A little late for this year, but I might try that next year. I do the gap, mostly in case I have a bad back day. It removes a lot of stress. Plus I may have to get a full time job to make mortgage payments this winter because I only got a partial summer.
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I am not since I do many one night bookings and I lose weekends if I block. I have only been open since again since July and can thoroughly air my one room and bath. I am closing completely again beginning in October when I can’t air the place out easily due to the cold. The one night blocking would practically wipe me out. I’ already at 20% of my pre-COVID income.
Just looking at other rentals in my area and it appears many of them are shut down starting Sept into the future.
Covid anyone?
What’s your area where your Airbnb is located
Why do it manually when you can just set one day prep time?
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Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Didn’t check all the rentals out in town, but saw at least 5 or 6 blocked totally going into Nov/Dec.
Here’s a new one for me. Just got a booking for 6 nights in Oct. The public calendar is blocked, but the one I see that usually has the person’s name and blocked until they check out is not showing. It’s totally gone through, she’s a host in Colorado with lots of reviews, don’t understand why it’s not showing.
There is a college here and others in the area, but most of the Air’s here look a little pricey for students.
However, since I’m new here and wasn’t doing it last fall, I may not have a clue.
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We did until June 1st.
rmiriam-I’m curious why no check in or checkout on Saturdays? Is it harder to get a cleaner then?
No, I do my own cleaning. It’s because I charge more on the weekends. So if someone books Wednesday-Saturday, I lose out on the higher Saturday night rate and get a little bitter.
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I’m the same, no check-in/check-out Saturday’s as we prefer full weekend stays (higher rates and popular, most folks prefer Friday+Saturday nights so don’t want to block potential bookings, and our cleaner then comes on Monday or Tuesday)
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That sounds like an Air mistake, & a possible double booking problem waiting to happen. I’d contact them, & hope you get someone that can easily fix it. Good luck with that!
And you’re unlikely to get a Sat/Sun/Mon night booking?
@mollimac It finally got blocked on my end. The public page was always blocked as far as I could tell.
We’ve moved to two days before and after stays. Mostly limits us to weekend guests only, but until all this passes, that will be our standard. We do the cleaning, run an ozone machine the first day (who knows, but it does get rid of any smells), clean the second or third. This pace has suited us better, and for the first time in 3 years we’ve implemented a cleaning fee to cover the extra work we put in. Demand is very high, can sustain a bit extra on rates, and our lives are less hectic.
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My understanding is that no documented cases exist of COVID transmission from surfaces. So, no, in answer to your question. I’m vaccinated and mask-faithful, but “sanitation theater” would seem to be a waste of time and resources.
While there aren’t any documented cases of surface transmission, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. However, it would require a very specific set of circumstances.
There’s definitely a whole lot of Covid precaution theatre out there, such as those plastic partitions in offices and store check-outs and such. If anyone working in those places is infected, all the air in the whole office is contaminated- an MIT study showed breath vapor travelled 60 ft.
I’ve always disinfected doorknobs, light switches, faucet handles, etc- all high touch surfaces, from the day I first opened and cleaned my Airbnb in 2016. No telling what people might have. Who wants to touch a doorknob someone might have touched after picking their nose or coughing in their hand?
But washing the walls or spraying the curtains with Lysol is ridiculous.
We do exactly the same things you do, @muddy.
In addition, I guess the long hiatus from the pandemic made us lazy. When we were open for several weeks this summer, we blocked a day before and a day after. We knew by then that surface-related transmission was a long shot, but we enjoyed the extra time. If we ever open again, I think we’ll continue to do that.
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Somehow I managed to decide on settings from the day I started hosting that still work for me. One day prep time, 3 day minimum, 2 week maximum, 3 day advance notice.
As I don’t depend on Airbnb as my main income, but only an adjunct, there was no way I ever wanted to have to try to turn the room around the same day. I didn’t sign up to be a host to add stress to my life 
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