Check dates before you take a direct booking

Why this mattersA guest who books with you directly isn't on any booking site, so nothing stops someone else booking the same nights on Airbnb or Vrbo. Before you say yes, Double check dates looks at every calendar Daybook reads, plus your own blocks and direct bookings, and tells you whether the nights are free and how fresh that answer is.

What you need

The guest's arrival and departure dates. If you have more than one place, which place they want.

Check the nights

1. Open it. At the bottom of Today, under Someone wants to book with you directly? Double check the dates are free on every calendar first., tap Double check dates. The panel is headed Before you say yes.
2. Pick the dates. Choose the Place (if you have more than one), the Arrival and the Departure. Read the line underneath, for example 2 nights, arriving Sat 14 Nov and leaving Mon 16 Nov. It catches a date picked one day out.
3. Tap Check these nights.

Read the answer

• Free. 14 to 16 Nov are free on Airbnb, Vrbo and Booking.com, as of 2 minutes ago. You can go ahead.
• Taken. It starts Taken: and says what holds the nights, then Don’t accept the direct booking for these nights. A block carries no name, so if the block is one you made and nobody is staying, lift it first and check again.
• Partly taken. It lists the free nights and the taken ones. You could offer the guest the free nights; check those dates again first.
• Too old to trust. If Daybook last read your calendars more than half an hour ago, it says so and offers Read them again. A booking can arrive in that time.
• Can't vouch. If a calendar couldn't be read, it says Daybook can’t vouch for these nights or names the site it couldn't read. Tap the Open Vrbo button (or whichever site it names), check the nights there yourself, then tap I’ve checked them myself: the nights are free.

Why this mattersDaybook never says free when it can't see. An answer that is old, or missing a calendar, says so, and hands the last check to you.

What these nights usually make you

Under a free answer, What these nights usually make you shows what the same nights brought you in up to four earlier years, lined up by weekday so Fridays and Saturdays match, after the sites' fees. It gives your usual (the middle year), your best year, and what this booking would need to bring you to beat each. It needs at least two earlier years of your history (Import your past bookings). It tells you what happened before; the price you agree is yours.

Add the booking

1. Under Add this booking to Daybook, fill in Guest’s name, and if you like Total price, if you know it (optional) and Notes (optional).
2. Tap Add this booking to Daybook. Daybook checks the nights once more, then puts the stay on your board and on Daybook's calendar link for that place.
3. Read Next, make sure every site blocks these nights. A site that imports Daybook's calendar link blocks them by itself when it next reads it, usually within a few hours. On any that doesn't, use Open Airbnb, Open Vrbo or Open Booking.com and block the nights there. The checkout day stays open.
4. Daybook keeps watching Airbnb and says on Today when it shows the nights blocked. Vrbo and Booking.com don't show what they copy, so look there yourself. How to make each site import Daybook's calendar