To Block or Not to Block?

Community: Since I wouldn’t be able to afford to re-situate a guest should I ever be forced to cancel (The price of accoms in our hotspot are through the roof), I was going to take bookings week-by-week instead of well in advance and keep future dates blocked. I know this isn’t the best for generating bookings/money, but I’m okay with finding the balance. Apart from not being able to chalk up dates in the books, does anyone have advice one way or the other about the outcome of using this strategy?

Airbnb doesn’t make you pay for a guest to stay elsewhere. They do fine you $100 if you can’t prove extenuating circumstances. There are other platforms (such as booking.com) that do make you pay to relocate the guests into other accommodations, though.

Cancellations for any reason should be very infrequent. If you are really so concerned about having to cancel, I would question if you are really prepared to host.

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I find that blocking dates hurts my business. So you say you want balance but if you block out too much there will be nothing to balance. I don’t know what you mean by week by week. How far out are you available now?

Why would you have to pay to rehouse guests?

Mea culpa. I thought I read that. I assume EC were subjective. So good, I’m covered. And settle down, haha. I don’t need to question whether or not I should be a host. I’ve been doing Airbnb for 9 years. I’m in hospital post-surgery right now so I’m into taking the conservative approach at this time. Thank you.

@Harbour Are you also @mypictonhouse and using two accounts? Perhaps the moderators can fix that for you if you can’t.

I’m not sure who is who right now but can’t you continue with the same system you had when you were in hospital? I was hospitalised for a couple of months (unexpectedly) but luckily had an emergency system in place with a temporary co host. I had to keep using her for another couple of months during the post-hospital time. Can’t you just extend the system you used?

Yes, for sure. I’m glad it worked out for you when you were in hospital.
I have a question: when you made someone your co-host, could she/he have the same access to all info, including financial, as you? Thank you.

I only have one moniker: @mypictonhouse

Yes, I had to. You see, it was totally out of the blue so I had no time to make any special preparations, but I had the emergency measures ready. I was in intensive care in a coma for a month and pretty drugged up and stupid for ages after that so I wasn’t able to do the finances and so on.

It wasn’t ideal but by the skin of our teeth we kept things going :slight_smile:

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Damn, reading this is almost as good as watching EastEnders.

Is your love affair getting in the way of hosting @mypictonhouse?
You might want to take care of your accounts :wink:

Just joking, by the way. Seriously, it’s not easy to re-house an airbnb guest. I wouldn’t play that game.

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Now before I go on, I must say first that I gave up drinking almost a year ago so I can’t blame the wine but…

This thread seems to indicate that @Harbour and @mypictonhouse are the same person. Can someone please enlighten me???

Thank you.
Signed,
Confused.

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Oh, Honey. Bless your trouper soul. I’ve been there…i think it was 4 months in a coma. You did amazing!

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haha, I swear! There’s only one of me…@mypictonhouse
If I somehow opened an account under @Harbour, it was completely without my conscious knowledge. I’ll go digging, Lord help me.

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I did a search on the forum for posts by @Harbour to read the content, thereby confirming whether or not the posts were penned by my alter-ego, but the search came up with no posts. Can anyone else retrieve a post or two by @Harbour and then we’ll know?

and this one earlier in this thread

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Holee-ee-ee, that’s my photo…gone to go sniffing 'round the Orient Express…

If you don’t think you’ll be able to consistently host, then you might be the wrong type of person to be hosting.

You can “block” dates by adjusting the booking perimeters in which guest have time to book. For instance, you can set your future bookings to no more then one, two, three, etc. months out. This time frame will stay consistent in real time. If you do need to block any dates, do so as soon as you know you cannot host. We go away often ourselves, and we do not host when we’re not home. Occasionally, guests staying for extended stays have stayed while we’re away, or in rare situations (once in 300+ bookings) we asked a friend to greet guests to avoid cancelling on them.

Also, giving yourself a buffer between bookings (i.e., one or two days), or no same-day bookings, alleviates last-minute conflicts.

Honestly, if the booking settings Airbnb provides are not enough to match your hosting style or availability, then perhaps hosting isn’t the right thing for you. We can’t blame Airbnb for these limitations, the alternative would be public advertising, a website, another booking platform, and a whole host of other logistical maneuvers to avoid bookings you cannot keep.

If there’s a better system out there, by all means enlighten me.

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While you don’t have to pay out of pocket to re-home a guest, you ARE assessed a $50-100 cancellation fee each time. After 3 cancellations they may remove you from the platform altogether.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/990/i-m-a-host--what-penalties-apply-if-i-need-to-cancel-a-reservation

They may excuse some under extenuating circumstances. It would be difficult (and unethical) to claim those if you can already see the obstacles now.
https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/1320/what-if-i-need-to-cancel-because-of-an-emergency-or-unavoidable-circumstance

So you should really only open your calendar as far as you’re sure you can host, whether you do so yourself or find a co-host.