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title: Understanding Calendar and booking settings
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## Understanding Calendar and booking settings

Your calendar and booking settings give you full control over when you share your space, from a few weekends to 365 days a year. Mastering these settings can help you run your hosting business more smoothly—and meet your guests’ needs, too.

For example, keeping your calendar availability up to date can help you avoid having to cancel a booking, an action that can lead to penalties for you and an unpleasant experience for your guest. Here’s how to set up a calendar and booking settings that work for you and your listing.

**_Setting your availability_**
Keeping your calendar up to date is important: The more dates you have available, up to 2 years in advance, the more options guests have to choose from.
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You can use your calendar and booking settings to strike a balance between providing plenty of availability for guests and setting a schedule that works for you. Superhost Kevino uses these settings to:

-   Update pricing based on demand in the area.
-   Set specific times for check-in and checkout.
-   Block dates that he has booked for family, friends, or frequent guests.

**Choosing how guests can book your space**
Guests can book your space one of two ways: either through Instant Book or a manual booking request.

-   Instant Book allows guests who meet all of your requirements and agree to your house rules to instantly book your home for any available dates. This tool speeds up the booking process for guests, eliminating the need for you to review and accept each booking request.
-   Manual booking requests tend to be favored by Hosts who:
-   Have unpredictable availability due to their personal needs and schedule
-   Provide a space with unique features, like extremely rustic conditions, they want to communicate with guests about to set expectations before booking
