How to avoid guests checking out on Christmas day?

[Anabela8]

Here is the deal. Christmas time is one of the best opportunities to maximize your profits by renting your apartment but we also gather with family and it is inconvenient for hosts who celebrate this holiday to receive or say goodbye to their hosts on this day or on Christmas Eve. I would like to rent my apartment but making sure no one checks in or out on 24 or 25th December.

I cannot block those days otherwise potential guests couldn't book from 22 to 27, for example. I found out a way to prevent guests from checking in on those days by limiting the minimum stay to 3 days and making sure that guests would have to arrive on day 23 for stays contemplating day 24 or 25, then I checked the calendar and it became impossible for potential guests to check in on those days, perfect!

But what about the check out? I don't think there is a way to avoid guests from checking out those days. Sure I can set restrictions and select that guests who arrive on day 22 have to stay a minimum of 4 nights, on day 21 have to stay a minimum of 5 nights, on day 20 have to stay a minimum of 6 nights, etc but that's not practical and I would be limiting more than I wished.

Airbnb should have a feature to block specific days in calendar for checking in or out. With the current system we are too limited. Let's set an example. Guess I cannot receive or say goodbye to hosts on day 23th February because I am going somewhere, I have to block this day. But what if a potential guest would like to rent from 17th to 30th February? It would be impossible because the day 23 would be blocked. Why would I be limited because it is physically impossible for me to be there on day 23? I think a practical feature would be really useful. 

[Jim-and-Marcia0]

You could do it by turning off instant book and then mentioning in your listing that you are now accepting reservations for the holidays, however no arrivals and departures on Dec 24 or Dec 25. 

When people inquire to book for specific dates, then you either accept or decline depending if they meet your criteria.

Your idea does have merit, so you may want to submit that idea to the  Host Voice forum. If it gets enough votes, then it will be forwarded to the Airbnb team for consideration.

[Anabela8]

Yes, I could. But by turning off instant book I'll be losing opportunities on other dates. It would be much better if airbnb had a feature in order to block dates for check-in/out without missing oportunities.

[Tami20]

Anabela,

I'm trying to do something similar. I have a single night open on my calendar, but a two night minimum. There *used* to be a place just to the right of the calendar, where you could open up a single night (in my situation), or make a check in on the 22nd a minimum stay of four nights (in your situation), so that they can't check out on the 25th. But, I'm not sure what they did with that. If I call Airbnb to figure it out, I'll be sure to let you know. Tami

[Tami20]

I found it!

Go to "Availability", then to edit of "trip length". At the bottom, (at least on mine because I already have a few dates marked ...  four night minimum over Thanksgiving, and five nights over Christmas) click on  "add another requirement". 

The next screen says, " Edit a requirement"... click "During", you can click on "specific dates". You can then enter a start and end date, with the minimum nights stay.

I'm not yet sure how you prevent a particular check in date, but you might want to click Dec. 23 and make it a minimum stay of three nights, so that they have to stay until at least the 26th. Again, not sure that will make it so they can't check in on the 24th or 25th, but you can play with it a bit.... I'm pretty sure this is the area where you can make that happen, just not yet sure how. If you figure it out, please let me know!  

Tami

[Anabela8]

@Tami20 That is what I am doing at the moment. I restricted the booking to a minimum of 3 nights between 24 and 25th December and the guests to check out mandatory on Saturday (23th December). Half of the problem is solved because no one can check in on day 24 or 25 but they still can check out. I would have to implement a couple of more restrictions to prevent them also from checking out and that is not pratical.

There should be a feature where I could block a specific day to check in and/or out but in no way would prevent any guest from being there in those days. With the current features if I block days 24 and 25 and a guest wants to book from 22 to 29 he wouldn't be able to do it because I have those 2 days in between blocked. But I just want to block them for check in/out, nothing else. It would be a pratical and useful feature.

[Kate157]

My checkout is simple-leave the key and go. I don't need to be there.I've never had a problem.

[Travis-and-Jillian0]

It is not the check out that is the problem, it is having a cleaner clean that day (a holiday) and/or someone else checking in that day (a holiday)

[Jeff158]

@Travis-and-Jillian0 no checkout and also no checkin on specific dates is now available in rule sets, you will have to switch on the professional hosting tools.

Go to your account settings and click "Settings" for the option to switch it on.

[Travis-and-Jillian0]

Hi Jeff. I turned that feature on and it only allows me to choose which day of each week I don't want people to check in or out on. I only don't want people checking out on holidays which are different days of the week and I would like the remaining part of the year on say Thursdays to be allowed to check out on... hmmm. maybe I'm missing something

[Chris837]

I appreciated the restrcited check-in feature when they rolled it out, but had been waiting for restricted check-out as well. Glad I found your post tonight! It didn't show as an option for me on my mobile app to turn on restricted check-out; but when I went to settings on my computer tonight, I found it. Finally!

[Ed346]

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