Can any who are well versed in Airbnb logistics advise? We need to help a family member out and let them stay in our Airbnb for an extended temporary period of time. Could be six months, could be a year plus. If we close out our listing, and start over when they leave, wouldn’t we lose all of our (excellent) reviews? If we just keep it “blocked” won’t we annoy people looking for us because it appears we are always booked but no reviews coming in? Any one have to deal with this issue before?
You will probably lose SuperHost status, but I am not aware of any reason for Airbnb to de-list you. On this last point, others in this forum may have more solid info.
Our own listing is usually booked almost solid six months in advance. We have very little repeat business – most of our guests discover us because they punch in some dates in their AIRBNB app and we pop up as an available option if we are indeed available foe their time slot. Anybody looking for an Airbnb available before April simply won’t see us in the search results for most dates
If you are blocked, nobody is going to be “teased” by being presented with a listing that is unavailable for their dates.
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Just snooze it, don’t block dates or delete the listing- if it’s snoozed, then it won’t appear in search results at all. You won’t lose your reviews. (reviews are always available to read on your profile regardless of whether you’ve even closed an Airbnb for good. You only lose your reviews if you delete your entire Airbnb account. Or if you delete the listing and then relist it, it won’t have any reviews attached to it on the listing page, but will still be on your profile.)
If you are closed for 6 months to a year, when you unsnooze it, I’d write something in your listing info explaining why the last review is from so long ago.
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We have done this several times when we had longer rentals through another platform (on the tail end of Covid when we were still not comfortable with a revolving door of guests in our home). Getting restarted, we lost Superhost for a year since there wasn’t the minimun number of bookings. It did not have any impact on our listing/bookings going forward. We have regained Superhost status, delisted from the other site, and are still getting bookings. Noone has ever mentioned the gap. Although that may have been because people reconized there was a Covid shutdown worldwide. Not sure I would mention the gap unless it was slow to get new bookings on restart.
I also lost Superhost status because of closing my homeshare for almost 2 years during the height of Covid. Like you, I found it didn’t affect my bookings at all, in fact I had my busiest season ever when I reopened and no longer showed as a Superhost (which goes to show how overrated that status is).
It’s a moot point for me now, as I got a lot of reviews after that time being closed, but as you mentioned, if guests saw the time period there are no reviews for, they could realize it coincided with Covid.
I just figured there is no harm in the host putting some wording on her listing for awhile when she reopens to the effect of “If you are wondering why there are no reviews showing from XX to YY, we were providing the Airbnb space to a relative who needed temporary housing.”
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I wouldn’t worry about blocking extended periods. I just did this on my listing for 4 months due to accepting a 4-month tenant “off platform”. By “blocking” instead of “pausing”, I continue to accept reservations through the platform for dates beyond the 4-month blocked period.
I also just blocked dates this summer. But both you and I knew how long we wanted to block for. The OP doesn’t know how long her rellie will be staying, so I would suggest she snooze the listing instead. Otherwise she will have to keep going to her calendar and blocking dates on the back end as they open up beyond her normal availability window.
That would be true … knowing how long you need it blocked or paused makes the difference.