Double booking. Perhaps one of the scariest phrases that a host never wants to hear. That dreaded moment when two separate guests have booked your home for the same nights. As a host, this is more than a pain to sort out. It has the potential to affect your entire business. Thankfully, there are some ways to avoid this crisis. This post covers Airbnb’s double-booking policy and provides actionable tips to ensure this never happens again.
Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels. Start your free trial today!
What are double-bookings?
If for some reason you aren’t already familiar with this phrase, we’ll explain it. Double bookings happen when two guests book your property for the same night. This can happen when calendars aren’t synced across booking platforms. For example, if you list your home on Airbnb and your direct booking site, it’s possible for one guest to book on Airbnb and another on your website if the two systems aren’t synced.
What is the Airbnb double booking policy?
According to Airbnb, a host may incur fees and other consequences for canceling bookings for things such as double bookings. The minimum fee for a host cancellation is $50. Further, hosts may be prevented from accepting other bookings on those same dates. The Airbnb platform is built on trust, and when hosts cancel, it reflects very badly on the short-term rental industry.
What happens if there is a double booking?
Ideally, this situation will never happen. However, if for some rare reason it does, hosts need to keep the following in mind:
- You’ll have to cancel one of the reservations. Unfortunately, this is likely going to be a bit of an awkward conversation.
- You’ll likely lose your payout and have to return the payout for that reservation.
- You could incur cancellation fees.
- Your calendar may be blocked from accepting other bookings during that timeframe.
- If you’re a Superhost, you may lose your status.
Why do double bookings happen?
Double bookings tend not to be random. There are generally oversights that cause this unfortunate situation to occur:
- You’re managing your booking calendars manually. Manually updating your calendars does not happen in real time and can leave very real holes in the time between one booking on Airbnb and another platform.
- Your calendars aren’t syncing properly.
- You’re managing a lot of properties. As your business grows, so do your tasks. Managing more than one property can be a reason things start to fall through the cracks if you’re not automating your calendar.
How to prevent double bookings
The best way to deal with an Airbnb double booking is to make sure it never happens in the first place.
1. Use a unified calendar
Instead of bouncing between Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and other platforms, use a system that brings your reservations into one place. A unified calendar gives you a single source of truth for your property’s availability, making it much easier to see what’s booked and what’s actually available.
2. Keep your calendars automatically synced
Manual calendar updates leave room for human error. Automated syncing helps ensure that when a guest books your property on one platform, the availability is reflected across your other channels.
3. Avoid relying on memory
If your current system is “I’ll remember to block those dates later,” it’s probably time for an upgrade.
4. Use vacation rental management software like Host Tools
A property management platform like Host Tools helps automate the repetitive parts of managing a short-term rental, including keeping reservations and availability organized across channels.
What do you do if you made a double-booking?
You need to act quickly. Follow the steps below to minimize the impact.
1. Confirm the overlap.
Triple-check before you do anything. Make sure you’ve put extra eyes on the calendar and that there truly is a double-booking.
2. Contact Airbnb as soon as possible.
If you can’t honor the reservation, Airbnb recommends canceling promptly so the guest has time to make alternative arrangements.
3. Don’t ask the guest to cancel for you.
Airbnb specifically says hosts shouldn’t encourage guests to cancel on the host’s behalf.
4. Communicate with the affected guest.
Nobody likes discovering that their vacation rental isn’t actually available. Be straightforward, apologize, and provide whatever assistance you can.
5. Figure out why the double booking happened.
Was a calendar disconnected? Did a sync fail? Was a date manually changed? Finding the root cause is critical to preventing the same problem from happening again.
6. Fix the system—not just the reservation.
Canceling one booking solves today’s problem. Fixing your calendar workflow helps prevent the next one.
FAQ
Does Airbnb allow double bookings?
No. Airbnb will punish hosts for canceling because of double bookings.
What happens if I accidentally double-book my Airbnb?
Typically, you’ll need to cancel one reservation. You’ll lose any payouts and even risk your Superhost status.
Can Airbnb cancel my listing because of a double booking?
Maybe. While you’re more likely to incur a fine, if Airbnb finds it a serious enough issue they could block your calendar or completely suspend your hosting account.
Final thoughts
As you can see, double bookings are unacceptable. As a short-term rental host, the Airbnb double-booking policy will not reward you for such a mistake. Instead, choose to automate your calendar with Host Tools so you never have to worry about this dreaded issue.
Host Tools provides an automated, unified calendar for short-term rental hosts, allowing you to seamlessly list on all major channels. Start your free trial today!
