Understanding your calendar and booking settings

Your calendar and booking settings give you control over when you share your space, from a few weekends to 365 days a year. Mastering these settings can help you meet your guests’ needs and run your hosting business more smoothly.

Here’s how to put calendar settings that work for you.

You can open dates on your calendar up to two years in advance. The more dates you have available, the more options guests have to choose from.

Keeping your calendar availability up to date is important to avoid cancelling reservations. Cancellations can lead to fees and other consequences for you and unpleasant experiences for guests.

Kevino, a Superhost in Mexico City, says he uses calendar and booking settings to:

• Update pricing based on demand in the area. “I tend to charge more in October and November, which is considered the busy season in Mexico City because of the many festivals that take place. Everyone wants to be here for Day of the Dead!”

• Set specific times for check-in and checkout. “Guests can check in starting at 2.00pm and check out any time before 12.00pm – I want my guests to feel like they have time to relax and eat breakfast before they leave. I also provide a locked area where guests who want to stay in the city past checkout can safely store their luggage.”

• Block dates that he’s reserved for family, friends or frequent guests. “I also have some guests who like to come back year after year at the same time, so I often go ahead and block those dates.”

You can also use your reservation preferences to:

• Choose the period of time you need to prepare for guests.

• Set a minimum and maximum length of a stay.

• Sync your Airbnb calendar with your other online calendars. Syncing your calendar helps you avoid double-bookings and lets you check your personal schedule in one place.

Your calendar also tracks your guest bookings. You can choose to show or hide details to check on long-term availability, review past nightly rates, adjust future pricing and promotions, and plan ahead with confidence.

You can enable guests to book your space through Instant Book or a booking request.

Booking requests allow Hosts to accept reservations individually, within 24 hours of receiving them. This approach tends to be favoured by Hosts who:

• Have unpredictable availability due to their personal needs and schedule.
• Provide a space with unique features, like extremely rustic conditions, that they want to set expectations about with guests before booking.
• Offer longer stays of 28 nights or more.

Instant Book allows guests who meet all your requirements and agree to your house rules to instantly make a reservation for any available dates. This tool speeds up the reservation process for guests and reduces the need for you to review and accept each booking request.

“I did a test where I posted my listing first with manual requests and then with Instant Book,” Kevino says. “With Instant Book, I got significantly more bookings.”

With these and other settings, you can control when and how your space is booked and develop a hosting calendar that works for you.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.