A listing’s booking policy determines whether a reservation is approved instantly or sent as a booking request for you to confirm.
Your booking policy controls how your listings receive and process reservations:
- Instant Booking: Guests can book and receive immediate confirmation—no approval needed.
- Request to Book (called “Quote & Hold” on Vrbo): Guests request to book, and you choose to approve or decline.
The booking setting options may differ for each booking channel. For Vrbo's limited sync connection type, the booking policy must be set directly in Vrbo.
Learn more about the two booking policies and how to configure or change them for each booking channel.
Instant booking
Choosing an instant approval policy saves you time and effort.
Reservations are automatically approved and marked as "Confirmed" as soon as the guest completes the booking request, regardless of whether their payment succeeds or fails. Once confirmed, your listing's calendar is immediately blocked on all connected channels.
This option is better for saving time, maximizing booking conversion, and avoiding Vrbo penalties.
Request to book
Choosing a request to book policy is helpful when taking payment "on location" or if you want to pre-approve your guests.
Guests don't need to provide their payment method when they make a reservation. Reservations are received in "Reserved" status.
You must approve or decline the booking request:
- Within 24 hours for most channels (after which it expires).
- Within 42 hours for Vrbo.
Approving a request to book doesn't confirm the booking—the guest must complete the process by providing their contact details and payment information.
This option is better for collecting payment on arrival, or if you prefer to review guests before confirming.
Calendar blocking options for request to book
When using the request to book policy, you can control how your calendar is managed during the pending approval period. You have three options:
- Block calendar: Immediately blocks the requested dates on your calendar across all connected channels until you approve or decline the request
- Block calendar just for 24 hours: Temporarily blocks the dates for 24 hours while you review the request, then automatically unblocks them if no action is taken
- Don't block the calendar: Keeps your calendar open, allowing other guests to book the same dates while the request is pending
View requests to book in Guesty
Click 
in the top navigation bar to view notifications for reservation inquiries.
Alternatively, create a custom reservations report for the relevant booking channel. Add the "status" filter and select "inquiry" from the dropdown menu.
Set or change a listing’s booking policy per channel
Read the following prerequisites and limitations per booking channel, and how you can set or change a listing’s booking policy for the channel.
Policy options
Request to book policy allows you to add a verification step for your guests before they can book. You have 24 hours to approve or decline the booking request.
Instant booking policy can benefit your Airbnb response rate, contribute to your listing ranking in Airbnb search results, and increase your chances of becoming an Airbnb super-host. In some cases, instant booking allows you to cancel an instant reservation without violating Airbnb’s cancellation policy.
Requirements and behavior
Regardless of your booking policy, a reservation is instantly approved when you pre-approve a guest’s inquiry. Also, there are cases when a reservation will always be received as a request to book.
With both booking policies, you’ll need to connect your payment processor to Airbnb, and guests must add their payment details when they book. Learn about the reservation flow for both policies.
When importing a listing from Airbnb, its approval policy will automatically be set to instant booking. Once a listing is connected between Guesty and Airbnb, you can change its booking policy.
Note:
If a listing has a note saying that "the listing is not yet available to all guests", learn how to resolve the issue.
Set or change a booking policy
Follow the steps below to set or change the booking policy.
Step by step
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Airbnb.
- Under the relevant account, click the relevant listing.
- In the left-side menu, click Pricing & Policies. Select Reservation policies.
- Click Edit to the right of “Booking options”.
- Select Instant or request to book. For “Instant”, you can add a welcome message for guests.
- Click Save.
Request to book listing eligibility
The following Booking.com listings are eligible for request to book:
- New registered properties: Only properties created via API after September 2023 or created via join.booking.com in 2023 can opt in.
- Properties categorized in Booking.com as: Holiday Home, Apartment, or Villas.
- Properties categorized in Guesty as: Apartment, Studio, Loft, Vacation Home, House, Villa, Condominium, Cabin, Townhouse, Bungalow, Hut, Castle, Holiday Home, or Cottage.
- Other property types are not supported.
Requirements and behavior
Requests to book do not block calendar availability. Between the approval of the request and guest confirmation, dates may become unavailable, causing the request to expire, and prices are subject to change.
