Setting a listing booking policy: Request to book or instant booking

A listing’s booking policy determines whether a reservation is approved instantly or sent as a booking request for you to confirm.

The booking setting options may differ for each booking channel. 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. A booked reservation is automatically approved if the listing is available for booking and the guest can enter their payment details. When a reservation is approved, its status is “Confirmed”  and the listing’s calendar is blocked on all connected channels.

If you set payments by credit card, connect a payment processor to Guesty and collect the channel payments via Guesty.

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.

When a request to book policy is set, 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 after which it expires. Approving a request to book doesn’t confirm the booking―the guest must complete the process by providing their contact details and payment information.

Viewing 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. 

Airbnb

A 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. 

An instant booking policy, however, 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.

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. 

Booking.com 

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. 

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.

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 as follows:
  • In Booking.com: Holiday Home, Apartment or Villas
  • In Guesty: Apartment, Studio, Loft, Vacation Home, House, Villa, Condominium, Cabin, Townhouse, Bungalow, Hut, Castle, Holiday Home or Cottage
  • Other property types are not supported

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. 

Follow the instructions below to set or change the booking policy for Airbnb and Booking.com listings.ֿ

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Airbnb or Booking.com.
3. Select the relevant listing.
4. In the left-side menu, click Pricing & Policies. Select Reservation policies.
5. Click Edit to the right of “Booking options”.
6. Select Instant or request to book. For “Instant”, you can add a welcome message for guests.
7. Click Save.

Vrbo

You can apply an instant booking or a “quote and hold” policy (equivalent to request to book) for your listings. 

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.

You can change a listing’s booking policy after it is connected to Vrbo. The update syncs to Vrbo within 24 hours. 

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Growth mode.
3. Click Distribution.
4. Click Vrbo.
5. In the Vrbo integration page, click the relevant Vrbo account.
6. Click next to the relevant listing.
7. Select Instant booking or Non-instant booking (quote and hold).
8. Click Save.

Guesty Booking Website

You can set an instant booking policy or request to book when creating a Guesty Booking Website.

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.

To change a listing’s booking policy for the Guesty Booking Website, follow the steps below.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Booking website. 
3. Click next to the relevant Booking Website, and select Edit Booking Website.
4. Select Booking settings in the left sidebar.
5. 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.
6. Click Save Booking Website.

 Booking.com

Guesty’s integration with Booking.com only supports instant booking.