What's a reasonable window of time to allow future bookings?

[Scott1282]

I have a small vacation rental which is only available for a minimum of 30 days due to my HOA regulations. I currently have a guest who made a 45 day booking last February for the beginning of August. She now wants to cancel with a full refund because she did not read the property description five months ago, and now has decided that it won't work. 

The cancellation settings on the listing allow full refunds up to a month out. My last guest also booked way in advance, for 60 days, and the same thing happened. She realized the location wasn't what she expected, then cancelled half of the booking, leaving me with a 28-day gap which I could not rent, and also which kept the property off the market when someone else could have taken it. That time she beat the 30 day cancellation period, so I was left holding the bag.

At the moment I have a 6 month booking window. I've come to realize that this gives guests too much time. They can cancel at the last minute and then I am left hoping that someone else will fill the gap, not easy given that the property is limited to 30 day minimum stays. 

I am inclined to cut the advance window way down, to maybe 6-8 weeks. Thoughts?

Thanks for any insights!

[Marie8425]

@Scott1282

 Actually I   wooullddn''t be  looking at my  booking window..I use that great free  tool   Chatwgt, put in like positive reviews comments ask for  ad copy it is great

Do the same  for your cancellation policy so  it helps  you declare it in a  nicer way  lol.

Then  decide if your business decisions are incorrect

[Scott1282]

Hi @Marie8425 , thanks for the suggestion. I’ve already used AI to write the property description. I’ll probably add a disclaimer about the advance window available to book.

[Rebecca]

Hi @Scott1282 👋

It's been a while since you posted and I'm wondering whether you managed to get a resolution to your question? @Marie8425 has left a comment below for you. 

It'd be great to hear from you, so we can understand what the resolution was but also to support other Hosts who may have similar questions in the future. 😊

[Scott1282]

Hi, thanks for the followup. I’ve been distracted since posting this issue. TBH I haven’t yet received any insightful host feedback on this matter. I’ve already used AI to help write the property description to maximize the listing for the ABB algorhythm. 

I also attempted to change the settings, as I was able to in the past, through the dashboard - to shorten the booking window, but AB&B has made changes to the process that make it unreasonably cumbersome to do so. I was once able to edit the window by simply entering the period of time desired. Now, I have to get into the calendar settings and block out the time period manually. 

When I have more time I’ll investigate further. In the meantime I’ll probably add a verbal disclaimer in the property description. I also disabled the Instant Booking feature to make sure I have more say in who is making reservations.