Calendar is Syncing Preparation Time. How to stop this?

1

I have a whole house Airbnb listing, with one day preparation time set.
So a day before and after each booking is automatically blocked. For cleaning.
As usually I can’t get cleaning done back-to-back for the whole 5 bed house.

So then I add another listing (for private room, or especially now self cleaning).
I can easily add the second or more listings to the MAIN one, either using the direct Airbnb feature to say that this listing is under that one, OR use the calendar import/export feature, which works even for Airbnb to Airbnb listings.

Now, any booking made in either listing is auto blocked on the other.
So far so good, it’s magical!

EXCEPT I do not need or want preparation time for the second listing. I do not need a day before/after reserved and blocked for cleaning. Because I don’t NEED to clean, or if just a private room and not whole house, I don’t need a whole day anymore, where I do for the whole house.

Currently, both forms of calendar syncing are ALSO syncing the preparation time. My second listing is blocked for any day marked prep time in the first whole house calendar. I asked for Airbnb support, but they have not yet responded.

How can I fix this - anyone else have this problem or suggest a solution?

POSSIBLE Solution: Remove the prep time setting on whole house, and carefully manually apply block dates before/after every booking. Painful, with tiny risk of back-to-back if another guest books in soon after the first, and you’ve not blocked out yet.

DESIRED Solution: Airbnb allows you to set ‘Also sync preparation time’
(Or Also sync unavailable days - added manually I mean. Or set each individually)

NOTE 1: The block due to ‘min number of nights’ that is auto-added to the calendar is NOT synced to the new listing, only manual blocks and auto-added preparation time.
NOTE 2: The calendar export shows bookings separate to blocks. So the data is there. Just that Airbnb takes both types to mean block, when importing.
NOTE 3: Linking calendars for multiple listings - Airbnb Help Centre FAILS to include any mention about syncing preparation time.

Who is a calendar syncing genius? HELP!

2

I’m not a calendar syncing genius, but I have questions: When you book the single room, can the guest access it without seeing the rest of the house, which may well not be clean? And wouldn’t the time of the guest’s stay in that single room overlap with the time needed to clean the rest of the house? Would the guest hear (or see) the cleaning taking place? And can you somehow block off the single room so that the guest has no access at all to the rest of the house?

3

I believe this is a deficiency in Airbnb’s calendar system, but I’m not sure fixing it would actually solve your specific problem.

Currently, when you get a confirmed booking, your calendar will be updated with the number of days of preparation time blocked off on each side of the booking.

The correct fix would block off the number of preparation time days before the booking, but the number of days blocked after the booking would depend on which specific listing calendar is being viewed.

Unfortunately, instead of preparation time, you are using it as “cleaning time” and need it reversed where the calendar would be updated with a number of days blocked after a booking and the number of days blocked before a booking would depend on which listing calendar is being viewed.

I don’t see how it can be fixed for the general case unless Airbnb adds independent cleaning time and a preparation time setting to every listing, and even that doesn’t mean they would sync it correctly :roll_eyes:

4

There are two types of listings.

Private room, means I need no prep time, as I can clean their room for check-in, and am remaining on-site to finish off cleaning while they are there. Usually already done, but if not there is no stress, as I am able to be there with them under the private room, but not whole house. So whole house means it has to be 100% ready for check-in, and not 99% with 1% polish off while they are happily checking in to a nice clean room that takes far less time to sort.

The second is the self clean listing, where the guest EXPECTS to arrive and see mess. That is the deal, and is working surprisingly well so far. It’s new. Usually I only offered this as a super early check-in, as I would say you are welcome to arrive at 11am if you take on the cleaning (If they push for early check in) and there was very positive support for this, so now I offer it as a listing type… and am surprised at how well it is going so far at least. Early days, but seems it’s a thing, and less stress than worrying about a guest cleaning for check OUT, as can’t trust them… and not for a large home 5 bedrooms either. Maybe a smaller room is easier.

