Major Global Calendar Issue! Front End Guest Calendar Available Check-in/Check-out Dates

[Jeanette139]

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!!

[Gerry-And-Rashid0]

@Jeanette139

Good post - we have noticed, but this is based on the assumption that AirBnB has a strategic booking platform. It doesn't - it has a platform that has been built organically so there for it is impossible to introduce sensible options like yours. Unlike other booking platforms, which are based on a hotel booking model, the AirBnB one is still based on someone giving you £5 to sleep on your couch for a night. The number of bugs in the platform, the complete lack of any governance over changes is just stunning for a large company. Today we know that some guests can see details of other guest - a massive breach of data protection, but silence from AirBnB

[Pete28]

At least In the US Airbnb persists in not showing the total price inc cleaning fee on the map or slider, so you need to,go over every listing. You also can't sort by price. This makes the web site almost impossible to use. It seems a far bigger problem...

[Emilia42]

@Jeanette, I don't find this confusing because the guest is not looking to stay over on the day they are checking out. Using your example, the guest cannot stay February 6th because someone is checking in on February 6th so I would hope that it looks blocked. Guests are booking nights, so the night of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th .... the 6th is not included in the rate or the booking. When I worked in a hotel reservations department this is how all hotel management software is set up.

[Emilia42]

P.s. I actually find the 'stokes' more confusing.

[Susan727]

You obviously are totally missing the point. When I call to a hotel  or use an Internet booking site and ask /look To quickly see if I can stay , Meaning put my head on the Pillow and sleep for multiple hours on the night of the fifth sixth and seventh,  even if the hotel room is booked on the night of the eighth and they are completely sold out I am still going to visually and audibly confirm that the fifth sixth and seventh are available to go to bed. Like most consumers I am incredibly aware and have learned what hotel it is and that when I wake up in the morning on the eighth that I’m going to need to be planing  to leave by check out. I do not have some skewed sense that I can stay on the night of the eighth when I am not asked to stay or when it is clearly marked unavailable but if I look at a site and the seventh as a line through it and is blocked out I am going to quickly assume that I will not be able to stay for the length of my trip at that particular place and I will move onto the next one such is the case of what the original user was explaining and such is the case with  my response. I challenge you to look at your host calendar, and then switch to traveler and compare it to the calendar that your consumer would be seeing at your dwelling. Unless you have some special bond with Airbnb where they have designed a program specifically for you you will see the night,  or two nights, etc.,  depending on your minimum length of stay requirement Showing unavailable. Now I understand  you may be smarter than the average consumer and go poking around on the buttons to determine that even though at first glance it looked like the seventh was not available but the program was actually built to show you availability date set a glance for check-in only not for length of stay and not for nights that you could actually go to bed and sleep until morning . The rest of us would like Airbnb to change their platform for example to VRBO’s where you can clearly as a consumer see what nights you may go to bed at that property

[Robin4]

@Jeanette139

What is happening here Jeanette, many hosts set a preparation time before each booking, and their listing editing page gives them the option of blocking either a day before or a day after each stay. So when you come to book although it looks to be as though the property is available once you put your date in the hosts booking preferences will come into play and the property will show as blocked!

Personally, I don't set a preparation time and I am prepared to take same day bookings so this issue does not show up with my listing, and I am continually getting same day check-outs and check-ins.....and my calendar clearly allows bookings for any freely displayed days!

I hope this clears this up!

Cheers.....Rob 

[Susan727]

