I could not understand why my unbooked room was not coming up in a search when I searched for this coming week. I changed to instant booking to ensure it came up. It did then disappeared again. I contacted airbnb who said the date is blocked out because someone wants to book the room but verification is pending and they have 12 hours to do it. I emailed them and said it is way past 12 hours as I did the search last night - has anyone else had this and how did you get them to unblock the dates as it is stopping others booking and losing me money. Surely, these dates should not be blocked off for a potential guest who may or may not bother to go through verification.
Happend to me yesterday, the guest eventually did not finalize the verification process and I lost the night for booking.
1 Like
My guest got verified but I couldnât take her in the end due to some construction being done and I ended up blocking the days. Another guest booked for August after verification so that worked. The only way I saw the block was in my iPad calendar which is synced with Airbnb.
1 Like
When this happened to me recently I called airbnb and they removed the booking. They first did try to call the guest and gave her an hour to respond.
2 Likes
Are you guys saying that if a guest tries to put in a booking request (and is not verified) - that I will not even know there is a traveler out there who is wanting to book? Yet this person is blocking off my calendar?
This is craziness! So basically a guest could have skimmed my listing - assumed all toddlers donât count in the guest count. Then during our correspondence I find out their group is over my max. In the end I have to decline - and the entire time they were getting verified my property was not visible to anyone else?? And I will never know this unless I notice I donât come up in a search??
2 Likes
Exactly.
Or unless you check your calendar all the time. It will appear in gray âWaiting Guest Verificationâ
3 Likes
@cabinhost once you see that in your calendar I guess you can press Airbnb and do as @dcmooney said, have them to make your calendar available again.
But the standard is they give the guest 12 hours bufferâŚ
So I am guessing if someone wants to out of the blue just mess with you and block several days for 12 hours with no intention to finalize verification they could too.
I think this is a big problem in the system and should be modified ASAP.
3 Likes
Thanks. Yes, very big problem. My policy is first come, first serveâŚnot first interested, automatic reserve.
3 Likes
Hi that date was blocked for twenty four hours so unimpressed. She booked but I know I would hav got a longer booking as others were booked up in the area. Frustrating
2 Likes
Also, if they do contact you after putting in the request, and you attempt to accept them, youâll get a message that you canât accept them because your calendar is already booked for those days -but you wonât have anything in your reservation list.
To be clear, airbnb canceled the booking because the arrival was for that day. They agreed that it wasnât fair to block the calendar until (what would have been) 9 pm and eliminate most opportunity for another booking.
It did work well - I did get booked.
1 Like
@dcmooney thanks for letting me know. I wished I have called Airbnb as well 
it was a same day booking also
I just want to scream!! Oh because it was a same day booking, then they gave you a break?
They are also doing a disservice to the traveler who is getting verified. Because if I got another booking in the meantime through another site⌠then too bad, so sad for the traveler who thought that after they submitted everythingâŚthey were good to go!
Any idea if Air would consider this a double booking? We donât get any kind of notificationâŚcorrect?
Total BS. If you canât accept their request because Air already did itâŚthen what happens if you need to decline it?
I have to call Air now. I will report back with whatever nonsensical answer I receive.
Well, just so you know, the first CS Rep gave me a very difficult time about it and did not, at all, know what he was talking about. I had to really push and push to get up the chain of command. Once I did, the person was exceedingly helpful, saw that the other rep had called the guest more than an hour ago, and freed up the calendar.
I have mentioned this to airbnb before, but I think we should get a petition, or something, together, and try to get this changed asap. No one should be able to block our calendar without their profile being complete. AT LEAST if the booking is within the week.
I understand that want to get new users in this way - they get interested in a property and then âbook itâ, then follow-through. The problem is when they donât follow-through.
1 Like
Update:
Please someone correct me if I misinterpreted what you guys are posting.
I just called and this is what the rep said:
No one can just block off your calendar without you receiving some sort of notification, and it should be a booking request. I mentioned that I was reading that others are saying they only noticed the block because they were doing a search (on their own property) and were not coming up. She said this is impossible, and maybe you guys didnât receive an email notification.
Then she did say that we have the ability to unblock our calendar at any time, if there were this type of block on it. We do not even need to call Airbnb for assistance.
So I said I will report back to the forum what she told me, and if the others say this is not true then should I call back? She said to call back. And I asked whyâŚso you can tell me what they said is impossible and not true?
I did a google search and looks like this is a huge problem. When my rep. emails with her follow up message, I am going to send her to this link in the airbnb community forum:
1 Like
Hi I never got notification. A former guest phoned me to see if I had room this week but obviously I wasnât coming up when he searched. He said he was having problems finding anywhere so I wonder if others are having similar problems.
The rep. I spoke to was wrong. The conversation was exactly what I expected. The link I posed above explains it all. I am so sick of reps in customer service these days. They will insist and insist that something is not possible - even when you say multiple people on public forums are reporting this. They will refuse to go ask someone else. I really hope it is just that the company tells them not ask someone else unless the customer insists. Because if reps these days are really that stupid then that is very scary.
Yes, the rep is misinformed.
When I called about my recent situation, the rep did not even have a clue how to find out who the guest was. I had to explain it. There were two or three other things I had to teach the rep.
Then, again, I had to be very blunt and demanding to get someone else on the phone - I had tell the rep the three things I had had to teach him, so, I said ârespectfully I have to insist on speaking to someone who actually knows about the systemâ.
1 Like
I am trying to negotiate a three week booking however I see from my calendar that there are bookings that are pending verification. I know this because I looked at the calendar but again I am losing a potential booking this time for ÂŁ600 because of a pending verification. If someone is not already verified they should not be able to reserve dates and lose me money. I also see that for my second room I see another three dates blocked out due to verification pending. Grrrrr. I phoned Airbnb and got them to cancel the booking but see the person who was awaiting verification pending had joined airbnb in October 2015. Double grrrrr
@cabinhost I am so angry only readig that they replied this to you when it is a real issue! They tell in our faces âyou are bluffing, delusionalâ?
@dcmooney per the Airbnb community link it seem many people are aware of it and Airbnb too. I think, as it has been said here, this might be a new way to get new users. Frustrating. Letâs start a petition?
To all: we donât get any notification, not in the website, app, or email, nothing, zero, nien. If you donât manually check you canât know.
1 Like