Now guests can request to book dates that are beyond your set availability and you have 24 hours to respond/ decline…….
2 Likes
It is a change that you can ‘unchange’ by going into your settings, though:
“After this feature becomes available in January, you can opt out anytime by updating your availability settings in your listing’s calendar.”
Any thoughts why this ‘feature’ is now included?
2 Likes
I believe all the hosts are included in their mailing list by default. It’s not really an issue since, as @Rolf mentioned, you can opt out. Some hosts enjoy interacting or appreciate the flexibility occasionally, and they might not be thrilled about changing their listing settings every time they have extra availability. So, why not? For those who don’t like it, opting out of this bothersome ‘feature’ is straightforward.
I tested it on BDC with free cancellations a while back, and honestly, it was a waste of time. Months went by with nothing but bargain hunters trying to negotiate nearly free stays or hoping to meet a rich women in Europe. So, for me, it’s a pass.
1 Like
I wonder how easy it will be to opt out as soon as the new feature goes into effect, or if it will be like a lot of things they change, and be “buggy” for several weeks until they get it fixed.
Does this mean like 2 or 3 years out?
What is the use case? I didn’t get the email here in California.
Link to airbnb help files on it?
1 Like
Can’t imagine how this really helps hosts. Most of the bookings I get through Airbnb are pretty last minute, and the few that are a way in advance have a significantly high cancel rate as the dates get closer. Only exceptions to that are guests planning/attending weddings!
And in my experience guests can enquire about any dates at all already if they choose to send a message - I have definitely had enquiries linked to one set of dates when the actual message then asks about availability for totally different dates.
4 Likes
I got it and was also annoyed that I was held to a 24 hour response, but I can certainly see the value in the option…rather than opting out, it should have been an opt-in, as I think the number of hosts who want to open a booking two years out is the minority.
5 Likes
Airbnb makes everything that they think will lead to more bookings (more service fees for them) the default that you have to opt out of. Like IB, which hosts have to turn off if they prefer to receive requests.
And yes, I doubt many hosts want to commit themselves to a booking two years down the road, and I’m sure cancellations would be prolific on those unless it’s for a major event. Especially since there is no cancellation policy aside from Strict that protects a host on a booking made so far in advance.
And as of January 2025, they have removed Strict as a cancellation option for new listings in several countries, introducing “Limited” in those countries, meaning a guest could tie up your calendar with their booking for 2 years, only to cancel for a full refund 2 weeks before check-in, or “Firm”, where they can cancel 30 days before for full refund.
4 Likes
I just joined, which email?
A copy of the email was posted upthread. It’s always a good idea to read through thread responses instead of just responding to the title of the thread, as a question you have may have already been answered.
1 Like
Interesting, I only open up about 2 months in advance but it would not bother me if someone asked about future dates.
RR
Isn’t 3 months the minimum availabity setting on Airbnb?
Not in my experience , I have done a month at a time, 6 or 8 weeks… Now I am going through a channel manager but even before then I was always able to open up a few weeks out if I wanted to.
RR
Well, you can always manually block and open dates, but the minimum option among the availability settings is 3 months out, I just checked.
Yes, anyone can ask about future dates… but this ‘improvement’ means that the future dates past your limits can be BOOKED.
1 Like
That’s not how I understood their email.
Guest can inquire about a reservation past one’s bookable period but not instantly book. It is still up to the host to review and decline or accept the booking - within 24 hours to maintain their response time. Perhaps I misunderstood.
The funny thing is that it will be enabled by default next year and if one doesn’t like it it needs to be manually disabled.
Guests have always been able to make inquiries about anything. However, this new setup allows them to request bookings outside of your availability window. This change is significant because it means that when a guest makes a reservation request at a time outside the available window, it not only makes that time slot unavailable to others but also requires you to accept or decline the request within 24 hours. The ability to request a booking is much different from merely making an inquiry about dates.
2 Likes
@Hosterer You are mixing up terms. You say guests have always been able to inquire about dates and then the host can either decline or accept within 24 hrs.
But decline or accept are the options for requests, not inquiries, and the host doesn’t need to either pre-approve or decline an inquiry, they only need to message back within 24 hrs. In fact, may hosts never pre-approve nor decline inquiries.
Now guests will be able to send requests with dates entered past your availability window, rather than just send inquiries.
I’m starting off my response with this screenshot, just in case hosts on other continents are getting other messages:
Yes, as I have have written my post just before yours, the host has 24 hours to respond to that request. Kindly note that I did express myself poorly (again) by referring to this new policy using the term “inquiry”.
What I’m struggling with to understand is what you mean with that a request to book outside my availability would block other guests from booking the same dates 
Since the booking request is already “a shot in the dark” which a host has to approve or decline - how likely would it be that a second guest would try to inquire for the exact same dates in a most likely distant future? I may completely misunderstand this whole thing but I don’t see this really being a realistic problem, since such booking request couldn’t be made anyways until now. Perhaps you can explain this to me differently?
I’m sorry - of course I was referring to the booking requests mentioned in this new policy change of Airbnb.
What I wanted to express is my concern that @Rolf said that dates past my availability window could now be booked.
I don’t understand how this would be possible since we still have to approve or decline that request. Nothing is automatic in this scenario and I understood Rolf as if he meant it that way.
The annoying part to me (and probably other hosts) is that the new feature will go live on all listings turned on by default. So anyone who misses the launch date and doesn’t turn it off will have to deal with the consequences in case they don’t or cannot respond within 24 hours and therefore getting dinged for their lack in response time.
I hope I could explain my point a bit clearer this way. Sorry for my terrible English.