If there is a change to the price, guests are notified and can choose whether to proceed.
Booking.com search results show request to book properties only if check-in is in three days or more. For last-minute reservations―with check-in within two days or less―only instant book properties appear in search results.
Enable request to book
If you have a rates and availability connection type, enable "Request to Book" in Booking.com. Once this is set up, requests to book can be synced and managed through Guesty.
Step by step
- On Booking.com, click Property.
- Select Policies.
- At the bottom of the page, select How you receive bookings.
- Change from Instant into Request to Book.
Note:
If you receive a request to book from a guest who uses an iOS or Android device, you can communicate with the guest directly from your Guesty Inbox. Communication with guests who make requests to book from other devices is not currently supported.
Make sure you enable New inquiry received in Guesty's notification centre to track all other device inquiries in Guesty.
[Pilot] Set or change a booking policy in Guesty
Follow the instructions below to set or change the booking policy for Booking.com full sync listings in Guesty.
Step by step
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Listings.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the left-side menu, click Pricing & Policies. Select Reservation policies.
- Click Edit to the right of “Booking options”.
- Select Instant or request to book. For “Instant”, you can add a welcome message for guests.
- Click Save.
Policy options
You can apply an instant booking or a “quote and hold” policy (equivalent to request to book) for your listings.
Requirements and behavior
Limited sync connection type: Set your booking policy directly in Vrbo. "Quote and hold" reservations are synced to Guesty as "Confirmed". You have 24 hours to accept or decline a reservation in Vrbo. After 24 hours, the reservation is canceled automatically. Once declined, the status changes to "Canceled:
Full sync connection type: Under “quote and hold”, you have 42 hours to accept or decline a reservation. After 42 hours, the reservation is canceled automatically. Follow the instructions below.
Vrbo charges a tiered partner fee when the host is responsible for a cancellation. Additional actions, such as a temporary listing suspension, may also be imposed. Exceptions to this policy can be made for cancellations outside the partner’s control. Thus, we recommend using instant bookings for your Vrbo listings.
Set or change a booking policy
Follow the steps below to set or change the booking policy after it is connected to Vrbo.
The update syncs to Vrbo within 24 hours.
Step by step
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Vrbo.
- In the integration page, click the relevant account.
- Click
next to the relevant listing.
- Select Instant booking or Non-instant booking (quote and hold).
- Click Save.
Policy options
You can set an instant booking policy or request to book when creating a Guesty Booking Website.
Requirements and behavior
With a request to book policy, guests are not required to enter their payment details. Additionally, with request to book, you can choose whether to block the calendar for booking requests for 24 hours, indefinitely, or not at all. Reservations are received in a “Reserved” status when the calendar is blocked and in “Inquiry” status when it is available.
If you select an instant booking policy, guests must pay via credit card when they book. Guests can use the following cards:
- Visa
- American Express
- UnionPay
- Discover
- Diner's club
- JCB
- Mastercard
The list of supported cards cannot be changed. To allow payments by credit card, connect Stripe or Guestypay as your payment processor in Guesty. Once a reservation is made, its status is instantly changed to "Confirmed". The payment processing is done separately and does not affect the reservation's confirmed status.
Beta users can set instant booking by bank transfer or payment apps. In this case, when a reservation is booked, its status automatically changes to Confirmed and the payout status updates to “Payment failed”. Send payment instructions to your guests and collect their payment manually. Once payment is made, manually update the reservation payout status to “Fully paid”.
If you’re using Message automations, differentiating between reservations paid via bank transfer and via credit card in message automations is not possible. Therefore, we recommend addressing both payment options in the content of your messages.
Set or change a booking policy
Follow the steps below to set or change the booking policy.
Step by step
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Booking website.
- Click
next to the relevant Booking Website, and select Edit Booking Website.
- Select Booking settings in the left sidebar.
- Under “Select how guests book”, select Request to book or Instant booking from the dropdown menu. For request to book: Under “Affect on calendar”, select the relevant option from the dropdown menu.
- Click Save Booking Website.