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.
Still blocking a day before and after here, I do it manually when we get a booking. It is just so much easier. It feels like half the work and none of the stress when there’s an extra day.
We’ve also set a minimum of 4 nights and most have booked for longer, a week to 12 days. This is true even in our little studio with a kitchenette @Lynick4442 - but we are in a restaurant-centric town, so that may help. However, we also added a rice cooker that gets a surprising amount of use but that may be a coincidence.
Many of the longer stays are booked very close to the stay (a week or a couple of days ahead). It’s possible that we get booked for them because we still have so many days in a row available because of the four day minimum. I’m not sure but I am enjoying less (and slower) turnovers for now.
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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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When I get a booking I go directly to my calendar right away anyway. I’m very visually-oriented and I like to see where the new booking is and how it relates to everything else on the calendar. It takes one second to block off the day before and the day after. In the same second, I get an overview of the time period and can also shuffle minimums and/or block off or open other dates at the same time. There is no benefit for me to set the one day prep time to be “automatic”.
Besides, it seems hosts spend a lot more time fixing Airbnb’s automatic functions than it takes to block a date manually.
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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.
Are you in a college town? We have a lot of schools here and so a lot of hosts rent to students and professors in the fall.
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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They are usually rented somewhere other than Airbnb, so less pricey and that’s why they are blocked on Airbnb. Just a guess. And it may be because there aren’t a lot of guests in the Fall. But sometimes we do it just to have a break. We’ve rented both of our 2-bedrooms for the Fall at a monthly rate and are only keeping our studio on Airbnb.
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.
This!
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