Hope that fills in some gaps. Interested to hear any views :slight_smile:

5

This feels like an accident waiting to happen. People don’t read! And this is so far from the norm that it’s likely you’ll get someone that didn’t understand they have to do the cleaning - or the prior guests were super-pigs and it’s a sh**-hole when they get there. One call to AirBnB and you’re probably refunding.

Your place, your choice of risk tolerance. Hopefully it’s filling your calendar enough to make the risk worthwhile. Good luck!

6

He posted about this and his experience with it here:

I’m sure he’d be happy to explain it all again though.

7

I’ve not actively offered it directly before, after renting for many years, however the last few years I’ve had guests asking for an early check-in, or occasionally an extra day before or after their existing booking. I used to just say yes or no, depending on if I could accommodate. But then I began saying well yes (when I could not get the cleaner) but then I can’t clean! So if you do the cleaning, then be my guest, you can check in hours early or even a day early at no charge, if you clean on arrival. Surprisingly this seems to be readily accepted. And never a problem, so far. In fact, as per the post @KKC kindly linked here, I found I had three in a row (most unusual for me), and it went perfectly.

So I’ve now begun trying a listing where it’s offered more directly, only where I could not offer accommodation without it. So where the cleaner can’t do back to back, I always open a self clean day immediately after, or (less so) a day before, with a full clean listing where they clean on exit. This is harder to police, but still even so, it reduces cleaning time if the guest has at least done a lame attempt at a full self clean on exit… and some have done it near perfect. So I am working on refining the model, but SO FAR it seems to be working ok. Or even better than ok. But it’s early days. Note that guests asking for an early check-in or extra day are motivated differently, and are already paying a high rate for my home compared to others. So I am expecting to have a bit more trouble with guests who are INTENTIONALLY booking a self-clean on arrival… though for now the main issue has been some not being aware, despite loads of instructions.

So I have clever ways now, such as the booking is not accepted without the magic word, which they have to read the instructions to find out. To prove they get it. Because I began accepting with ‘Yes I understand’, but found (surprise!) this means ‘No I have no idea’. So now they need to prove they understand more actively, and pass some hoops. But if so, it seems to work.

And if they did complain about the cleaning, for their self clean listing, which has ample details… if it was Airbnb refunding, I would shrug and accept it. Because it would take a lot of such problems to cause problems. So far all guests are happy, and leaving good reviews even mentioning self cleaning specifically. Such as a guest who booked a Christmas day one day full clean. He cleaned on arrival, cleaned on exit, did a splendid job, and wrote in the review ‘Thanks for not price gouging on Christmas day’.

And yet here was I thinking - did I really just get someone to PAY me for cleaning up after my last guests, and staying on a day I would otherwise have to block, and my cleaning expense is zero? How does this work? Seems to! But I had to laugh… some guest wrote ‘But this feels like I am paying you to do your chores’. He wasn’t a good fit, but I did point out that at $300 a night with no cleaning fee, was a bit better than $800 and cleaning fee, for a Christmas holiday time booking. He still didn’t get it, but I had no trouble renting to someone else who did shortly after.

So who knows, but so far it SEEMS to be working a lot better than I imagined. The hard part now seems to be finding time to do the professional clean, to refill supplies. I didn’t expect to be so booked with self clean guests, so that’s the new problem to solve!

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8

I’m very happy to hear it’s working for you and hopefully it stays that way! Your “magic word” is a good idea.

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9

I am not clear what the distinction is re preparation time and cleaning time. Do you mean different before vs after? To me cleaning is the preparation. What else is there but clean and reset the listing? I mean key exchange if you do this perhaps, but usually we need the time to clean? I am booked solidly, so there is more commonly only a day between listings to clean, it’s not that I do some different prep before a listing than after. I just do ‘Prep’ between listings, and that’s cleaning and resetting.

The desired solution would be that the prep time is set by both listings separately. If I want prep time on the other listing, I should be able to set it there, and have it different if desired. Why sync prep time. If you want a day before/after for the second listing, then set it that way. So long as the listing is configured as within the main one, we only need to sync the bookings, and then, if you have prep time set for the second listing, it should know to add a day gap because the other has been booked, or because IT has been booked.