 No that is not what’s happening again please print off a copy or memorize your own calendar as a host, then go to the calendar for travelers and look up your place and pretend you are just looking at the availability calendar as a light user perhaps even a first-time user and tell me whether the calendars match. consumers do not know to poke around on The availability calendar which by the name of it would suggest that it is actually a calendar of dates that are available not dates that are available to check in on.  I do require a two night minimum, but I do not require any prep time other than the fact that my check out is at 11 AM and my check-in is at 4 PM I am not having any issues with the  Night that someone checks out showing blocked it is available my problem is that the Night before a check-in is always blocked,  I realize that you can’t check in the night before check-in if I require a two night stay but it is ludicrous to have that show blocked and incredibly bad programming! If the first second and third are booked by one guest, but the fourth fifth and sixth nights my unit is available and the seventh and eighth I have another guest, and I allow same-day turnover’s then when you touch the word check availability, the fourth fifth and sixth better by God to show up or the program is se if the first second and third are booked by one guest, but the fourth fifth and sixth nights my unit is available and the seventh and eighth I have another guest, and I allow same-day turnover’s then when you touch the word check availability, the fourth fifth and sixth better by God to show up, or the program is trash.  I can’t understand how anyone could not grasp the concept that this is costing you money this is not rocket science.   A casual user who just simply wants to make a trip to community but doesn’t necessarily have to make it on any particular dates but would like to stay for three nights,  is not going to book your house under the above scenario and they will just move onto the next place. My challenge to you if you think I’m Being hyperbolic and I’m too old to understand basic programming is to force yourself,  if you like money anyway, To follow the test in my first reply to this find people who are not frequently on the Airbnb site maybe people who’ve used it two or three times over the last three or four years or have never used it or have used it once, you might try a few people just to be fair who are not millennials, Ask them to pick any town which is likely  to have Airbnb‘s,  ask them to add a couple filters perhaps entire house, four beds, anything else that you might find interesting that yields a result of more than a handful of places and ask them to go to a month that is about ready to come up this is been texted to you in June so maybe look at July and it certainly would be better if they picked a place that was fairly popular and had a lot of bookings ,  and tell them they’re looking for a five night stay or three and watch them and see if they go right past the ones that don’t appear to have all the nights they desire and don’t tell them how to work the program if you glance at them and you see that there is a two night stay that looks to be available just after they touch the red check availability button  and ask them if they can stay for three nights my guess is and my experience with the countless people I have now made do this, Is that they will go on to another property because intuitively when you hit the word check availability you expect to see what is available you do not expect to see a “available check in date” calendar.  

[Cathie19]

Hi @Jeanette139. I agree with @Robin4‘s comment. I’m one of those hosts who currently requires the day’s preparation and have auto settings on, for blocking days either side of a booking. Quite separately, I also don’t allow same day bookings so that can also “block” guests wanting an immediate check in on the calendar.

[Ann72]

@Jeanette139 both @Robin4 and @Cathie19 are right.  I have one listing with days blocked before and after a booking, and one with no days blocked.  The one with no days blocked often has people checking in on the day others check out.  It never requires a message to me to sort it out.

If the person who wrote you had just put in May 15-17 as her booking request, it would have gone through, unless you have a day before and after each guest blocked for preparation time.

I see your point, though, that if you haven't put in dates, and you're just looking at a calendar, you might think those dates aren't available.  And a simple slash through the day as in the illustration above would be helpful.

[Gillian19]

@Ann72 But the 17th wasn't free as there was someone checking in. I don't think it's confusing at all. 

[Ann72]

@Gillian19, but @Jeanette139 wrote:

"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.

So the lady was really inquiring if she could stay until the 17th, I guess...

[Gillian19]

@Jeanette139@Ann72 Hi Jeanette,  my bookings, along with every other host,   are for the 'night of ' bookings. So if the night Is booked then quite rightly it doesn't show as available.  I'm quite confused about how you think bookings work 

[Susan727]

Yes exactly this whole conversation is not about the people who put in dates that they’d like to stay there is nothing wrong with the app in that capacity but this deals with when people are simply looking at the check availability when you’re scrolling through properties in a community. I know as a traveler I do that all the time I have daughters in uni in London  and my schedule is very haphazard so often I look fairly last minute to see if in the next couple weeks are really nice place to stay is going to be available and I will simply put in the area that I want to be in and instead of putting in exact dates since I’m highly flexible I will just look at the availability calendars I would easily  skip over something that didn’t have enough days available and that might only be one or two days short it would never occur to me that those were checking dates under the tab check availability and when you touch on the phone the checkout date that does not bring you a check out date you actually have to touch the date that you want to check in most people are not going to do that and I certainly didn’t. 

[Zacharias0]

@Jeanette139In earlier versions of the calendar  had the feature that you see with HomeAway and VRBO, but have since eliminated it. Not sure why. But, if a host wants back to back bookings, which I would avoid, they can remove the preparation time for their listing. Unless youre an onsite host its a quick turnaround time.