Reducing double bookings on Airbnb and other channels

TL;DR:

Double bookings happen when two guests reserve the same dates on different channels before your calendars update. They cost you money, reviews, and ranking. The fix is real-time calendar sync across Airbnb, Vrbo, Booking.com, and any owner stays using tools like a Multi-Calendar and Owner’s Portal.

For property managers and hosts, double bookings are a major inconvenience for many aspects of their business, negatively impacting guest relationships and disrupting operations.

This guide will explain how double bookings arise, how to resolve them, and the best tech solutions that can help you eliminate double bookings for good.

The basics of Airbnb double bookings

What is a double booking?

A double booking – or double reservation – is when two different guests make a reservation for the same rental unit over an overlapping period of time. For example, if a guest books your property on Airbnb and a different one books the same dates on Vrbo before your calendars sync, you’re left with two reservations for the same stay.

Double bookings are more common than you think. Booking.com reports that 25% of their property managers and hosts will receive a double booking during their first year on the platform.

How do Airbnb double bookings arise?

There are three main reasons that a property manager or Airbnb host may find themselves double-booked:

• Lack of synchronization: When a guest reserves a property on the Airbnb website, this property will still be listed as available on other channels like Vrbo or Booking.com until you find the time to block it off manually. Basic iCal calendar sync can lag by hours, leaving an overbooking risk. This can be avoided by synchronizing data across platforms with real-time API connections through a vacation rental channel manager or Multi-Calendar.
• Inaccurate availability: Failing to ensure your properties’ availabilities are listed accurately is a recipe for unwanted double reservations. This can happen when maintenance is taking place, or perhaps the property owner would like to stay in their own Airbnb across certain dates. It’s critical to check that properties’ availability and booking policies are up to date before making them available for guests to book.
• Human error: At the end of the day, property managers and hosts are only human, so mistakes that lead to a double-booked property are inevitable. Maybe they input the wrong date of a booking, or maybe the date was correct, but they blocked off the wrong property.

Picture this: A 30-unit property manager accepts a New Year’s Eve booking on Booking.com but forgets to block the dates on Airbnb. An Airbnb guest books the same nights an hour later, leaving the PM to cancel one high-value stay and handle a frustrated guest.

How to resolve an Airbnb double booking

When it comes to dealing with double bookings, time is of the essence. The closer it gets to the reservation date, the less time there is for you or your guests to make alternative arrangements, and the angrier one of your guests is going to be.

Here’s the framework:

1. Confirm which reservation you’ll honor (usually whichever was booked first or has higher value).
2. Check alternative units or nearby partners.
3. Relocate the guest to an equal or higher standard and cover the extra costs.
4. Follow up to protect reviews and account health.

The key objective in each instance is to resolve the issue as amicably as possible to ensure that the double booking at your Airbnb does not result in a negative review of the property.

If you have other listings available in the same location

This is the best-case scenario. If you have another listing in a similar location to what the guests were looking for:

• Offer an equal or better unit at no extra cost, even if they’re getting an upgrade.
• Match key amenities (hot tub, balcony, parking) – these are likely contributing factors toward the guests’ decision to stay.
• Explain clearly that you upgraded them due to an availability issue.

If you have no other listings available in the same location

If this unfortunate situation arises, then it is your responsibility to find your guests alternative accommodation that is of the same (or better) standard than what they booked, in the same location. Of course, you are expected to cover all costs associated with the change in accommodation. To go the extra mile, we recommend organizing and covering transport costs to the new accommodation, and even leaving a little welcome gift to sweeten the deal.

Always handle changes inside the OTA inbox so support can see you’ve offered equivalent or better accommodation and covered transport and price differences. This documentation protects your account if the guest escalates.

Tip: Some of the big OTAs’ Customer Services (like Booking.com) help you with these relocations.

Costs of double bookings on Airbnb and other channels

Beyond fees and refunds, every double-booking cancellation chips away at your ratings and listing visibility, which can hurt occupancy for months. Whether it’s a cancellation fee or a decline in listing rank, there’s a price to be paid.

Here are the three most popular OTAs’ cancellation policies:

The cost of being double booked on Airbnb

Airbnb’s double bookings policy is significantly stricter than the other OTAs. Airbnb is hugely guest-centric throughout their business model, so it is no surprise that they have the most stringent policies in place to penalize property managers and Airbnb hosts who find themselves double booked.

