Feature Request – Adjust Availability Window to apply to Check-in Date, not Entire Booking Period

[Whitney238]

Hi Airbnb Support,

I’m a host who rents my home as a mid-term rental (MTR), meaning I prefer bookings of at least 30 days and ideally longer stays (e.g., 3 months) to avoid vacancy gaps. However, the way the Availability Window setting currently works makes it difficult to manage my calendar effectively.

Here’s the issue:

• Let’s say my property is booked through April and today is February.
• I want to ensure my next guest checks in around May for at least 30 days (preferably longer).
• If I set my Availability Window to 3 months, my listing won’t appear to a guest searching for May 1 – July 1, even though that’s the ideal booking I want to attract.
• If I set my Availability Window to 6 months, I start receiving requests for stays beginning in June or July, which leaves me with a 3-4 week vacancy in May that is harder to fill.

Suggested Solution:

Modify the Availability Window so that it controls the booking check-in date rather than the entire booking period.

For example, if my Availability Window is set to 3 months, guests should be able to book as long as their check-in date falls within those 3 months, even if their stay extends beyond that period.

This small change would allow MTR hosts to optimize their calendar, prevent unintentional vacancy gaps, and align better with how mid-term rentals operate.

Thank you for considering this improvement! I’d love to hear your thoughts on whether this adjustment could be implemented.

Best,
Whitney

[Mike-And-Jane0]

@Whitney238 this might solve your problem but would be bad for many other hosts. We used the availability window to ensure we had no bookings that ran past the completion date of our sale which we wouldn't have been able to do under your plan.

[Whitney238]

Good point! Perhaps the solution is to add a dropdown to the Availability Window. Hosts can either choose: “includes the entire reservation” - which is how it works today. Or they can choose “check-out date can extend beyond this window” (which is what businesses like mine would need)

We should still be able to block off unavailable dates that we know are not to be booked, but this could help target bookings that are closer to existing bookings to prevent large gaps.

[Joan2709]

@Whitney238 

You can send your suggestion to Airbnb using their Feedback options. This is just a discussion forum for Hosts.

Could you not just adjust your Availability to "Unavailable by default" and manually open up dates as you need to?

[Whitney238]

That wouldn’t work. In my example, I want my calendar to appear open beginning in May and ideally allow for a guest looking for a 3+ month stay to find my listing when searching for a stay date that is between May - August+ 

if I set my availability to cover til August, then I end up getting requests for June/July, creating a 1 month gap. Right now, I just have to manually refuse these booking requests, which I’m sure hurts my listing in the algorithm. 

[Whitney238]

Anyone else run a MTR rental that has run into this and found a workaround? Or are you also finding this kind of feature request would also benefit you?

[Joan2709]

@Whitney238 

Could you turn on Pro Tools and use a rule set to define the stays you want? 

Your Calendar will stay open and guests will see your listing.