Minimum stay

[Patrick79]

I am currently not set for a minimum stay, and I have been getting an awful lot of one nighters. It's a lot of bother really, between dealing with their requests and meeting them and telling them about the area etc. not to mention laundry/cleaning......

Next year I would like to do minimum stay of 2 nights, is there a way to do this, without interfering in the rest of the stays for this year........  I will be in a better position financially next year, so it won't matter as much losing a few nights a week......

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Patrick79 - What you want is to set up a temporary minimum stay for a time period in the future.  You can make temporary requirements in the your Availability Setting.

1. Go to you calendar view.  In the upper right, on the dark bar, you will see "Availability settings".  Click that. A drop down will appear

2. Under the "Reservation Preferences", near the bottom of the drop down, you will see "minimum and maximum" stays. Don't be tempeted to put 2 in here now.  That will make your reservation requirement for this year be 2-nights minimum starting now.  Based on what you said, you want to start next year, so go to the next step

3. Under that is a link for "Add another requirement".  Select that. A window will override your screen to "add a requirement".

4. The first option is "During".  Use to the carrot to expand the selections.  The second to last option is "Specific Dates".  Select that.  

5. The next set of boxes is for the "between".  Select the date you want to start receiving 2 day reservations.  You said "next year" so maybe you really mean 1/1/2017.  You will need to use the calendar that pops up and use the navigation arrows in the upper right of the drop down to go to the date you want this minimum to start.

6. The end date calendar will immediately show up once you've selected a date.  Use the navigation arrows in the drop down to go to the date you want this to stop.  Just pick a reasonable date for now since next year you are going to permanently make the requirement for 2 night-stays. This can be explained later.  Select an end date that suits you, maybe 12/31/2017. 

The box for "minimum" should be highlighted now.  Enter 2 in the box.  

7. Save.  

8. The overwrite screen should disappear and you are back to the calendar view with the Availability settings open and your new requirement should appear.  It will say, "During Jan 1, 2017 - Dec 31, 2017, guests stay for a minimum 2 nights".  

This will insure that only guests seeking a 2 night or more minimum will be shown your listing to when seeking accommodations in your area in 2017.  

You can make the minimum stay 2 days later, using those first boxes I said to bi-pass for now.  If you change your mind, you can always use the edit function on the requirement and delete it.  All lessons for another day 🙂 

Good luck. 

Alice 

[Robin4]

@Alice-and-Jeff0.....Thanks Alice, that is exactly the detailed answer that many new hosts....or even experienced ones need to solve a problem they may have!!

So often a response for help will be funnelled to a community help link and, that's that! A lot of these links work on the assumption that the operator has a bit of 'local knowledge'....in other words, is familiar with what they are trying to do.

Step by step instructions such as you have given are like 'gold' to the enquirer, and I wish more would answer questions the way you have done.

I don't need to use your answer but, I will file it away in my personal help folder for that rainy day when I might. Thanks Alice, you're a gem....cheers.....Rob

[Alice-and-Jeff0]

@Robin4 - thanks.  I wish I had a tool that allowed me to take screen shots more readily so I could post pictures as well as words.  Then they will really have an impact and provide value.  

[Robin4]

@Alice-and-Jeff0 Hi again Alice, It's actually not that difficult to take a 'screen shot'. I don't know what level of operating system you are using or your competence with the system....and hey, I don't mean that unkindly Alice, it's just that many people tend to only do and know what they need to on a computer. But this may be of help to you!!

Taking a screenshot with Microsoft Windows.........

The simplest way to take a screenshot is to press the print screen key on the keyboard. This action captures an image of the entire screen and copies it to the computer clipboard. Once in the clipboard, paste that screenshot into Microsoft Paint or another image editor.

Tip: If you press and holding the ALT key, and then press the print screen key, a screenshot of the active window is taken, instead of the full screen.

Tip: Microsoft Windows Vista (not home basic) and Windows 7 users can use the 'Snipping Tool' to more effectively take screenshots in Windows.

Tip: Windows 8 users can press the Windows key + Print screen to take a screenshot of their screen and have the image automatically saved as screenshot.png in the My Pictures folder.

Taking a screenshot with Mac OS X

Mac OS X users can take a screenshot of an entire screen by pressing Command + Shift + 3. This action creates a new TIFF file on your Desktop.

To capture only part of the screen, press Command + Shift + 4, and then select the area of the screen you want to screenshot.

Tip: To copy your screenshot to the clipboard instead of creating a file press Control + Command + Shift + 3 or 4.

That is really broad description Alice, not at all nicely detailed like your explanation was but, people seem to glaze over when I go into detail on one thing or another.....Hope this helps....cheers....Rob

[Patrick79]

Thanks @Alice-and-Jeff0 I did that last night, ye gave very detailed instructions and I had no problem!! Sorted

@Dede0 that was fantastic, I wish I had done this months ago, I have had an awful lot of one nighters, what a pain in the butt!!!! Nearly half of May and 20 days in June are one nighters, now I've shut them down and also changed the ones where only one night is available, I never realised I could just make single nights available after I take the 2 night bookings, this is going to improve my quality of life greatly-Thanks again!!

[Dede0]

@Patrick79 While @Alice-and-Jeff0's response is quite informative, I think you should consider going ahead and setting a 2-night minimum for the listing even now. It won't affect any of your existing 1-night bookings and I doubt that it will, in the end, reduce your bookings very much.

One thing to know is that if you get two 2-night bookings that are separated by only one day, that single day can't be requested by anyone. However, all you have to do when that situation arises is to use the procedure that @Alice-and-Jeff0 described to set a 1-day minimum that *starts* on the single empty day and ends on the next day. (It doesn't matter that the next day is already booked.) You can them receive bookings for that single night.

[Patrick79]

@Dede0 that was fantastic, I wish I had done this months ago, I have had an awful lot of one nighters, what a pain in the butt!!!! Nearly half of May and 20 days in June are one nighters, now I've shut them down and also changed the ones where only one night is available, I never realised I could just make single nights available after I take the 2 night bookings, this is going to improve my quality of life greatly-Thanks again!!

[Carl12]

Yeah that is very easy to do. Not sure how anyone could miss that!