How to manage your availability and prices from the calendar?

When you manage short-term rentals across platforms like Airbnb and Booking.com, keeping your availability and pricing up to date is essential. With Nowistay, you can manage everything directly from your Calendar page — and every change you make is automatically pushed to all your connected booking platforms.

This guide walks you through everything you can do from the calendar to stay in control of your listings.

Before you start

To manage your availability and prices from the calendar, your property must be connected through the Nowistay PMS integration. This is the integration that turns Nowistay into your channel manager, synchronizing your calendar, availability, and pricing across all your connected platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com, etc.).

If you haven't set up the Nowistay integration yet, check out our guide on how to create your first property and connect it.

Understanding your calendar at a glance

When you open the Calendar, you'll see all your properties listed on the left, with a timeline of days stretching across the screen. Each cell represents one day for one property.

For properties connected through the Nowistay integration, the calendar cells are color-coded to give you an instant overview:

• Green — The date is available for booking.
• Red — The date is unavailable (no availability left or manually closed).
• Gray with a diagonal line — Sales are blocked on OTA platforms (stop sell is active).
• Green with red diagonal stripes — The date is open for booking, but a restriction is preventing guests from actually booking it. This could be due to a minimum stay requirement, a check-in restriction, preparation time between bookings, or other rules. More on this in the Understanding booking restrictions section below.

You'll also notice small indicators on each cell:

• A price badge in the top-left corner showing the nightly rate for that date.
• A minimum stay indicator (like "3n") in the top-right corner when a minimum number of nights is required.

Bookings appear as colored tiles spanning their check-in to check-out dates. Blue tiles are confirmed bookings, and gray tiles are manually blocked dates.

How to change your nightly rates

Adjusting your prices is straightforward:

1. Click on any date cell (or the price badge) on the calendar for the property you want to update.
2. A panel opens on the right side of the screen.
3. Set the start date and end date for the period you want to update. By default, both are set to the date you clicked.
4. Make sure the Nightly Rate checkbox is checked. Only checked fields will be updated when you save.
5. Enter the new nightly rate. The current rate is pre-filled for reference.
6. Click Save.

Your new rate is immediately applied and pushed to all connected platforms. You'll see the updated price badge on each affected date cell.

How to close or open dates for booking

Need to block a few days for personal use? Or re-open dates you previously closed? Here's how:

1. Click on a date cell on the calendar.
2. In the panel that opens, set your date range.
3. Make sure the Open for booking checkbox is checked.
4. Toggle the "Open for booking" switch:
   • Bookable (green) — Guests can book these dates.
   • Closed (red) — These dates are blocked and no bookings can be made.
5. Click Save.

Closed dates will appear in red on your calendar. This is the simplest way to mark dates as unavailable across all your connected platforms at once.

How to block sales on OTA channels (Stop Sell)

Sometimes you want to keep dates available for direct bookings but stop selling them on platforms like Airbnb or Booking.com. That's what the stop sell feature is for:

1. Click on a date cell on the calendar.
2. Set your date range.
3. Make sure the Block OTA channels checkbox is checked.
4. Toggle the switch to "OTA sales blocked".
5. Click Save.

Dates with stop sell active will show a gray background with a diagonal strikethrough on your calendar. This means the dates are still technically available in your system, but no guest can book them through connected OTA platforms.

To resume sales, simply toggle the switch back to "OTA sales open" and save.

How to set a minimum stay

Want to avoid one-night bookings during a busy season? You can set a minimum number of nights for any date range:

1. Click on a date cell on the calendar.
2. Set your date range.
3. Make sure the Minimum Stay checkbox is checked.
4. Enter the desired minimum stay (in number of nights). For example, enter "3" to require at least a 3-night booking.
5. Click Save.

The minimum stay will appear as a small indicator (e.g., "3n") on each affected date cell, so you can see at a glance which dates have restrictions.

How minimum stay works in practice

When you set a minimum stay on a date, any booking that includes that night must meet the requirement — not just bookings that start on that date. This means a guest cannot check in before that date and check out after it unless their total stay is long enough.

Here's a simple example: imagine you set a 3-night minimum on June 15th to June 20th.