• Cancellation fee: $50 for cancellations over a week before check-in, and $100 for cancellations within a week of check-in.
• Bad news in reviews: Guests still have the option of leaving a (likely negative) review, and an automated listing review will appear stating that a booking was canceled.
• Not-so-Superhost: Superhosts must have below a 1% cancellation rate, so a cancellation for a double booking on Airbnb may tip the balance.

Policy details and fees can change, so always confirm the latest terms in Airbnb’s Help Center before making decisions.

The cost of being double booked on Booking.com

Booking.com is slightly less stringent when it comes to their cancellation options, though they do want you to try to find alternative accommodation for your guests, which can be a challenging issue in itself, especially if the double booking is only realized close to the stay.

• Find an alternative: Booking.com wants you to find a similar listing nearby for your guests to stay. If the guest has already arrived, they require you to do this within 30 minutes, so it can be helpful to have some local partnerships and deals in place as a backup.
• Cover financial costs: Property managers and hosts are also required to provide transportation to the new property and cover the costs of it, as well as any price differences between the old and new accommodation.
• Pay an SEO penalty: Cancellations will negatively impact where your property is listed on the site, which will likely have an impact on your bookings.

Policy details and fees can change, so always confirm the latest terms in the Booking.com Partner Hub before making decisions.

The cost of being double booked on Vrbo

Vrbo cancellation policies are also slightly more relaxed than Airbnb.

• Issue a full refund: The guest must be refunded the full cost that they paid for the reservation, including any service fees, cleaning fees, etc.
• Pay an SEO penalty: Cancellations will negatively impact where your property is listed on the site.

Policy details and fees can change, so always confirm the latest terms in Vrbo’s Help Center before making decisions.

Tech tools to avoid double bookings on Airbnb and other channels

When updating calendars and doing work manually, avoiding double bookings is tricky enough for Airbnb hosts with just a single property. For property managers with multiple properties, the double bookings forecast becomes exponentially foggier.

Most professional hosts use a PMS or vacation rental channel manager with real-time API connections — not just basic iCal syncing — to keep Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com calendars aligned. Manual iCal calendar sync can still leave an overbooking risk, while real-time API connections update availability instantly.

Here are a couple of tools that you may want in your “double bookings shield” of a tech stack.

Multi-Calendar

Guesty’s Multi-Calendar was voted as the “most used” Guesty feature, which can be attributed largely to its effective role in eliminating double bookings. How does it help?

With a Multi-Calendar, no matter how many listings you’ve got or channels you use, all of your reservations will appear on a single screen, in a single calendar. When a change is made on your Multi-Calendar, those changes are automatically reflected across all your channels.

In practice: a guest books August 10–15 on Booking.com, and your Multi-Calendar instantly blocks those dates on Airbnb and Vrbo — cutting the “sync window” where double bookings can happen to near zero.

Better than that, Guesty has a best-in-class integration with the top booking channels mentioned, so that any changes are updated in as close to real-time as you’ll get anywhere across the industry. This continuous data synchronization, along with real-time content updates, means that more accurate, reliable information is presented about your listings’ availabilities across different OTAs, reducing the time window available for a potential double booking to occur.

Some Multi-Calendars and channel managers offer the same service but lack the real-time updates that give property managers and hosts true confidence that they can eliminate double bookings for good.

Owner’s Portal

An Owner’s Portal is an essential tool in your tech stack, whether it be creating transparency on property performance, saving time on creating reports, or communicating efficiently with multiple owners. But an incredibly underrated value of an Owner’s Portal is its role in reducing double bookings across Airbnb, Vrbo, and other channels.

Without an Owner’s Portal, owners often email or text stay dates for their own property, and those can be missed. When owners book directly in their portal, dates are blocked automatically across all channels — so an owner’s vacation never clashes with a guest booking.

Many owners prefer the option to book their own property. However, it’s still the responsibility of the property manager to ensure that the property is not booked up when the owner wants to come to stay. Guesty’s Owner’s Portal allows owners to make reservations at their own property within their dashboard. Similar to an alternative booking channel, this will update the Multi-Calendar and other channels to prevent any guests from booking and spoiling the owner’s holiday.

Final thoughts

By implementing the right tech tools and having the right knowledge and setup in place, you can eliminate the risk of double bookings for good. 

First, map how double bookings are happening today. Then, measure the cost in refunds, reviews, and ranking. Finally, replace manual calendar work with a Multi-Calendar and owner booking flows so double bookings become the rare exception — not a recurring headache.

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