How to Set Advance Notice for Your Vacation Rental Calendar
Last-minute bookings sound great until your property is still being cleaned when a guest arrives. Setting advance notice — sometimes called minimum booking lead time — gives you a guaranteed buffer between when a booking is made and when the guest can actually check in. This guide explains what advance notice is, how to configure it in RentalBeam, and how to push that same restriction to Airbnb, VRBO, and Google Calendar using an iCal export so every platform shows the same availability.
What is advance notice?
Advance notice is a rolling restriction on your calendar. It says: “No booking may check in within the next N days from today.”
For example, if you set a 2-day advance notice and today is Monday, no guest can book a stay starting on Monday or Tuesday. Wednesday and beyond remain open.
This is different from prep time (turnover buffers), which blocks a fixed window around each booking to allow cleaning time. Advance notice applies to the distance from today, regardless of existing bookings.
Why set advance notice?
- You need 24-48 hours to prepare the property after a last-minute checkout
- Turnovers require contractor or cleaning crew scheduling that needs notice
- You want to avoid surprise same-day bookings when you have other commitments
- Your property is in a seasonal market where rushed back-to-back bookings happen frequently
- You want all platforms (Airbnb, VRBO, your website) to enforce the same lead time
How to configure advance notice in RentalBeam
- 1
Open your calendar settings
Log in to your RentalBeam dashboard and click the calendar you want to configure. Open the Manage Dates panel and expand the Availability rules section.
- 2
Set the advance notice days
Enter the minimum number of days required between today and check-in. A value of 1 means guests cannot book for today. A value of 3 means check-in must be at least three days away.
- 3
Save and test
Save your changes. Your RentalBeam booking form widget will immediately enforce the restriction — any date within the advance notice window will appear as unavailable.
Availability calendar vs. booking form
Advance notice is enforced on the booking form widget (Pro plan) to prevent guests from submitting requests for dates too close to today. On the availability calendar widget the same dates will show as unavailable once you also enable the advance notice window in your iCal export URL (see below).Syncing advance notice to Airbnb, VRBO, and Google Calendar
Configuring advance notice inside RentalBeam only affects your own booking form. To make Airbnb, VRBO, and other platforms enforce the same lead time, you need to include the advance notice window in your iCal export URL.
RentalBeam generates a blocked date event covering the advance notice period. When any platform imports your export URL, those days appear as unavailable, so they will not accept new bookings for them either.
- 1
Open the Calendar Sync tab
In your RentalBeam dashboard, go to the Calendar Sync tab. This is where you manage iCal import sources and your export URLs.
- 2
Edit your export URL
Click the edit icon next to the export URL you use for Airbnb, VRBO, or Google Calendar. If you use the Combined Feed, advance notice is already enabled by default.
- 3
Enable the advance notice window
Check the Advance notice window option in the “What to include” section. This adds a blocked event covering the lead-time period. Save the URL.
- 4
Re-import or wait for sync
Airbnb and VRBO typically poll your export URL every few hours. You can also trigger a manual sync from their calendar settings pages. Google Calendar checks subscribed feeds roughly every 24 hours, though it can be forced from the Google Calendar app.
Combined Feed handles this automatically
The Combined Feed export URL in RentalBeam always has advance notice (and all other availability settings) enabled. If you use the Combined Feed URL in Airbnb, VRBO, and Google Calendar, you never need to update export settings manually when you change a booking rule.What about same-day booking cutoff?
Advance notice works in whole days. If you also need to cut off same-day bookings at a specific time (for example, no bookings after 10 am for a same-day check-in), configure the same-day cutoff time in the Booking Rules tab alongside advance notice. Both restrictions work independently and both are reflected in your calendar widget availability.
Practical advance notice recommendations
- Self-managed properties with professional cleaning: 1-2 days minimum
- Properties requiring contractor work between stays: 3-5 days
- Remote properties or seasonal high-demand markets: 1 day is usually enough to avoid chaos
- Properties listed on multiple platforms: always enable the advance notice window in your iCal export so all channels agree
- If you occasionally accept same-day bookings for known guests, you can override by manually blocking then unblocking individual dates
Related availability rules
Advance notice is one of several availability controls in RentalBeam. You may also want to configure:
- Prep time (turnover buffer) - blocks cleaning days around each booking
- Booking window - limits how far in advance guests can book (for example, no bookings more than 12 months out)
- Allowed check-in/check-out days - restricts guests to specific weekdays for arrival and departure
Summary
Setting advance notice takes under a minute in RentalBeam and immediately prevents last-minute booking requests through your website. Combining it with the advance notice iCal export option pushes the same restriction to every connected platform, so your availability is always consistent whether a guest books on Airbnb, VRBO, or directly on your website.