Pilot: Creating a Guesty Booking Website

A direct booking website helps you increase revenue and decrease reliance on third-party channels. Use Guesty's website builder to create a professional, branded site where guests can book directly with you in just a few minutes.

Before you begin

• The default language for required information is English. You can translate it into other languages during setup.
• During set up, you can skip any optional setup fields now and update them later if needed. 
• Learn about best practices for Guesty Booking Websites before getting started.

Follow the steps below to create a Guesty Booking Website.

Step by step:

1. Sign in to your Guesty account.
2. In the top navigation bar, click Channels.
3. Select Booking Website from the dropdown menu.
4. Under “Booking website”, click Subscribe to Guesty Lite.
5. Enter your payment information and click Subscribe now.
6. In the subscription confirmation popup, click Create a Booking Website.

7. If your Airbnb account isn’t connected, click Connect to Airbnb. Learn more about connecting your Airbnb account to Guesty. 

   When done, return to Guesty to finish creating your Booking Website.

8. Once your Airbnb account is connected, click Create a website. 
   • If no Booking Website exists, click Create your Booking Website.
   • If you already have a Booking Website, click Create new Booking Website at the top right of the dashboard.
9. Enter your business name. This name becomes part of your website address, appearing before ".guestybookings.com".
   • If the domain is not available, you'll see a notification.
   • By default, your domain will be format: yourbusiness.guestybookings.com. You can change this to a custom domain later under "Optional settings".
10. Choose a setup method:

    • Click Create a Booking Website to create a website instantly, and then select Visit your live website. 

      If you choose this option, this is the final step of the process. We'll populate the fields in the setup with our default values, including the following: 

      • All properties are added to the Booking Website.
      • Guesty implements default templates for your website's logo, background image, confirmation page, and legal documents.
      • If you have a payment processor connected to Guesty, the reservations' payment method are set to "instant". 
      • If you don't have a payment processor, it will be set to "request to book" using the blocking the calendar (without restriction) option.
      • Some features won't be activated, including the "Contact Us" page, the properties map, and the search widget.

      You can always return to change the Booking Website settings later.

    • Click Go to advanced settings to continue the setup process. Continue to the next steps.

11. If using advanced settings:

    • On the "General settings" page, enter your business information in the relevant fields.
    • On the "Select properties" page, choose the properties to include in your Booking Website.
    • On the "Booking settings" page, under “Select how guests book”, choose how guests can book:
    Request to book

    If you select “Request to book”, the reservation status is set to “Reserved” upon creation. You can choose how a booked reservation will affect the calendar before it is confirmed as follows:

    • Block the calendar (without an end restriction)
    • Block the calendar for 24 hours only,

    • Don't block the calendar. 

      Select the relevant option from the “Affect on calendar” dropdown.

    Instant booking

    If you want direct bookings to receive immediate approval, select “Instant”. When a reservation is created, its status is automatically set to “Confirmed” and the relevant dates are blocked on the calendar. 

    This option requires that you collect payment at booking. Connect a payment processor in Guesty in order to collect guests' credit card details. 

    Important:

    When handling a “Reserved” reservation, you need to set its status manually to “Confirmed” or "Closed".

12. On  the "Booking confirmation page," select which confirmation message guests see after booking.
    • Select Use Guesty’s template or Use your own template.
    • If you use your own, provide the title, message body, and an image.

13. Under "Search bar and filter settings (booking widget)," enable features for guests to personalize their searches.

    Beta users: Allow guests to filter by property tags. Use clear, descriptive tag names before enabling filters.

14. In "Company policy," select privacy and cookie policies:
    • Choose Guesty’s template or enter your own for both Privacy & Cookie Policy and Terms & Conditions.
    • Mark the “I read...” checkboxes if using Guesty documents. If using your own, fill in the fields as required.

15. In the optional "Design" page, set your homepage image, color theme, and Favicon logo.

    See our recommendations for uploading photos.

16. In the optional "Contact us" page, add your phone number, social profiles, and contact form details.
17. In the optional "Web analytics" page, connect Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, and Facebook Pixel IDs if needed.
18. Click Create Booking Website to launch your site.

19. When the pop-up confirms your site is ready, click Preview Booking Website or Continue to dashboard.

    From the dashboard, edit or delete your Booking Website as needed.