• A guest wants to book June 16 to June 18 (2 nights) — Refused. The stay covers dates that require at least 3 nights.
• A guest wants to book June 16 to June 19 (3 nights) — Accepted. The stay meets the 3-night minimum.
• A guest wants to book June 14 to June 16 (2 nights) — Refused. Even though the guest arrives before the restricted period, the night of June 15 is included in the stay and requires at least 3 nights.
• A guest wants to book June 13 to June 14 (1 night) — Accepted. This stay doesn't include any date with a minimum stay restriction.

In short: think of minimum stay as a rule applied per night. Every night included in a booking must have its minimum stay requirement satisfied by the total length of the stay.

Tip: This is especially useful during high-demand periods like holidays or local events, where you want to ensure longer bookings and avoid gaps in your calendar.

Advanced settings: maximum stay, check-in closed, and check-out closed

The edit panel includes an Advanced settings section with additional controls for fine-tuning your booking rules. Click on Advanced settings at the bottom of the panel to expand it.

Here's what each setting does:

• Maximum Stay (nights) — Sets the maximum number of nights a guest can book for the selected dates. For example, entering "21" means no booking longer than 21 nights will be accepted. This is useful if you want to avoid very long stays or if local regulations limit rental duration.
• Check-in closed — When enabled (toggle shows "Check-in blocked" in red), guests cannot start their stay on the selected dates. For example, you can block check-ins on Sundays if you don't handle arrivals that day.
• Check-out closed — When enabled (toggle shows "Check-out blocked" in red), guests cannot end their stay on the selected dates. This can help you manage your cleaning schedule by preventing departures on specific days.

Like all other fields, each advanced setting has a checkbox next to it. Only checked fields will be updated when you save — unchecked fields keep their current values.

Choosing which fields to update

Each setting in the edit panel — availability, stop sell, nightly rate, minimum stay, and the advanced settings — has a checkbox next to its label. Only checked fields will be updated when you save. Unchecked fields keep their existing per-day values untouched.

A notice at the top of the panel reminds you: "Only enabled blocks will be updated when you save."

For example, if you want to set a 3-night minimum stay across the next two months without changing any of your carefully configured per-day pricing:

1. Click on a date cell and set your date range.
2. Uncheck "Open for booking", "Block OTA channels", and "Nightly Rate" — leave only "Minimum Stay" checked.
3. Set the minimum stay to 3.
4. Click Save.

Only the minimum stay will be updated. Your existing rates, availability, and stop sell settings for each individual day will remain exactly as they were.

This is especially useful when you have different prices set for each day (for example, via PriceLabs or manual per-day adjustments) and you want to update just one setting across a large date range without overwriting everything else.

Applying changes to specific days of the week

One of the most useful features is the ability to apply changes only to certain days of the week. For example, you might want to set a higher rate for weekends only:

1. Click on a date cell and set a wide date range (e.g., the entire month).
2. Make your changes (rate, availability, etc.).
3. In the "Apply to" section at the bottom, uncheck the days you don't want to update. For example, uncheck Monday through Thursday to only apply your changes to Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
4. Click Save.

This is perfect for setting weekend vs. weekday pricing, or for blocking specific days across a longer period.

Date range limit for bulk changes

When you apply changes from the edit panel, the date range between your start date and end date cannot exceed 730 days (approximately 2 years).

For example, if you set the start date to April 12, 2026, the latest possible end date is April 11, 2028. If you try to set an end date further out, it will automatically be capped at 730 days from the start date.

However, this is only a limit on the span of the date range, not on how far into the future you can make changes. You're free to set a start date years from now — for instance, you could apply changes starting January 1, 2028 through December 31, 2029, as long as the range itself doesn't exceed 730 days.

In practice, this means you can plan your pricing and availability well into the future — just break very long periods into multiple updates if needed.

Understanding booking restrictions on your calendar

Sometimes a date is open for booking, but one or more rules prevent guests from actually booking it. When this happens, the date cell appears green with red diagonal stripes on your calendar. This visual pattern tells you at a glance: "this date is available, but something is blocking it."

