Help center > Hosts > Calendar and booking
Managing Your Calendar: Bookings and Availability
Keeping your calendar up to date is crucial for managing your bookings and avoiding cancellations. By marking nights as open or blocked, you provide clarity to potential guests interested in your place. To assist guests who are interested in specific dates, ensure that those dates are marked as available on your calendar. It's important to respond to inquiries and booking requests within 24 hours. If you happen to miss one, here's how to handle it. In this guide, we'll cover how to mark nights as open or blocked, the reasons why calendar nights may be blocked, and how inquiries or invites affect availability.
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How to Edit your Default Schedule
- Click or tap on your profile picture to access your listings.
- Click on Your Homes.
- Find the listing you are looking for, and click "Availability".
- Right below the title of your listing find and select "Edit default schedule".
To specify the availability for each day of the week:
- Check the box next to the days you want to make available (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday).
- Uncheck the box for days you want to make unavailable.
- Review your changes and click "Save schedule."
For instance, if your place is only available on weekend nights, you would check the boxes for Friday and Saturday and leave the boxes for the other days unchecked.
How to Mark Nights as Open or Blocked
- Click or tap on your profile picture to access your listings.
- Click on Your Homes.
- Find the listing you are looking for, and click "Availability".
- Scroll down the page and select "Add an availability exception".
To block certain dates for that specific listing, click on "Not available":
- Select the Starting Date and the Ending Date for the exception.
- Review your changes and click "Save exception".
Note: If your schedule is typically blocked and you want to open specific dates for a particular listing, click on "Available":
- Select the Starting Date and the Ending Date for the exception.
- Review your changes and click "Save exception."
Availability Exceptions: Flexible Management of Your Calendar
Availability exceptions allow Hosts to customize their calendar by adding specific dates when they are available or unavailable, even if it overrides their default schedule. This feature is especially useful for Hosts without a recurring schedule who prefer to manage their availability solely through exceptions.
With availability exceptions, you have the freedom to fine-tune your hosting schedule, making it easier to accommodate your personal preferences and any special events or plans. Whether you need to block off certain days for personal reasons or open up additional dates for guests, availability exceptions give you full control over your hosting availability. This flexibility ensures that you can maximize your hosting potential and offer a delightful experience to your guests.
Understanding Calendar Night Blocking Reasons
Your calendar may block nights due to various reasons, including:
- Availability Settings: Your calendar automatically blocks nights based on your listing's availability settings, such as default schedule, marked down week days, and restricted check-in dates.
- Linked Calendars: If you've linked your calendar with other listings or websites, it will be blocked to avoid double-bookings.
- Pending Trip Requests: Nights with pending trip requests will remain blocked until you accept or decline the request. We recommend responding within 24 hours. If don't respond, the pending dates will remain blocked for a total of six (6) days.
- Confirmed Reservations: Accepted trip requests automatically block corresponding nights on your calendar.
- Canceled Reservations: Nights from canceled reservations become immediately open.
- Expired Trip Requests: If a trip request expires before your response, the nights will automatically open up.
- Identity Verification: Your calendar may be blocked if you haven't verified your identity.
- Insufficient Information: Make sure to provide all required information; otherwise, your calendar may be blocked.
- Short-term Stay Restriction: Your calendar may be blocked in cities that don't allow short-term reservations.
Inquiries and Their Impact on Availability
Guests may inquire about certain nights before sending a trip request. During this time, nights will remain available for multiple inquiries until you receive a pending trip request.
Unblocking Popular Dates
Popular calendar dates, often coinciding with federal holidays or school breaks, are opportunities for greater visibility. To attract more bookings, it's beneficial to make these popular dates available on your calendar.
By keeping your calendar up to date and understanding the factors affecting availability, you can efficiently manage your bookings and create a positive experience for guests. If you have any questions or need assistance, don't hesitate to reach out to Pridebnb support.