designed it, and allowed it, should be fired. I constantly wonder how a company as big as Airbnb can sanction such frustrating, user-unfriendly rubbish.

Ian20
Level 4
England, United Kingdom

@Christian152 Hi Christian, thanks for joing the converstaion - I hear and feel your frustration!! @Lizzie said back in February: ''...they are actively working on addressing many of the difficulties you have mentioned'', so we live in hope, and if enough of us keep making a noise, someone will listen.

Best,

Ian

Ian516
Level 2
New York, NY

Yes, yes, yes and yes.

 

I just discovered this flaw, and now I'm wondering how on earth I managed to book holidays in the past, when so much of the holiday was greyed-out because of the mandatory Friday check-in. Such a HUGE, almost unimaginable gaffe on Airbnb's part, this far into the history of online commerce...