We have a three room traditional B&B that experiences a steady stream of bookings. There are no weeks that go by where we don’t have guests, and we are typically full or close to full on weekends. At least half our bookings are more than a couple weeks into the future. We recently blocked out about 11 days as we went on vacation. Starting just prior to that time and through the blocked out time we experienced almost no new future bookings. That is, we were looking at returning home to zero guests in the unblocked times. And this as we enter into the busy holiday season here. This was so surprising that we called Airbnb support and they said that our search results and click-throughs for the previous two weeks seem normal, and suggested the normal things to increase bookings. During the last couple days of the blocked period and continuing now that we are back home our bookings have suddenly restarted, and we have received four new bookings in the past 3 days. Has anyone else experienced this sort of thing when they have blocked part of their calendar?
Yes it’s normal if you block out up and coming availability for your listing to drop down the rankings.
Yes, I have had this happen. We had our calendar blocked for a week here and there for ourselves and family and HA/VRBO rentals and always seem to have a flurry of activity after the blocked date passes. When we were traveling home from our vacation at the house in July, I got 3 booking requests in the 5 hour drive home, where I hadn’t heard a peep from ABB for at least three weeks prior to our trip.
In short, yes. Similar set up and shut for the last two weeks whilst we took a holiday. End of season here and very, very quiet until pre-Christmas. That said, I’m heartened by other posts here.
Yes! Now that you mention it that happened to me with getting a ton of October bookings right after my blocked dates in September passed.
Update… We’ve received 7 bookings in the last 4 days after about 2 weeks of nothing. That’s an awfully big coincidence.