WEBSITE BUG FOUND: Preparation Time & Blocking 1 night before and after each reservation

[Brandon88]

Airbnb offers three settings for preparation time:
None
Block 1 night before and after each reservation
Block 2 nights before and after each reservation

None - Means that when you put two reservations together, a guest will check out in the morning and the next guest will check in that evening.
Block 1 night before and after each reservation - Means that when you put two reservations together, it will block TWO nights between each reservation.
Block 2 nights before and after each reservation - Means that when you put two reservations together, it will block FOUR nights between each reservation

There is one problem here. People don't want two nights blocked between each reservation, they want ONE night blocked.

This means Airbnb MUST offer a fourth option:
Block 1 night after each reservation - Means that when you put two reservations together, it will block ONE night between each reservation

Currently when I am using Block 1 night before and after each reservation, my calendar looks like the one posted below. It means between the two bookings it has blocked the Sunday night AND the Monday night. Many of us ONLY would want the SUNDAY NIGHT blocked.

Please fix this urgently, because, YOU, AIRBNB, are missing out on FEES from those of us who would LOVE to rent out that extra day. Thank you! 🙂

[Emiel1]

Hi @Brandon88 ,

It simply blockes 1 night before and after. It does not check if there is allready a free night before.

Please note: You allways have to opportunity to unblock the dates manually.

[Brandon88]

I have tried to block dates manually by setting preparation time to none. However this causes a problem when two guests book back-to-back in a short period of time before I get the chance to block the dates manually. I am not risking getting a cancellation strike again. As for UNblocking a night after a two night gap is already made, well that just wont work because turnover time requires a single night before and after each reservation, nor would it ever be cost effective for me to offer my cottage for a minimum stay of a single night. Thanks for trying anyway. 🙂

[Robin4]

@Brandon88 @Emiel1

Yeah Brandon it is, as you suggest,  something which could be fine tuned, but l don't personally see it as a problem.

Now Brandon it is possibly a bit unfair for me to critique what you do because, my situation is different from yours! I host in a cottage in my garden at the rear of the house block.....and this gives me a decided advantage, because I am always on site and I do my own hosting preparation....I do 'not' have to rely on others, and the time constaints that relying on others may involve.

I have set all my preparation times to a minimum requirement, and it works well for me.

I have a check-out time of 11.00 am and I set my check-in time for the next guest in the message stream to give me a 3 hour window in order to prepare the cottage.

Brandon I have never had an issue.....it all works seemlessly! Have a look at my current March calendar.

You will notice I have 5 same day check-out/check-ins for the month and it all works well! I never have a an incoming guest thumping on the door while an outgoing guest is still there.

I set it up that way in the message stream! Now I know working this way is not for everyone but, my March business relates to $2,800 AU, and if I set my interval between guest departures and arrivals the way you do I would have my income for the month halved.....not a good deal for me.

I think Brandon, if we are going to get the best out of this hosting business.....and that is what it is, it's a business, we have to bend like the river grass and do whatever is required to achieve the result we want.

Airbnb allows me to set an interval between guests that suits me just fine.....sure l have to have my skates on at times, but, the effort shows up in my bank balance!

Food for thought mate!

Cheers......Rob

[Crystal136]

I agree with Brandon, this is a large problem with a simple solution.  The options for Preparation Time are too few.  AirBNB should offer the three it does now, as well as "One Day Before, None Afterward" and "None Beforehand, One Day Afterward."  Simple programming to give hosts more, and for some, necessary flexibility.  Robin, my rental is over an hour away in a remote forest.  I need overnight to turn it around.  However, I only need overnight when someone leaves, but not an additional night before someone checks in.  I hope AirBNB is monitoring this thread and addresses this deficiency.

[Kathie21]

@Crystal136  There is no deficiency.  Airbnb has to block the night before, otherwise the availability would show incorrectly to pospective guests.  Suppose you have a booking for 10th-15th (5 nights, ie they leave on 15th).  Your calendar has to show the night of 9th as blocked, otherwise somebody could book 5th-10th (ie leaving on 10th), and you would have no preparation window.  But somebody can still book 5th-9th (leaving on 9th).  Efffectively, the 'night before' the later booking becomes the 'night after' when the earlier adjacent booking is made.

[Ian399]

Does anyone from AirBnb read these streams?  I would also like the "one day off only" option.

[Sarah977]

@Ian399  I don't fault you for not understanding this- it took me almost 2 years to "get it".

The problem lies in how Airbnb states this. If you want 1 day prep time between bookings, that is actually what the "Block one day before and after" does. How it should read is "Block one day between bookings." 

While the setting does in fact show as the day before and the day after as being blocked, the "day after"  can also double up as the "day before" the next booking. So it effectively only blocks one day between bookings. Which is how it should be stated, because the way it reads now is certainly confusing and leads hosts to think that they will lose 2 days of booking availability for each reservation, which isn't true.

[Kathie21]

@Brandon88

It works fine for me.  In the example you've shown I'll assume the earlier booking was made first.  There are 2 nights blocked simply because the 2nd guest picked 14th as their start date, so now 13th is blocked.  If they'd wanted to, they could have booked from 13th.  Unless you can find an example where it's showing blocked for 2 nights after a booking which doesn't have a booking following it, I don't think there's a problem.

In this case of mine, Rachel booked to stay until 5th, but she could have stayed to 6th.  Raghavendra booked after Gismara & Tina.  There was a 5 day gap, so he could book a 3 day stay.  If he'd just booked a 2-day stay from 17th, 15th and 16th would both show as blocked.  No problem, because I couldn't fit in another guest and still have preparation time.

[Ian399]

Why has this not yet been fixed?