I am an Airbnb traveler as well as Superhost. I've discovered what is a MAJOR issue for Airbnb, travelers and hosts in the front facing guest booking calendar. It is a very simple fix that will greatly increase revenues for Airbnb and Hosts and is currently costing ALL of us money!
Here is the problem;
As a traveler, I often have some flexibility with my dates within a few days, I am sure this is normal for most travelers as I am in communication with them regularly as a host. As a result, one of my strategies in finding a place to book is to find a home that I like, then clicking on the Check-In date calendar for that listing, which then automatically brings up the little calendar showing availability for that home. Then, without having to put any dates in, I can scroll through the months and see what dates are blocked and what are available for that home. This allows me to know if this home is available to rent on the days I need. Unfortunately, I have learned that when you do this, it shows either the check-in date or the check-out date, whichever date field you have clicked on, as BLOCKED. Example, if I need a place from Feb. 3rd to 6th, and I click one-time on the Check-in date field, it shows Feb. 6th as BLOCKED. This is untrue - Feb. 6th (I am using my own listing as an example), is open for booking, it's just that someone else is checking-in that day. Vice versa, if you click one-time on the check-out date side, the calendar shows Feb. 3rd as BLOCKED. Again, not true, February 3rd is open, it's just that someone is checking-out that morning.
Now, if this was me looking for a place, I would immediately determine that the dates Feb. 3-6th are NOT a viable option for this home because I can't get in on the 3rd or maybe out on the 6th. As a result, I now EXCLUDE this home as an option. This isn't good for business for Airbnb, the traveler or the host.
I then checked Homeaway/VRBO calendar to see how they manage this issue. They have set it up correctly. The Feb.3rd date has a half-stroke on it, as does the Feb. 6th date. Therefore, I can see that Feb. 3-6th is available. This is a very helpful feature for both travelers and hosts. It also prevents me, as a host, from having guests asking to book on the 4th (even though they may have wanted the 3rd) and in return losing the revenue from booking the night of the 3rd.
This is how it should be done.
So, in summary, you can see it not only inconveniences both travelers and hosts, but this problematic feature is costing everyone money!
Today, I received a message from a guest looking to change her dates because of a family function. Her message was this:
"Hi there! I know it looks booked on the 17th of May, but I just wanted to check in and see if there's any possibility of changing this reservation to the 15th-17th?"
This emphasizes my point and why I am finally writing about it here! The 17th is NOT BOOKED! I have someone CHECKING-IN on the 17th... so if this guest had not asked me, she probably would have cancelled the booking and I never would have known the real reason why.
How many other bookings have I or other Airbnb hosts missed because of this ridiculous calendar oversight that is a very simple fix?? How much revenue have both Airbnb and Hosts lost because of this issue?? How many travellers have been disappointed because they thought dates weren't available because of this issue?? WHY HAS NO ONE ELSE NOTICED THIS ISSUE??!!!
We need this fixed ASAP - it's affecting our bottom-line... and YOURS!!