Instant booking and booking settings

[Juan160]

 I had 7 nights minimun for christmas/new year. Also had instant booking. Got a reservation for 3 nights and apparently Airbnb does not take the booking setting into condideration and accepted the reservation and the money. Now I cancelled the reservation and being thretened with all sorts of punishments which I think are totally unfair. What are the booking settings for?

[Alexandra316]

@Juan160 did the booking start before your 7-day minimum kicks in? If so, that's the way Airbnb's settings work and they don't seem to see a problem with it. 

[Ned-And-Laura0]

well its either a glitch in the system or you didn't have the the minimum set correctly.  Some other setting you may have overlooked.  not sure though.  Did you call support?

[Letti0]

@Juan160   @Alexandra316  Is correct if they booked the day prior to your 7 day starting minimum for 3 days AirBnB allows the reservsation for your standard minimum. It's usually best to put the day before and the day after in your 7 day minimum range, so you are including 9 days with the seven day minimum. It helps prevent this kind of thing some, but not always. 

[Lisa723]

@Ned-And-Laura0 @Letti0 @Juan160

As @Alexandra316 says when you set a minimum for a date range, it applies only to bookings with *check-in* dates within that range. Very counter-intuitive. I have been burned by this too. But canceling a booking is always punished and you won't be able to re-book the canceled dates. You could try calling customer support and throwing yourself on their mercy.

[Alexandra316]

@Lisa723Yep, I learned the hard way too. I really don't like the way it works: it's wrong, as far as I'm concerned.

At my cottage, I can only do turnovers on Saturdays and I only take 1-week bookings. I only have July and August - 9 weeks - to make all of my money for the year.  Because of this stupid rule, someone booked a 4-day stay, starting 2 days before my minimum starts, effectively screwing up 5 days of bookings and losing me over $1000. I spoke with Airbnb, and they bascially said hard cheese: that's our policy and you can like it or lump it. 

[Letti0]

@Alexandra316   I had a booking do this to me too on Memorial Day weekend booked Thursday and Friday. I had it set for Friday to Monday. I did luck into some renting it Saturday to Monday though after I switched the minimum days.