Calendar: Booking Window

What is the Booking Window?

• Hostaway's Booking Window is the feature that allows you to set the number of months for which your listing will be available
• Months are calculated from the day you set the switch to "ON" in your Channel Manager
  • For example, if you set a 3-month booking window on September 1st, the calendar for that listing will remain open (green) until December 1st, and from December 2nd (inclusive) and after, the dates will be blocked (orange)
    
    
     
  • To maintain the set 3-month booking window, the system will automatically move forward daily so that instead of December 2nd, the first blocked day will be December 3rd
    
    
     
• The Booking Window is not mandatory. If the switch is set to "OFF" no dates will be blocked

How to set up Booking Window?

1. Go to Hostaway Dashboard > Channel Manager
2. Click on Settings for the listing you want to set up
3. Click on the "OFF" toggle to turn it "ON" to activate the feature
4. You can set your Booking Window from 1 month up to 23 months
5. After setting the number of months, click on Save
   
   
    

Booking Window and Airbnb

It is important to note that Booking Window settings do not sync from Hostaway to Airbnb. However, this will not cause any issues as long as the booking window configured directly in your Airbnb portal is higher (longer) than the one set in Hostaway. In this case, your calendar will function correctly based on your Hostaway configuration, and no further action is required.

The only issue occurs when the booking window in Airbnb is lower (shorter) than the one in Hostaway. In this scenario, the Airbnb booking window will overwrite the Hostaway settings and take priority. Consequently, dates in Airbnb will be blocked when they should remain open according to your Hostaway configuration.

Agreements - Important to understand

By activating the Booking Window, you are understanding and accepting the following:

1. For the best results, we strongly advise you to set the same Booking Window on your channels as on Hostaway
2. If for some reason the Booking Window in Hostaway does not match the booking window in the channel, you should do the following:
   • Unmap the listing in Hostaway (storing reservations)
   • Change the Booking Window in the channel to 2 years or deactivate it
   • Map the listing to Hostaway again
   • Set the Booking Window in Hostaway
3. You can block out days outside the Booking Window by creating manual bookings. Doing so, your days will always remain unavailable; manually blocking dates outside the booking window will be opened by the booking window when the days are within the specified window.
4. The Booking Window will not override or open dates that were manually blocked within the Booking Window when the Booking Window is first activated.
5. If you mark a calendar day outside of the booking window as “open”, it will remain open unless there’s another manual change by you
6. If you have any reservations outside the set Booking Window on the channel side, these reservations will be imported to Hostaway. These reservations will be visible on your calendar, and those days will be blocked from the new booking
7. If you have a wider Booking Window on the channel side than on Hostaway, those days will remain blocked in Hostaway
8. If a reservation exists outside the Booking Window and is canceled, the Booking Window will understand that the dates were open and will not automatically close them. The dates should be manually blocked (by creating a reservation on them) to avoid being open to new bookings in the event of a cancellation
9. When the Booking Window functionality opens new dates, the system will create those dates with the Minimum Stay that the listing had at the time it was created, which may differ from the current one if changes were made
10. If you add a new unit to a multi-unit listing, that unit will not have the booking window applied to the listing and the full calendar will be available. If you want the booking window to be applied to the new unit, you should:
    • Add the new unit
    • Remove the Booking Window and add it again (that way it will apply to all units)

Booking Window & Cross-listing

If you want to cross-list, ensure the same Booking Window setting. Learn more about cross-listings here.