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Just asking a few words from the wise …
I just got caught unawares and got a request for Thanksgiving night 1 night and at base price. I sent them a polite note, but I really hope they cancel. We usually have Thanksgiving here but I don’t like the feeling of being locked in, and I know I made a mistake not setting high prices and Minimum stays for that weekend as soon as I could.
I can still decline her if its with in 24 hours, right? Negative impact??
I have chosen 6 month booking window. Should I open up my calendar for any future date and just set the prices really high?
Thanks!
As long as you haven’t accepted the reservation on AIRBNB you can block the days on your calendar. The days become unavailable and the reservation not possible.
If you’ve accepted the reservation, you can cancel it but there will be a penalty from Airbnb and you will lose SuperHost status (if you have it)
My calendar is open 12 months out. I routinely must correct pricing for future dates. I found that you can set your premium pricing for special dates more than the 6 months (or 12) that is viewable for booking. The downside is that those dates now become viewable / bookable.
I had a reservation request pop in for a date I had adjusted the rate for high demand, 2 years in advance.
I too have my calendar open a year ahead. I can’t afford not to. Here where we have approximately a 6 month High Season and 6 month off Season, we often get people booking nearly a year out. Back in late April I got a booking for February of 2020!
Every 6 months or so I sit down at the Air Calendar and do my seasonal pricing, block out some holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas, and up-price others like the days around Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day. It only takes a few minutes.
That’s what I do. It means that I often get bookings that are 12 months or more in advance. This is wonderful for scheduling your time. I set higher prices for the major holidays, special local events and large exhibitions. I imagine that guests are never sure whether those prices will go up again nearer the time as accommodation gets booked up, so they are okay with booking at the higher price.
Yes—my area offers an annual country music festival, semiannual dance competitions, softball championship competitions, crab festival, diva 1/2 marathon and more Those dates book early and can get higher rental amounts. And if not booked early I’ve seen some highly premium last minute pricing (and they get it)
this happened to me and I immediately replied to the guests and politely explained that I was going to use the house with family and didn’t have room for guests and didn’t occur to me that someone would book it so much in advance. I kindly ask her to cancel and she did. then I blocked the days I didn’t want any guests.
This happened to me twice at Xmas. The first guest was happy with the increased price after I explained I needed to charge more on holidays. The second was “bad luck you’re stuck with me”. Since I am totally unprofessional when she started talking lawyers for chrissake I told her to f*** off. It was on Bookings so I got to cancel but ended up getting rid of my Bookings account as they kept hassling me about finding her anothe rplace to stay or would have to accept the booking. I really didn’t want such a nasty piece of work and her brats living under me at Xmas time, it just reminded me of why I quite corporate work and the big City.
Sadly I suspect there are people who wait till the holiday is just inside the six month window and then go looking for anadjusted prices on holiday dates. They then congratulate themselves on having found such a cheap deal knowing full well it was done in error by someone who isn’t a hotel and doesn’t have dedicated booking staff. Of course it is up to us to keep our calendars up to date but given the number of cancellations within my window that I have refunded when I didn’t have to I figure I am still up on the karma stakes.
