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How do I control how far ahead and how close to arrival guests can book?

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Smoobu gives you two separate controls over your booking window:

  • Booking horizon: how far in the future guests can book. You set it in Pricing.
  • Lead time (minimum advance notice): how close to the arrival date guests can still book. You set it per channel.

Before you start

You need these before you set your limits:

Set how far ahead guests can book

This is your booking horizon. You set it in Smoobu, and it applies to your own website and to your connected channels.

  1. Open Pricing, then Settings, then Availability Settings.
  2. Choose how your calendar stays open:
    • Relative days: a rolling window that is always a set number of days ahead (for example, 365 days).
    • Fixed date: open until one chosen date.
  3. Set the value. You can set a Default for everything and then override it for a single property and channel.
  4. Click Overwrite Availabilities to push the change to your channels.

If you leave Availability Settings blank, there is no limit: guests can book up to 730 days ahead, the maximum. To open a shorter window, enter a number of days or a fixed date.

Even if you want no limit, we recommend setting a value anyway (365 days is a sensible default). It gives Smoobu an explicit instruction for that property and channel. Dates you free up later (after a cancellation, or by removing a block) are then pushed back out as open.

Each channel also has its own upper limit on how far ahead guests can book. These are the channels' limits, not Smoobu's, and they can change.

Set how close to arrival guests can book

This is your lead time. It's set per channel, and Airbnb measures it in hours rather than days.

  • Your own website and booking engine: open Configuration > Booking Engine and set Min. days between Booking and Arrival. The value is in days.
  • Airbnb: set the lead time in your Airbnb settings in Smoobu (Channels, then the Airbnb card's Additional Settings (Gear Icon)). On Airbnb the value is in hours, not days. If you use Airbnb's Request to Book, last-minute requests can still come in below your lead time.
  • Booking.com: set Minimum Advanced Reservation in your Booking.com Extranet, under Rates & Availability. If you don't see this setting, contact Booking.com to switch it on. It isn't managed from Smoobu.
  • Other channels: set the minimum notice in days. Where you set it depends on the channel:
    • In Smoobu: for some channels, under the channel's Additional Settings (HomeToGo: Availability tab > Min days between booking and arrival).
    • On the channel's own site: for others, such as Expedia and Vrbo.

A connected pricing tool does not set this

If you use PriceLabs, Beyond, Wheelhouse or Smartpricing, that tool manages your prices. It does not set how close to arrival guests can book. PriceLabs documents check-in and check-out restrictions as things that do not cross the connection.

Set your lead time in Smoobu or on the channel, using the list above, and leave the pricing tool to prices.

How the arrival-day limit is counted

The minimum hours between a booking and arrival is counted backwards from midnight at the end of the arrival day, not forwards from the moment a guest books:

  • 0 accepts same-day bookings at any time.
  • 24, the common default, blocks the whole arrival day.
  • To accept same-day bookings only up to a certain hour, subtract that hour from 24. To stop taking them at 1 pm, set 11.

Check it worked

  • In your booking engine: try to book a date beyond your horizon or closer than your lead time. The date isn't offered.
  • On a channel: the same dates stop being bookable once the change has synced.

Common problems

A guest said they couldn't book a date far in the future

That date is outside your booking horizon. The channel's own upper limit also applies on top of your setting.

Open Pricing > Settings > Availability Settings, extend the Relative days window (or move the Fixed date) so it covers that date, then click Overwrite Availabilities.

A date I freed up is still closed on a channel

Smoobu had no explicit availability instruction for that property and channel.

Set a Relative days value (365 is fine), then click Overwrite Availabilities to push the open dates out.

Still stuck?

If these steps didn't fix it, contact the Smoobu team: open the Help menu to open a ticket or book a call slot, or use the chat bubble in the bottom-right corner. To get the fastest answer, please include:

  • Your Smoobu User ID (in the profile-icon menu, top right).
  • The property name or ID, if it's about one property.
  • The Booking ID, if it's about one booking (Bookings, then View more).
  • The channel name, if it's about channel sync (Booking.com, Airbnb, Vrbo, and so on).
  • A short step-by-step: what you did, what you expected, and what happened.
  • Screenshots or a short screen recording of the problem.
  • Your browser and operating system, if something looks wrong on screen.

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