I had minimum 7 nights but received instant reservation for 3 nights

[Ieva-and-Maikel0]

Please help, anyone, its first Im having trouble with Airbnb and its painful one.. I had setting of minimum 7 nights, with exception to book for 3 nights during 23-29 december. Obviously I want to earn extra cash for new years, so from 30december I have 7 night minimum. And my city usualy gets week long tourists for new years.  BUT I received a reservation for 29 december - 1 january, for 3 nights. When setting 3 nights minimum for 23-29 december it says DURING, by which I understand that 3 night minimum will requested in frame of these dates, but original 7 nights minimum for any other dates. I´ve sent the guest request to change the dates, they declined. Anybody with similar experience? This short term reservation ruins all my hopes to earn extra cash during such apreciated holiday season, because its very little possibility to get clients after new year.. And I had lower price setting calculating it was 7 nights minimum, so its a total loss for me.. I will apreciate any advices what to do. Regards, Ieva

[Emiel1]

Hi,

As far as i know the minium stay is always calculated from the check-in date. So if check-in is 29 dec, a 3 night stay booking is possible. And so you received one....

You could have checked this yourself easily by simulating some bookings on your own listing, especcially recommended when it is very important to know everything is setup properly, like in this old/new year period.

Best regards, Emiel

[Ieva-and-Maikel0]

Thanks for clearing that up!

[Fred13]

Unfortunately, there was a loophole in the dates that caused an unexpectated result. Is the booking that bad?

[Ieva-and-Maikel0]

Any booking is great 🙂 just could get longer booking for the dates..

[Helga0]

@Ieva-and-Maikel0, I fear there is not much you can do. I had such effects of the minimum sta6 limits too , it’s counter intuitive that the limit is not on the period for the whole stay, but the limit concerns the start of a stay.

what you should do however, is learning a lot about your guests. 3 nights for several people in a whole apartment over New Year is about the worst setting. So make sure, that you know who comes, when they arrive, checkout, names of the guests, what they plan to do, no party at the property, no extra guests, checkin with inventory and checkout as well, pictures will be taken at checkin and out. 

 If the answers are satisfying, go with it. If they are not, call airbnb to try to get a cancellation for feeling uncomfortable with the guest. 

And if you annoy them enough in the process, that they realise it’s no party venue, you can always offer full refund. 

Ah and mention your aunt sleeps on the next floor. 

[Ieva-and-Maikel0]

Thank you Helga for great advices! Clients seem nice couple all should be good. I use "auntie in the same building" whenever I have suspicions of party or extra guests 😄

[Helga0]

Lol, we have to learn all the tricks in this business. I hope you get a nice New Year gift, a nice family leaving everything spotless !

[Edwin57]

I have minimum 3 day stay max 7 day stay,  and it's work for me with no problem,

now 1) you should of put maximum 7 nights pluse minimum in diffents number,just play with it is your choice how many stay you put in  is not Airbnb safty first fix befor it gets out of hand your choice you know what I mean

[Marie82]

@Ieva-and-Maikel0

i exactly had the same situatioon i wanted a full Xmas + year booking together min of 7  so myself and cleaner will be off that week and set a min of 7 days and someone booked dec 29 till january 3rd and the worst part is why i try to reject the booking the system was asking what reasons and i had very limited choice as he was reminding me that my calandar will be blocked

I feft pressure to accept as i was worried ABB will block my calandar but till now i hate that booking as asking cleaner to work that time of the year i simply hate it as it is the only time every one need a break

[Ieva-and-Maikel0]

Thanks for sharing! In my case it seems I got confused by setting minimum 3 nights for some days before new years. I hope all sorts good for you. Well, we have chekout and cleaning on 1st!! so you are on slightly better terms 🙂

[Gaynor8]

I have just had the same problem. Very frustrating as i spent hours checking i had set my calendar correctly to only accept 7 nights minimum stay over the Whitsun week school holiday as I do not want a short break during this high season date. I cannot understand how this has happened.

I have had to cancel my guest, however as i did it within the hour, she was very understanding.

I do not understand why the minimum stay for 7 nights setting did not work and now i am told i will be charged a $50 penalty on my next booking. Very unfair.

I feel quite agrieved, and for the time being have switched off instant booking to try and take back some control.  Any advice to get the $50 credited would be welcomed as this is not just, or right.

thank you.

[Helga0]

@Gaynor8, in such a case you should not cancel yourself, but call the service and have them cancel for you. You may still call them, explain what happened and plead being new, not yet knowing all of the procedures. With luck, you may get them to remove the penalties. The one which will hurt you modt, is not the financial penalty, but the automatic posting on your profile “Host cancelled”. It scares future guests. 

It’s probable, that you may plead error, even sure, if there is a still visible glitch in your account. In case you cannot get it removed, you have to answer to that automatic posting. It reacts like a guest comment: you have a few days to answer to it. Maybe start with that, something like:

I am so sorry that I had to cancel this booking. I could not accommodate your reservation, which is outside of my defined parameters and your booking was only possible because of a technical error. 

[Gaynor8]

Hi Helga, thank you for your reply. My listings have been paused, which I feel is an extra wrap on the knuckes which is so frustrating as i feel i have done nothing wrong. Please can you tell me the number to call the abnb service, I can't find it anywhere and I definately want to plead my case. Thanks again. Gaynor

[Helga0]

I use IB for years now and I am generally satisfied with it. But it has some glitches. 

Yesterday, I was exasperated waiting on a very complicated guest and looked up the profile again, to read former comments and cross-check them. No such luck, there were none at all. My settings ask for Recommended Guests Only. 

That means the guest needsto have at least one former stay with a Thumbs Up sign. 

From former suspected glitches I know, that this Recommendation can refer to a group stay or a pending review on the guest side. Group comments are visible and 14 days had passed since the reservation, so that a host comment would be visible since the booking. 

Only conclusion left: a new member was able to book instantly. 

Which, in the end, is no service to both sides. I explain a lot more to new members. Less crazy demands on the host, less luggage for the guest. Towels are provided and no, your elderly husband cannot sleep on the kitchen floor...