You can’t @courgette3.
It sounds like there was an inquiry about a long term booking and the OP was deciding whether to cancel three existing short term booking so she could take the longer booking.
My first thought: If you already have bookings, yet a person contacts you wanting to book longer, that’s a bad sign! They can plainly see you are already booked, which means they don’t mind throwing others under the bus. This probably isn’t going to be someone that you are going to want to deal with. They could just as easily turn their back on you and not book at all or be hugely demanding.
While it may be enticing to get a larger sum, it wouldn’t be fair to the current booked guests either.
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@brainstorm102 - I would not conclude that some unavailable dates are booked already. Hosts block off dates for all kinds of reasons besides bookings. We block off three straight weeks for maintenance, but I would consider rescheduling that for the right price.
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Ohhh, good point. It doesn’t specify.
Hi Beth, I can actually see your issue, I have as a host had to turn down a two week booking over Easter ($10,000) worth because I already had two families booked in for a total of 8 days. So I basically missed out on over $3000. However, I always call my guests and when I spoke to one family who booked he told me that he had already booked with someone else and then they cancelled on him. He was extremely upset, as I would be if I were in his shoes. So, there are Hosts out there that do the wrong thing and they make business in the future hard for all of us. Perhaps if you want longer bookings, make your min stay longer on the site and offer a discount for monthly stays. Hope this helps to know that you are not the only one missing out on longer bookings because you have already committed to shorter ones.
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The other thing to know about long term bookings is they charge them incrementally. So you don’t get all the money at once. Sometimes when they charge the second payment it’s declined yet the guest remains and it’s hard to get them out. I would never do long term. It’s hardly the gravy train you think it is.
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I can see what is motivating you to cancel, that is a lot of money! But even so, simply cancelling is a) dishonouring the guests who booked, and b) not going to free your calendar up to accept this long term guest anyway. As others have pointed out, Air will block the dates that you cancel and likely bar you. If you are looking for long term guests, change your minimum nights. Personally, I don’t accept long term guests because there can be a tendancy for them to be more demanding and feel like they own the place. You are kind of stuck then if the honeymoon period is over and things aren’t going well. And you wind up getting 1 review in 2 1/2 months which is a gamble. Actually, my biggest fear would be that they might not leave and I would be stuck with a long-term tenant that I have done no due diligence on and doesn’t pay ever again. Unlikely but possible. Where I live it could take up to a year to oust them without receiving a nickle. I know landlords who have been through this.
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Most of us at one time or another have been contacted about longer bookings which we can’t accept because we have shorter term guests.
I don’t personally think Airbnb is the right platform for those wanting to take long term bookings. Too much can go wrong.
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Try again, I would not usa ABB for long term bookings.
Would be amusing if having gone through all the effort to cancel the 3 and accept the long term the long term did not book or cancelled.
I don’t know what you mean. No one is being mean here. We were having a constructive conversation until you accused us of being mean and unkind. Where do you see that?
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Its the usual, if they don’t see an answer they like then everybody is being mean. A bunch of professional hosts say that the cancelling option is not a good idea, this host wants it to be different! I have a similar issue with a guest who wants me to cancel my other bookings so he can have my house for 13 weeks…not going to happen!
Totally agree with you on that one. I don;t usually respond to anyone as over the past year I have seen some pretty horrible comments that are not helpful at all. We all need to remember that we are in the same business and should be giving each other a hand up.
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This forum is moderated and the quote “really horrible” comments should be flagged if they are offensive.
Ok thank you for that, although, really, I expect it on most social media forums and sites. It can bring the worst out in some people. So if I see one do I just hit the flag button after copy and pasting it into my reply? Thanks Catherine
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Well look at the guidelines first. Don’t go overboard on the flags. 
usually one of us will see the really horrible comments. And frankly they are few and far between these days.
I’d also urge newcomers to search the forum for information before starting a new post. One reason I say this is because I see the same questions asked by new hosts. We are always VERY happy to help genuine hosts (new or experienced - we all come across new and strange situations from time to time).
You’ll see that opinion is often divided in various topics here because we’re all different and our rentals are all different. Something that I find a problem with guests, other hosts don’t and vice versa. So often, there’s no right and no wrong.
Quite often questions can be answered by looking at Airbnb’s help system.
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You don’t have to copy and paste the quote. Just flag it and you’ll get a message box that you can use to tell us what the problem is. The flag appears when you click on the three dots next to the reply button. You can also message a moderator about any post. Moderators have a little shield next to their name and the word Leader (which I don’t like but it helps distinguish us as that shield is really small.
No. Would be bad on many levels.
I think it depends. This OP says the LT booking would be $30k, which is can be a substantial sum for many, or the host may have plans change and need to be away where the LT booking will be easier to manage remotely.
So long as the cancellations are handled with the utmost respect and help given to find a new accommodation, say even a financial perk of some $ for the trouble, then I think it is acceptable…in extreme cases.
As a GENERAL RULE though, once a reservation is accepted, a host should honor it and take it very, very seriously.
We have had a couple of guests who had been cancelled on by hosts (even at the last minute), and were left high and dry, which makes hosts look terrible and is a deterrent to new potential home vacation renters. But we also once had a plumbing emergency that ended with unavoidable cancellation(s) and Air was extremely helpful in “re-homing” our booked guests. We felt terrible, but that is how it goes sometimes. Hotels and airlines ROUTINELY OVERBOOK and “bump” people, leaving travelers scrambling. A higher standard should be set for home-sharing imo, but it may be the exact opposite. I don’t know the [comparable] stats.
But you can’t rebook it. They will block the days that you cancelled.
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