Understanding the Airbnb Calendar
I’m a newbie host.
I’ve never booked an Airbnb room prior to being a host. Like everyone else, the only booking I did was either for a hotel or a flight.
Now, like everyone else, I’m familiar with what a calendar is. It’s that small chart that you have pinned on the back of your door, sitting atop your desk or as little app on your phone, with numbers and names derived from pagan Gods.
The funny thing is, when I look in a calendar, I associate them with day time. As in April 28, starts at 6AM for me. I disregard midnight to dawn, since who cares, I’m asleep at those times. Not unless I have to pick up hubby at 1AM at the airport, then I’m glad to start my day at 6AM.
This brain quirk that I have led me to great pains when I hosted in Airbnb. Yes, Airbnb has lots of help pages on how to curate your calendar.
· You can change the pricing of your listing from the calendar.· You can sync your calendar with other home sharing sites.· You can export your calendar to Google; and most importantly,· You can block or unblock a date in the calendar if you’re not available to host a guest.
Just follow the links and it can teach you all of that.
What it didn’t teach me is to wire my brain that the calendar is actually showing me nights; not days, as in daytime, but nights, as in nighttime. Nights when a person can sleep on the unit and have a rest.
What it didn’t teach me is to wire my brain that the calendar is actually showing me nights; not days, as in daytime, but nights, as in nighttime. Nights when a person can sleep on the unit and have a rest.
So when your calendar is open for April 28, it would mean that you’re OK to accept a guest to stay at your unit for the night of the 28th. Pretty easy.
The blocking is where the pain is. If you can’t accept a guest on a day, for whatever reason, you should block the night before.
Let’s say you can’t accept a guest on the day of the 29th, since you’re scheduled for an early maintenance. Then, you should block both the 28th and the 29th. Remember that a guest staying on the 28th would check out at noon. And a guest staying on the 29th, would check in by the afternoon. If the works run for the whole day, you won’t be able to check in your guest for the 29thand be forced to cancel if a guest booked the unit instantly.
Lucky you if you’re sure that it can be finished early. Then you’ll only have to block the 28th and keep the 29th open. But might not be enough leave it to chance and lose your chance in being a Superhost, when you’re forced to cancel a booking.
I learned this the hard way and lose my chance of getting that Superhost badge just a month after opening Casita del Rose. I was forced to cancel an instant booking since I blocked the wrong date, thinking of only the days. Not the night prior. I wasn’t able to negotiate and transfer the booking to a friend’s unit since she’s also booked on the same night.
Looking back, I now know I should have just forked the money to book them on a hotel near my area instead of losing my chance for a Superhost badge. But I was a stupid newbie that didn’t fully understand how the calendar works.
In short, when looking at your Airbnb calender, think of those numbers as nights!
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