Restrictions can come from different places — rules you've set directly on the calendar, default settings on your property, or your Airbnb listing configuration. Nowistay shows you exactly what's blocking each date and where the restriction comes from, so you always stay in control.

Seeing restriction details on the calendar

When you hover over a striped date cell on the calendar, a tooltip appears explaining why the date is restricted. For example:

• "Stay rules block this start date — Minimum stay: 2 nights" — The minimum stay requirement means a booking can't start here because the available window is too short.
• "Check-in is blocked on this date — Check-in is disabled on this weekday" — A check-in restriction (from your Airbnb availability settings, for example) prevents guests from arriving on this day of the week.

Seeing restriction details in the edit panel

When you click on a restricted date, the edit panel shows a Booking restrictions block at the top. This block gives you more detail than the tooltip:

• The restriction reason — for example, "Minimum stay: 2 nights" or "Check-in is disabled on this weekday".
• The source of the restriction — either a Calendar rule (set directly from the calendar), a Property setting (from your property information), or a Listing setting (from your Airbnb channel configuration).
• A direct link to the setting causing the restriction, when applicable. For example, if the restriction comes from your Airbnb availability settings, you'll see a link like "Open Airbnb availability settings" that takes you straight to the right configuration page.

This makes it easy to understand why a date is blocked and quickly jump to the right place to change the setting if needed.

Property settings that affect your calendar

Some booking restrictions are determined by your property information rather than being set on specific calendar dates. These are default values that apply across your entire calendar unless overridden by a date-specific setting.

The key settings are:

• Cut-off time and cut-off days — Controls how far in advance a guest must book before check-in. For example, setting cut-off days to "3 Days" at cut-off time "00:00" means no one can book if their arrival is less than 3 days away (from midnight onwards). This prevents last-minute bookings when you need time to prepare the property.
• Default minimum stay — Sets a baseline minimum number of nights for all dates. You can still override this on specific dates directly from the calendar.
• Default maximum stay — Sets a baseline maximum number of nights for all dates. Same as above, you can override it per date range from the calendar.

To access these settings:

1. Go to the Properties page.
2. Click on the property name or the ... menu, then select Property info.
3. Scroll down to find the stay and cut-off settings.

Airbnb availability settings

If you have an Airbnb listing connected, additional restrictions can come from your Airbnb availability settings. These settings are specific to your Airbnb listing and control how Airbnb handles booking rules for your property. When a restriction comes from these settings, your calendar will show it with a direct link so you can quickly jump to the right place.

To access these settings:

1. Go to the Properties page, click the ... menu on the property card, and select Synchronization.
2. In the synchronization drawer, find the Airbnb channel and click the Channel settings button (the settings icon next to it).
3. Switch to the Airbnb Availability tab.

Here's what each setting does:

• Advance notice — How much notice you need before a guest can check in. "Same day" means guests can book for today, "1 day" means they must book at least one day before arrival, and so on. Dates that fall within this window will appear as restricted on your calendar.
• Preparation time — The number of days automatically blocked between a guest's check-out and the next possible check-in. For example, "2 nights before and after" means 2 days will be blocked around each booking to give you time for cleaning and turnaround. These days will show as restricted on your calendar.
• Availability window — How far in advance guests can book your property. For example, "12 months in advance" means dates more than 12 months away won't be bookable. Dates outside this window will appear as restricted.
• Max nights — The maximum number of nights a guest can book in a single reservation on Airbnb.
• Allow request to book above max nights — When enabled, guests can still send a booking request for stays longer than the max nights limit, but it won't be instantly bookable. They'll need to send a request instead.
• Allowed check-in days — Which days of the week guests can check in. If you disable a day (for example, Sunday), no guest will be able to start their stay on that day. Disabled check-in days will show as restricted (green with red stripes) on your calendar.
• Allowed check-out days — Which days of the week guests can check out. Works the same way as check-in days, but for departures. Disabled check-out days will also appear as restricted on your calendar.

Tip: These settings are synced to your Airbnb listing automatically. Any changes you make here will be reflected on Airbnb and on your Nowistay calendar. Daily restrictions set directly on your calendar (like minimum stay per date) can still override these defaults.

