u/AhraSureGoOnThen

If you have a cleaner for your property(s) how do you share up-to-date bookings with them?

I'm in a position where our cleaners prefer an old school method of just being sent a list/table and they update their own written diary.

I used the vrbo calendar export function until recently I discovered calendar blocks do not export anymore, this is by design unfortunately.( I spoke about this in a previous post on here).

I'm now in a position where I find myself having to do a lot of spreadsheet merging and manual reservation adding. This makes me very nervous of introducing human error, I found myself spending 40 minutes checking and rechecking I had all the up-to-date reservations today.

I have my own Google calendar linked with vrbo but our cleaner isn't interested in this.

I can't even use the vrbo calendar print function as it does not print the note behind a block (I use blocks a lot for maintenance and various family members using the properties and want to be able to see the block name in the calendar just like you can with reservation names).

Would love to hear some suggestions.

What's the best way to block out some time in the VRBO calendar so that it;

1. exports as csv (for our cleaner who likes a print out)

2. is unavailable for other guests to book

3. doesnt send a payment email to a family member staying for free

Occasionally I and other family members will stay in our property (for free, it's our property and we like to use it sometimes)

Up until last year I would add a block to the calendar. That would show up when I exported my reservations as a CSV and prevent other guests from booking those dates.

I recently discovered that blocks no longer export as part of the csv. VRBO support suggested changing blocks to a booking. Having just done so I noticed that once you add the guests to this new booking it wants to send them an email with payment links. Ans worst of all it says these are "potential bookings. These dates remain open".

I obviously don't want to charge myself to use my own property.

I'm aware I could just update the CSV manually, but this introduces some potential human error.

Edit1 - I tried using my own email address for my family member but It just creates a tentative booking and the email has a payment link for me to pay! The tentative booking also doesn't prevent other guests from booking as I searched the property availability as an incognito guest to test