Either way I want to set prep time PER LISTING, and not have it synced across them. Just a glitch it seems I have to live with, but I am surprised others have not found this… though maybe they are not using the system quite so creatively. I was renting my whole home and three separate private rooms in the same home, so four listings in total. Juggling a bit, but worked well. Rarely did I have all three private rooms booked, almost always I was there too but not always, and often weekends would be whole house listing booked. All listings linked.

But then I didn’t need to block for prep time as I was there. Now I am stuck overseas due to the incredible restrictions and have partly given up trying to get back to Australia, even though it finally seems more possible, just still a big hassle. SO I rely on cleaners in a rural area, who can’t do back to back cleans much at all, hence the prep time is an important one to manage, where it wasn’t before.

But thanks for replying. Appreciate your thoughts.

10

I’m learning a lot how to manage this model. I’ve already had guests sending good pictures of a clean house, but then we check and found not washed towels left. So it’s not perfect, but the on-arrival clean is really little hassle, as you don’t need to trust much… just that they are really aware of the deal.

The cleaning on departure is the hard one. I’m learning a lot though, in guest messaging, magic words, photo proof, wifi monitoring of the smart washing machine, and a LOT of work to vet guests before accepting them for self cleaning listing. I’ve declined or discouraged several already, so that’s important. Solving the problem upstream at the guest acceptance level is important, where I would not normally worry much at all about this for the full service listing.

And checking up on guests. And if I can’t do an ‘inspection clean’ after them, then I message the new guests to say we have a new cleaner. Because I found e.g. the full clean guests did a great job, but left no clean towels on the bed (seen from the guests photos they have to provide). It was literally the only thing they did wrong, but I told the new guests and they got towels from the cupboard, all clean and with plenty spares, and they were very happy and understanding. So this is a new learning point to push the ‘towels on bed’ aspect.

I am expecting some problems and refunds. But so far, it’s been a LOT of work to set up the system, and figure out how to do it. But so far I’ve had zero cancellations my side, and zero complaints and been booked massively back to back for awhile and it seems to be working. I’ll keep updated here, but it’s very early days yet, so I am still working on setting up the system… and learning so much.

A fun challenge.

11

Yeah, Airbnb doesn’t really see the difference, either, but many hosts do. But there should be a distinction in the amount of time it takes to prepare a listing for guest arrival and the amount of time it takes to clean a listing after guests depart.

Actually, that won’t work. It must be synced. The calendar in your private room listing MUST inherit the blocked preparation days from AFTER each whole-house booking. It MUST NOT be independent or you would not get a preparation time and then not have time to clean.

Conversely, the calendar in your whole-home listing SHOULD inherit the block preparation days from AFTER each private room booking. It SHOULD NOT be independent or you will artificially decrease your potential occupancy.

You actually mentioned that “it should know to add a day gap because the other has been booked, or because IT has been booked.” That happens to be part of syncing. You can’t have one without the other. As I said before, what is needed is independent preparation time (blocked time before a reservation) and cleaning time (blocked time after a reservation), and those times need to be correctly synced between listings. Nothing else will work for the general case.

12

How much money are these people saving? It seems like a lot of work to do the cleaning and send pictures (if I read your post correctly…)

13

Some nights (weekends more) are rented at $800 or more, plus $150 cleaning.
I’m renting the whole home for $300 no cleaning on average, so several hundred dollars saving… which covers the three hours or so a full clean takes I would hope.

But it’s also availability. Suddenly folk can access my home when others are booked out… including Christmas day and New Years day, both booked last minute for self cleaning guests, at $300 a night or so. Probably a bargain I think!

But yes, it’s a SOLID three hour job, or even more, to fully clean. But a big saving.
Not for everyone for sure, not for a brides wedding party, but for many folk it’s a godsend. I now rent my 5 bed home to a couple, who can afford it, when could not otherwise.

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