Am I understanding the preparation time setting correctly?

[David11304]

Hi all -

I am a new host and I have 1 day prep time before and after bookings. We are still new at this and our place takes time to clean so a one-day turnaround is still tough.  This week, I also posted the place on VRBO but they don't offer this feature.

I was thinking it might be ok, because:

- if they book on AirBnB, the prep-days will be blocked 

- if they book on VRBO, no prep-day is blocked. However, AirBnB won't allows a booking with a same-day turnaround because there wouldn't be enough time for the prep day to be blocked

So, it should just work out. But, is that actually how it works? 🙂

[Lorna170]

@David11304   Airbnb blocks the night. So a guest leaves on Monday and the next guest can arrive on Tuesday.  

VRBO does not always register the Airbnb cleaning day.  You will need to block the cleaning day on VRBO manually.  

I have found that if I do not block the cleaning day on VRBO, Airbnb can book a guest to arrive on the same day that a VRBO guest departs and vice versa.  

Better safe than scrambling to clean in too little time.

[David11304]

Thanks for your reply! 

I have 2 reservations at the moment, and for each of them VRBO did see that the prep day was blocked - so that's a good. But if VRBO is flakey about blocking those days I might just check it to be sure each time for a while.

thank you 🙂

[Basha0]

are you aware there is a very active Sonoma Marin Napa Airbnb host group? Do a group search on Facebook 

[Joan2709 · Accepted solution]

Hi @David11304 

Just wanted to mention that periodically the calendars you have synced (Airbnb-Vrbo or Vrbo-Airbnb, etc.) can suddenly stop syncing for unknown reasons. Just happened a week or so ago and resulted in a double booking. You'll need to monitor your calendars.

Also, you should refresh your calendar sync after each booking as there is a time delay in calendar syncing (if you are not using PMS software) that can also result in a double booking.

We manually add blocks before/after each booking on Vrbo, as we also need one day before/after a booking for cleaning. This then syncs on the Airbnb calendar. The Airbnb prep days seem to sync properly to Vrbo (when the sync is working that is 🙄)