Calendar settings for the future

[Eugenia27]

Hi all!

I was wondering if anyone could help me figure out how to block dates far into the future. I have my calendar set to accept reservations 6 months in advance, so currently through mid-August. I have some family coming into town July - October who will be staying there, so I'm not sure how to block those dates?

Right now I'm basically logging in every few days and marking the next few days that became available in August as blocked, but that's a ridiculous way to do it. Not to mention I've already slipped up once where I forgot to do it for a while, and someone instant booked the dates that became available. How else can I make it automatically blocked in the future, without it blocking the dates between now and June?

Hope all that makes sense! The easiest way would be to deactivate instant book, which I hate, but then I'd lose most of my guests. 😕

Thanks in advance if anyone can help! 🙂

[Steve143]

Hello @Eugenia27,

One way to do this is to manually block the days from July to October.

Say your family will be with you from the 1st of July to the 31st of October.

First, decide if you want a full clear day before and after they arrive so no one will be checking out on the family arrival day or checking in the day the family leaves.

Go to your calendar and click on the first day in July that you want to block. A window will appear on the right with a "Start date" and an "End date" box. Now fill in the end date box with the last date in October that you want to block. Now click on "Blocked" and then on "Save changes". That will manually block that range of dates and they should not become available as time passes.

Sometime in May or June your 6 months rule will then start to unblock dates later than the ones you manyally blocked.

Steve.

[Eugenia27]

Oh, perfect! Thank you so much! 🙂

[Robin4]

@Eugenia27....It would possibly be wise for you to also change your booking calendar to 'All future dates' from the present 6 months because some hosts are experiencing a problem where the system will automatically remove blocked dates as the rolling calendar window comes to them. This does not appear to be a routine occurence but, a significant number of posts suggest that this is happening, and prospective guests are instant booking dates you thought you had blocked!

What @Steve143 says is absolutely correct in setting start and end dates saves a lot of manual work and rechecking, but some hosts are reporting that the system appears to be overiding your settings! A bit of confirmation or advice from Airbnb regarding this, or at least an acknowledgement that it is happening  would be nice, but not likely to be offered!

So, by selecting all future dates the rolling booking calendar does not come into effect and when you get nearer the blocked period of time so that that rolling window only takes effect after your blocked period has ended, you can go back to setting your 6 month window.

It would also be prudent Eugenia to set 'instant book' only to accept guests who you approve, rather than who meet verification standards! This may help to inhibit incidental booking!

Cheers.....Rob

[Graeme16]

I was just about to post on this subject.  I have two properties with Air BNB.  I have my calendar set to 12 months into the future and have blocked dates from February 2018 forward.  Ive been checking recently, one property opens up a date every day the other stays blocked.  I would have thought Air BNB could easily have a drop down which said manually set calendar and days blocked stayed blocked.