Manage your calendar

Guests can find your listing in search results within 24 hours after you publish it. Your calendar is completely open by default. It’s important to update your availability right away, then choose your cancellation policy and how guests can book your place.

Block your calendar for the dates you can’t host. This hides your listing from search results and helps you avoid canceling reservations.

“You’re providing a service to your guest, and you need to do everything you can to honor it,” says Felicity, a Host Advisory Board member and Superhost in New South Wales, Australia.

Take these steps to manage your availability.

• Set how far in advance guests can book. You can accept reservations the same day until a certain time, or require that guests book up to seven days ahead of check-in.

• Sync your calendars. Syncing your Airbnb calendar with any other calendars helps you manage your hosting schedule and avoid double bookings.

• Select a cancellation policy. You determine how flexible or strict you’d like to be if a guest cancels. Choose what works for you.

• Keep your calendar up to date. This helps prevent canceling reservations and incurring associated penalties and fees.

Decide when you want guests to check in and out and how much time you prefer between bookings.

• Set minimum and maximum lengths of stay. You can create custom trip lengths for specific dates. Always follow local rules and regulations.

• Determine your preparation time. How long do you or your cleaners need between guests? Many Hosts allow guests to check in the same day other guests check out. Others block one or two nights before and after each booking.

• Set check-in and checkout times. Choose how early guests can arrive and how late they can leave. You also have the option to set a cutoff time for check-in if you don’t want guests arriving too late.

You can accept reservations automatically or manually. It’s easy to update this setting anytime.

• Instant Book allows anyone who meets your guest requirements and agrees to your house rules to automatically book available dates on your calendar. Guests are still able to contact you if they have questions.

• Booking requests give you 24 hours to accept or decline a guest’s request before it expires. This gives you time to confirm that guests are aware of any special rules or features, such as steep stairs leading to the only entrance. If you let booking requests expire, the requested dates are blocked in your calendar until you reopen them.

Regardless of which booking method you choose, keep your calendar up to date to help prevent scheduling conflicts and cancellations.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.