How to unblock dates after a cancelled instant book?

[Marc254]

Hello,

I was having a conversation with a potential guest and they were about to book a set of dates, but before they could, someone else instant booked my place. I kindly explained and asked these new guests to cancel their booking but the booking was marked as canceled on my calendar and my first guest cannot book those dates anymore...

Is there a way to unblock the situation?

Best regards,

Marc

[Marzena4]

@Marc254 If it was the guest who cancelled, the host should log out, clean cookies, log in. If the host cancelled, those dates will stay blocked.

[Marc254]

I think I was mislead because the guest sent me a Cancel request but I didn't think it was putting me as the source of cancellation. I accepted his cancel request...

[Maria758 · Accepted solution]

Hola @Marc254!

I don't know if I fully understand your quesiton, however, here is the link to unblocking dates: Unblocking Dates. Below is the steps as well.

How do I set dates as available or blocked on my calendar? | Airbnb Help Center

How do I set dates as available or blocked on my calendar?

Manage reservation settings

Dates that are available to book on your calendar are white. Unavailable dates are greyed out. You can manage your availability in your calendar:

1. Go to Manage Listing and Calendar on the listing you want to edit
2. Select the dates you want to edit
3. In the window that appears on the right, you can set your nightly price or make dates either Available or Blocked
4. [Optional] Click Add note to enter private notes to yourself
5. Click Save Changes after you’ve made your changes

Requests and reservations

Dates for pending requests and confirmed reservations will be automatically blocked on your calendar. Because one reservation could start in the second half of a day after a previous reservation ends, start and end dates of requests and reservations are partially filled.

Hope this is helpful!  Let me know if you have any more questions, happy to help!

Happy Hosting!

Izzie, Co-Host

LOV Puerto Rico

[Roberto2022]

Dear Izzy: if I cancel dates to a client how do i unblock them from my calendar..?? thank you cero experience with airbnb and my listing was up before i check the rates.. 

[Emiel1]

@Roberto2022 

If you cancel a reservaion those dates are blocked permanently.

Do not publish a listing if the rates are not set correctly.

Make yourself familiar with the platform before publishing a listing:

https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/host-cancellation-policy

[Amanda616]

I had the same problem. My guest put in a cancellation request which I confirmed and now it has the dates blocked even though the origination was from the guest.

[Letti0]

@Amanda  I said this on the other post, but am reposting it for you here. Call AirBnB NOW. Explain the GUESTS not you wanted the cancellation. Be polite and state your new, so ignorance of rules is on your side. Ask for this to be changed to the guest not you. Call them now:

AirBnB number:

United States and Canada

+1-415-800-5959 +1-855-424-7262 (toll-free)

For future reference:

DO NOT CANCEL a reservation, DO NOT ACCEPT any message about cancelling, changing or refunding DECLINE it a loophole that comes back to bite you and gives guests back their service fees and/or voids your cancellation policy (changing dates) or the cancellation is now on you, not the guests. DO NOT REFUND anything until actual cash has been given to you by AirBNB. If you refund they will take the money from you and a lot of times guests get refunded from both AirBnB and you if you do this, then you have a fight to get your money back. Tell the guest you do not deal with the booking funds that is all on AirBnB's end. 

[Patricia3334]

Excellent advice! I just called and the tech was going to unblock my dates but since it was under 24 hours since the cancellation I have to wait. She said if my calendar does not open up after 24 hours to call back for help. Thank you so much!

[Julia3236]

Hello, I'm having a problem unblocking dates on my calendar because I originally had to cancel a guest's reservation because the dates weren't available at the time, but now they are. Does anyone know how to unblock canceled dates?

[Sarah977]

@Julia3236  If you cancel a reservation, the dates are blocked by Airbnb as a penalty. You can't unblock them. 

It is a host's responsibilty to keep their calendar up to date, so a guest can't book dates that are unavailable. 

If such a thing ever happens again, and you can't accommodate a booking, let the guest know right away and ask if they would cancel, while they are still within the free cancellation period. But it's really not something that should fall on the guest to do, if it's your screw-up.

[Patricia3334]

This is absolutely correct. One more thing about cancellations: if you have a guest book for 28 days everything changes. At that point there is a penalty to you for canceling. They will block your calendar for the full 28 days and you do not have access to unblock those days. $50 subtracted from your next deposit.

I tried to get the guest to cancel but he said he was being charged penalties so I did it myself. 

[Simeon34]

I have not confirmed a reservation to the guest and I declined the request, explaining that those dates are not available. However, the dates stay blocked in my calendar. What could be the problem?