How to adjust rates for a specific channel

The calendar lets you set a base nightly rate that applies to all your connected platforms equally. But what if you want one platform to receive a different rate? For example, you might want Booking.com rates to be 10% higher to offset their commission, while keeping your Airbnb rates unchanged.

With the rate adjustment feature, you can set a percentage increase or decrease for any individual channel — without touching your base calendar prices. Your calendar stays exactly the same; only the rate sent to that specific platform is adjusted.

How to set a rate adjustment

1. Go to the Properties page, click the … menu on the property card, and select Synchronization.

2. In the synchronization drawer, find the channel you want to adjust (e.g., Airbnb) and click the Channel settings button (the settings icon next to it).

3. In the Rate Adjustment tab, enter the percentage you want to apply. A positive number increases the rate (e.g., +10 means rates will be 10% higher on that channel), and a negative number decreases it.
4. Click Save.

For example, if your base rate in the calendar is 100€ and you set a +10% adjustment for Airbnb, Airbnb will receive 110€. Your calendar still shows 100€, and other channels without an adjustment continue to receive 100€.

This is especially useful when different platforms charge different commission rates. You can compensate by marking up your price on higher-commission channels, while keeping a single base rate in your calendar that reflects your actual earnings.

Tip: You can set a different adjustment for each connected channel. This gives you fine-grained control over your pricing strategy across platforms — all without cluttering your calendar with platform-specific rates.

Calendar settings

The Calendar settings dialog lets you configure the mobile calendar display and export your availability via iCal. To open it, click the settings gear icon at the top of the Calendar page.

Mobile calendar view

You can choose how your calendar appears on mobile devices:

• List — Shows your bookings as a list, organized by property. This is the default and gives you a quick, scannable overview of upcoming check-ins and check-outs.
• Calendar — Shows all properties together in one horizontally scrollable calendar grid on mobile, similar to the desktop view.

Pick the view that best fits how you use your phone to manage your properties.

iCal export URL

The iCal export lets you sync your Nowistay calendar with external calendar applications like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook. This is useful if you want to see your blocked dates alongside your personal calendar.

To use it:

1. Select the Property you want to export from the dropdown.
2. Copy the iCal export URL using the copy button.
3. Paste this URL into your external calendar application as a "subscribe to calendar" or "add calendar by URL" source.

The iCal feed only includes blocked dates and never exposes guest names, pricing data, or any other sensitive information. It simply shows which dates are unavailable, so you can see your availability at a glance from any calendar app.

Note: The iCal URL is unique per property. If you manage multiple properties, you'll need to add a separate iCal subscription for each one.

How changes sync to your connected platforms

Every time you save a change from the calendar, Nowistay automatically pushes the update to all your connected booking platforms (Airbnb, Booking.com, and any other OTA connected through the Nowistay integration). This happens in real time — you don't need to do anything extra.

This means you have a single place to manage your pricing and availability, and all your listings stay perfectly synchronized.

If you ever need to force a full synchronization of your availability and prices, you can do so from the property's synchronization settings.

Using the calendar on mobile

The calendar works great on mobile too. On your phone, the view depends on your Calendar settings preference (see above). In List mode, you see a scannable list of bookings per property. In Calendar mode, you get a horizontally scrollable grid of all properties — including the same color-coded availability and restriction indicators as on desktop.

Tap on any property card or date to manage its availability and pricing — just like on desktop. You can also swipe left or right to navigate between months.

Automate your pricing with PriceLabs

While the calendar gives you full manual control over your nightly rates, you can also automate your pricing strategy by connecting PriceLabs — a dynamic pricing tool that adjusts your rates automatically based on market demand, seasonality, local events, and competitor pricing.

When PriceLabs is connected, it pushes optimized rates directly to your Nowistay calendar, which are then synced to all your connected platforms. This means you no longer need to manually adjust prices for peak seasons, weekends, or slow periods — PriceLabs handles it for you.

To get started, follow our step-by-step guide: How to connect PriceLabs for dynamic pricing.

Note: Keep in mind that when PriceLabs is active, it may override any manual price changes you make from the calendar during its next sync. If you want full control over specific dates, you can always pause or adjust your PriceLabs settings.