Lay My Hat

I was shocked to discover today that, while you can set a fixed changeover day and a minimum number of nights for a booking on Homeaway, there now seems to be nothing to stop someone booking an 8 day stay and leaving you the rest of the week empty or anyway harder to fill.
With a large villa and a very short season over the summer when people book I can't afford to depart from the fixed changeover day model with bookings of 1 or 2 weeks.
So if someone makes a booking or enquiry which does not fit that I am going to have to reject or cancel it, hurting my ranking with HA. I am thinking of adding an explanation to my listing explaining to guests that I can only accept bookings of 1 or 2 weeks, even though HA allows them to ask for, say 10 nights.
Has anyone tried this, or, better yet, is there some workaround anyone else has found to this problem which has eluded me?
After a trawl through the archives I did find this thread where this problem was discussed: viewtopic.php?t=28297&postdays=0&postor ... ek&start=0 but nothing else

Kirigiwi wrote:I was shocked to discover today that, while you can set a fixed changeover day and a minimum number of nights for a booking on Homeaway, there now seems to be nothing to stop someone booking an 8 day stay and leaving you the rest of the week empty or anyway harder to fill.
With a large villa and a very short season over the summer when people book I can't afford to depart from the fixed changeover day model with bookings of 1 or 2 weeks.
So if someone makes a booking or enquiry which does not fit that I am going to have to reject or cancel it, hurting my ranking with HA. I am thinking of adding an explanation to my listing explaining to guests that I can only accept bookings of 1 or 2 weeks, even though HA allows them to ask for, say 10 nights.
Has anyone tried this, or, better yet, is there some workaround anyone else has found to this problem which has eluded me?
After a trawl through the archives I did find this thread where this problem was discussed: viewtopic.php?t=28297&postdays=0&postor ... ek&start=0 but nothing else

Yes this was the case last year but think I spotted another box on the rate screen. As well as "allow check in" there is an "allow check out".

We havent tested it yet so would not like to say whether or not it actually works. We presume you can set, say, only Saturday check in or out for weekly rentals only

Nice of them to let us know!

VT

Sadly not, I just contacted support and they had this to say:

"I'm afraid that option is not available at the moment. However, it has been under development as Many owners have said that they wish to see this implemented

hopefully it will be available sooner rather than later"

I was under the impression that it used to work in blocks of a week if you set a changeover day? Not 100% sure as this is only my 2nd year with this property, but all the bookings last year were 1 week or 2.

Kirigiwi wrote:Sadly not, I just contacted support and they had this to say:

"I'm afraid that option is not available at the moment. However, it has been under development as Many owners have said that they wish to see this implemented

hopefully it will be available sooner rather than later"

I was under the impression that it used to work in blocks of a week if you set a changeover day? Not 100% sure as this is only my 2nd year with this property, but all the bookings last year were 1 week or 2.

Bizarre!

Just checked again and it is definietly there. Directly below the "Allow check in box" on the rates option. I have screen shot it but cannot see how to add a picture here!!

VT

That truly is bizarre because it sounds like we have 2 completely different things, I don't have either "Allow check in" or "Allow check out" in the rates section, just a drop down menu for "changeover day" where I can specify a day of the week when I want bookings to start. Just that they obviously forgot what changeover day actually means because a stay can then end any random day of the week beyond my minimum number of nights.

Could be you are in a test group?
Would be interesting to know what others have!

I think I may have found the answer.
If you go to the "rates" tab on your advert details then do the following.
You should see a calendar with your daily rates in boxes for each day.
If you want to have all of August as limited to only weekly or 7 day lets then click on the first Saturday of the month and then also click on the last Saturday of the month. You should then have a scroll box where you can set changeover days as Saturdays. They are marked as "Allow check-in" and "Allow check-out"
We shall see if it works. I have set it for both of our properties one on subscription the other on "pay as you go"

bornintheuk wrote:I think I may have found the answer.
If you go to the "rates" tab on your advert details then do the following.
You should see a calendar with your daily rates in boxes for each day.
If you want to have all of August as limited to only weekly or 7 day lets then click on the first Saturday of the month and then also click on the last Saturday of the month. You should then have a scroll box where you can set changeover days as Saturdays. They are marked as "Allow check-in" and "Allow check-out"
We shall see if it works. I have set it for both of our properties one on subscription the other on "pay as you go"

You have explained it better than we could!

You have to highlight the period that you want this to apply to click start and end date on the calender then a set of boxes appears to the rhs with rates, discounts, in date, out date etc etc etc...... If you have your screen size too big (ie you are no longer in the flush of youth and need all the help you can get) all these options will not show unless you scroll with the horizontal bar. Obviously a youngster developed that bit!!

It is on AB as well as just checked. We are on sub collecting our own payments (just sneaked in but know this wont be available on renewal). The AB one is also sub but with payments collected by AB (HA). We are set as property managers (long story!).

We would be totally amazed if HA had singled us out for any special treatment - doesnt seem their style.

VT

I think I must have a different interface than you because I don't see a calendar at all in my rates section, just a table with the different rates I already set and a place to add a new rate.
I am in Italy, wonder if that makes a difference? Although I am on homeaway.co.uk, not the Italian version.
How frustrating.
I added to my description in the end explaining I might have to cancel or reject bookings that are not either 1 or 2 weeks, hope potential guests will be understanding!

ABB works fine, just can't get Homeaway to do it!

I don't think anyone is singled out, but it's not uncommon for big sites to test different things on different sets of users. I am sending them feedback!

Kirigiwi wrote:I think I must have a different interface than you because I don't see a calendar at all in my rates section, just a table with the different rates I already set and a place to add a new rate.
I am in Italy, wonder if that makes a difference? Although I am on homeaway.co.uk, not the Italian version.
How frustrating.
I added to my description in the end explaining I might have to cancel or reject bookings that are not either 1 or 2 weeks, hope potential guests will be understanding!

I am also on HomeAway.co.uk although I live in France and the properties are in France. Weird ?
Have you set a nightly/Daily rate, maybe its tied into that.

bornintheuk wrote:
I am also on HomeAway.co.uk although I live in France and the properties are in France. Weird ?
Have you set a nightly/Daily rate, maybe its tied into that.

The first thing I tried was getting rid of the nightly rate and leaving only weekly pricing, didn't help.

Thanks to both of you for trying to help

I have noticed since OD has been merged with HA (I have accounts with both), what was my OD account now added to HA, still has the (relatively simple) rates table, whereas the HA account now has the (mind boggling) rate calendar.

I have been staring at it for some time now over the past few days, wondering just how to calculate my weekly rates into daily rates and everything else that goes with it.