Setting dates available - is the last day the checkout day? Or the last NIGHT (checkout following)

[Mark230]

I'm unclear as to the last date of availability in my calendar.  For instance, if I make available our house from Jan 1-7.  

Does that mean the guest can check out on the 8th?  

Or is the last night the 6th and they check out on the 7th?

[Annette33]

@Lawrence21 , it's in the past now, but you are correct: if you  selected March 15-21 as available, that means 7 nights, and check out is the next day, March 22. If you had only wanted 6 nights to be available, then you would have had to block off March 21 - though that would then be the last day for a possible check out from a guest. Your calendar doesn't lie: whatever is blocked out by a reservation those are the days/nights you get paid for.p ans check out is the next morning/day.

Unfortunately it doesn't help in your diligent quest here that you got conflicting info on this by various hosts. But you are on the right track 🙂

[Lawrence21]

Super helpful. And there are some things that I can't remember that weren't consistent with this previously. Whatever day is listed, it is for that night only. 

[Kristiaan1]

The day after the last available date will be your guests check-out date.

I learned this the hard way recently when an instant booking was placed lasting 24 hours longer than I could accomodate. I had to change my own travel plans to keep my apartment available to the bookers because ABNB's cancellation policy is so grim.

BEWARE!

[Lawrence21]

Is this a fer Shure? The last date is the date _before_ the check out date? IF that puts the matter to bed, excellent! Please anyone who knows with certainty, confirm.

[Rangi0]

Yes it's for sure. I learned the hard way too. But there's an easy way to remember it that I always keep in mind now: AirBnB lets you set single days as available. It wouldn't make sense for this to mean that the check-in date and check-out date are the SAME date. So it must mean that the one day selected is the check-in date, and the day after the selected day is the check-out date.

[Andrea9]

A booking is technically for a night (even if they arrive earlier).

So if the 8th is free, that night can be booked.

It can also be a check-out day if for ex. the previous night (in this case the 7th  was booked).

If you're taking a day off and don't want any guests at all on Saturday, you block not only the Saturday but  also Friday to prevent that night being booked. A check out on Friday morning is still possible though.

[Annette33]

@Lawrence21 , I confirm! it just got messed up here in the thread a bit because some people are confusing the confirmation email we get from Airbnb, where it lists check in and check out day just like a hotel does - with the actual nights spent and paid for, which is what your clendar and your payments reflect. So  if it says in the confirmation email that  check in is friday... check out is Sunday, then the  guest is only staying and paying for two nights, Friday and Saturday. Simple enough, your blocked out calendar days for a specific guest will confirm this. Any day that is available on you calendar is a day a guest pays for, the checkout date is the following day.

It might get a little tight if you have a late check out time and early check in time. then, if you have someone  arriving on the check out date of the previous guest, you might have to scramble to clean up in between.  For that reason, I don't allow same day bookings  and I also have one day before and after a stay blocked out in my booking settings. gives me peace of mind.

[Anna1157]

 The exact same happened to us. Check out is the day after. I still cannot understand that it is mot made clearer by Airbnb... 

[Garth11]

Why doesn't AirBnB sort out this silly confusion by making the would-be guest SPECIFY HOW MANY NIGHTS THEY ARE GOING TO STAY??

[Richard864]

Agreed, Garth. This is ridiculous. Something so simple -- yet it is not in the FAQ. Maddening. It should be done like a hotel, or a real life B&B, and that's it. 

[Wes20]

I agree, this is unnecessarily confusing and airbnb should have a UX solution to sort this out.  I have the exact same question and if what most everyone is saying is correct, Airbnb handles this differently than all other hotel sites. 

Traditionally a traveler will select their check-in and check-out dates; i.e. check in 1/1 and check out 1/4 would be a 3 night stay.  However on Airbnb's calendar hosts select days that are available to stay over that night, which is why the last day shows a price on it.  The guest would actually be checking out the next day which is a day that shows the property as unavailable on the host's calendar. 

[Lawrence21]

Airbnb does this, and other crazily confusing UI things, on purpose I am afraid. They pretend to be helpful but on all the little stuff make it crazy -- all basically on the side of people booking. Price too high? We just lowered it! FTFY! Oh, you didn't mean to turn on Instant Booking? Well, we did it anyway. Oh, booked that for an extra day? Oh well. Can't cancel on a guest? Really, but the guest secretly still can right up until the day of staying? Wow! The smaller the issue, the greater the chance it is not as advertised on Airbnb. Airbnb does not care what you charge for your place, so they are constantly hounding users to lower their rates. Not so good for the renter, but obviously increases total bookings. 

[Christian1180]

What is really confusing is that the way the blocked periods are shown visually in the host calendar when showing a blocked start date that is inherited from a linked calendar. Why is it shown is a different way from a blocked period created in AirBNB? It's probably a bug in their system. 

Visiually it looks like the entire morning, day and night is blocked. 

This makes it look like you cannot have a guest check out on the morning before a new guest arrives.

Come on AirBNB, fix it!

[Karen3669]

YES!!! Then the correct person will be paying for that night! The one checking in!!!

Not the one having coffee, cleaning, packing and leaving!!

[Natasha300]

Just ran in to this issue as well. Super confusing that the hosting calendar is "days including that night", and doesn't just map to check-in/check-out.