Setting up preparation time per rental
Hosthub’s Preparation Time allows you to automatically block the nights before and after a booking, on all your active channels, allowing you extra time to prepare your rental for the next guest.
To set up a Preparation Time for each rental:
1. Go to Rentals
2. Choose the rental of your preference
3. Click ‘’Edit’’
4. Choose a preparation time for this rental
Your options include either:
No preparation time
From 1 to 5 days before and after each booking
5. Click ‘’Save Changes’’
6. Our system will automatically block the dates on all your active channels associated with this rental
For example, if you have a booking from 16/6 to 19/6 and you set a 2 days preparation time, the dates 14/6, 15/6, 20/6 & 21/6 will be blocked.
As soon as you set a Preparation Time in Hosthub for a rental:
the appropriate nights before and after each booking will be blocked on all your existing bookings
every future booking (either via a channel or manually entered in Hosthub) will have X days before and after blocked
Preparation Time does not affect blocks, only bookings
Please note that:
The Preparation Time that you set will automatically adjust your rental’s availability on all your bookings. If you need exceptions, let us know so we can give you a workaround.
If a guest wants to expand his booking and either arrive earlier or leave later than booked, he cannot do it via the platforms since the platforms will see these days as blocked. The only way to expand the booking is via direct communication with you.
There some cases where setting preparation days may create some conflicts. This may be the case when you increase the number of preparation days but there are bookings in the future that have a gap between them that is less than the new preparation time.
E.g.
You initially set preparation days to 1
You get two bookings with a gap of two days between them
You change preparation days to 4
In that case the bookings with a gap of two days may have preparations issues given your new preparation policy.
In order to minimize the risk of those cases, every time you change the preparation time, we try to identify conflict cases where the booking gaps are shorter than the preparation policy and we notify you with an email containing all the necessary info to fix the issue.
Freeing preparation days
By default, Hosthub creates preparation day events for every booking to ensure time for cleaning and setup. However, there are cases when you may not need these extra days (for example, if a guest leaves early and no preparation is necessary, or if the hold/block does not require them). As a host you have full control to remove these preparation dates for specific bookings or periods.
How to Free (Remove) Preparation Dates
Locate the Preparation Event
Go to your Calendar or Multi-calendar view.
Find the preparation event you want to remove.
Open the Popover Menu
Click on the preparation event to open its popover.
The popover will display details:
Source (origin of the event)
From (start date)
To (end date, inclusive)
Nights
Click "Free dates"
Select the button labeled "Free dates".
Confirm Your Action
A confirmation dialog will appear, asking you to confirm releasing these dates.
Choose:
Free dates to remove the preparation event.
Cancel to keep the preparation event.
If confirmed, the preparation event is removed, and the dates become available just like when a block is removed.
If cancelled, no changes are made.
Who Can Use This Feature?
Only users with permission to free other calendar events (usually property managers, owners, or those with elevated calendar permissions).
How Does the System Handle Freed Preparation Days?
Preparation days are created for all new bookings as configured, even if you have previously freed preparation days for similar periods.
If the booking's dates do not change, previously freed preparation days remain deleted.
If the check-in or check-out date of a booking is changed, preparation time will be regenerated based on the rental settings even if preparation days have been freed for the same booking in the past.