Airbnb Booking Settings
Airbnb has its own booking settings on each listing: check-in and check-out time, a cancellation policy, and four guest controls (pets, smoking, children, events). Argonautas can keep these matching what you've set in Argonautas, so you don't have to update both places by hand.
What Is Sent, and What Stays in Airbnb
Argonautas only ever writes five things to a listing's Airbnb booking settings:
| Setting | Comes from |
|---|---|
| Check-in from | The villa's check-in time (rounded up to the next whole hour) |
| Check-out | The villa's check-out time (rounded down to the whole hour) |
| Pets allowed | The house rule for pets ("Allowed" maps to yes; every other choice maps to no) |
| Smoking allowed | The house rule for smoking (anything other than "No smoking" maps to yes) |
| Children allowed | The house rule for children |
| Events allowed | The house rule for events and parties |
| Cancellation policy | Only when the policy has an Airbnb equivalent set (see below); otherwise this is left alone |
Everything else on Airbnb's booking settings screen (Instant Book, co-host payout settings, the check-out window, minimum age, and anything else Airbnb offers) is never touched. Argonautas reads the listing's current settings first and only replaces the fields above, so the rest of what you've set directly in Airbnb survives every push.
Whole-Hour Rounding
Airbnb's check-in and check-out times are whole hours, so Argonautas rounds in the direction that keeps the promise to guests: check-in rounds up (a guest never arrives before your stated check-in time) and check-out rounds down (a guest never has to leave after your stated check-out time). A 3:30pm check-in becomes 4pm on Airbnb; an 11:30am check-out becomes 11am.
How Pets Maps
Only "Allowed" turns pets on for Airbnb. "Not allowed," "By arrangement," and "Assistive animals only" all turn it off, because Airbnb's own platform rules already require hosts to accept assistance animals regardless of a listing's pet policy — there's no in-between setting to send.
When Argonautas turns pets on, it also sets Airbnb's pet capacity: if Airbnb already has a capacity of 1 or more, Argonautas leaves it as is; otherwise it sets 5 (Airbnb's blank-slate default). Pet capacity itself is never corrected the other way — if you raise or lower it in Airbnb, Argonautas leaves your number alone.
Airbnb Equivalent on a Cancellation Policy
Each of your cancellation policies, on the Cancellation Policies card of Settings › Property defaults, can optionally carry an Airbnb equivalent — one of Airbnb's own cancellation categories. A policy with no Airbnb equivalent set is left alone on Airbnb: Argonautas never guesses one from your policy's tier, free-cancellation days, or refund percentage. Give a policy an Airbnb equivalent only once, when you first set it up, and Argonautas keeps every listing using that policy in sync with it from then on.
The Three Modes
Set a mode on the Settings page, under Property defaults, or override it per villa:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
| Off (default) | Nothing is sent. Airbnb's booking settings are entirely yours to manage in the Airbnb extranet. |
| Send our changes | Argonautas sends a field only once, the first time it differs from what you've set in Argonautas since you turned this mode on. If you then edit that same setting directly in Airbnb, Argonautas leaves your Airbnb edit alone — it isn't overwritten on the next push. |
| Keep Airbnb matching | Argonautas keeps every owned field matching Argonautas every time it checks, including putting back anything changed directly in Airbnb. |
Turning on Send our changes records today's values as the starting point, so nothing is sent at that moment — only changes made in Argonautas from then on go out.
The Villa Override
Villas follow the company's mode by default. To give one villa its own mode, open its Property tab, find Airbnb booking settings under Guest Experience, and turn off Use company default. Turn it back on to follow the company mode again.
When Airbnb Refuses a Change
If Airbnb rejects a push, Argonautas raises a notice and tries again on the next scheduled push (every villa with sync on is re-checked once a day). The pending change is never lost; it just waits for the next successful push, even if the field it affects gets edited directly in Airbnb in the meantime, because the next push compares against Argonautas's own values again.
The pet-fee case. Airbnb refuses to turn pets off on a listing that charges guests a pet fee through Airbnb. When this happens, Argonautas still sends every other changed setting that push, and raises a separate notice naming the pet fee as the reason. Pets alone keeps retrying on every scheduled push; remove the pet fee in the Airbnb extranet to let the change through.
Common Questions
I changed my check-in time in Argonautas. Why hasn't Airbnb updated yet? Check the mode. If it's Off, nothing is sent. Also check whether the villa overrides the company mode.
I set a villa's check-in time directly in Airbnb. Will Argonautas undo it? Only in Keep Airbnb matching mode. In Send our changes mode, an edit made in Airbnb stays until you change that setting in Argonautas again.
Why does one of my cancellation policies never reach Airbnb? It has no Airbnb equivalent set. Open it on the Cancellation Policies card and give it one.
A villa shows a notice that pets are still allowed on Airbnb. Why? The listing charges a pet fee through Airbnb, and Airbnb won't let a listing with a pet fee turn pets off. Remove the pet fee in Airbnb, or leave pets allowed in Argonautas.
Related
- Channel Integration: connecting villas to the OTAs
- Booking Window and Unpriced Dates: the other Airbnb setting Argonautas keeps in sync
- Settings: the company's cancellation policies and property defaults