You can set your booking settings to either instant booking or non-instant booking (request to book) via Guesty. These booking settings allow you to manage your incoming reservations smoothly (instant booking) or have more control over the who books your property (non-instant booking).
Instant booking vs. request to book
Instant booking
With this option, guests who meet all your requirements can book instantly and automatically receive their reservation confirmation without any intervention.
To guarantee their booking, guests are required to provide their credit card details during the reservation process. After selecting the dates and making the reservation, the calendar will be automatically blocked and the status of the reservation will be set to "Confirmed" immediately.
, In TripAdvisor you must receive at least 4 confirmed reservations in Tripadvisor to be eligible for instant booking. The instant booking feature will become available in your Tripadvisor dashboard under your account settings.
Airbnb hosts are able to cancel instant booking for guests under certain terms.
Guesty's integration with Booking.com only supports instant booking.
Tip:
Calendar dates under advanced notice period will appear as blocked, and won't be available for instant booking.
Request to book
With this option, guests must send a reservation request, and get your approval before receiving their reservation confirmation.
When a guest makes a request to book, a "reserved" reservation is created, which you'll need to either confirm or decline. If you approve the booking request, you'll need to obtain and manually charge the guest's credit card, as guests are not required to provide their payment details for booking requests.
Choosing a request to book policy is helpful when taking payment "on location," or if you want to pre-approve your guests.
An inquiry status is used when the guest asks a general question, without requesting to book. After an inquiry is sent, the reservation status will be changed to "inquiry", however the calendar will not be blocked.
Only by approving or declining the inquiry, the reservation status will be changed and the calendar dates be blocked or reserved.
Vrbo's non-instant book option is "Quote and Hold". See more details and important distinctions below that are specific to Vrbo.
If a guest clicks "Contact host" in both Airbnb and Vrbo, an inquiry will be created.
Changing your listing's booking settings
Airbnb
When Airbnb listings are configured with "Instant Book" (instant booking settings), Airbnb will automatically confirm guest bookings that meet the listing's basic requirements (plus any additional requirements set by the host). This means you can set certain requirements that guests must meet in order to make reservations at the listing.
Keep in mind, in some cases, an instant booking might be converted into a request to book / inquiry.
For example, if guests don't have verified government ID's in their Airbnb account, or if the listing is not marked as "suitable for children (2-12 years)", but the guest indicates that the booking party includes children.
If an Airbnb guest meets the requirements and books via instant booking, the reservation may be automatically confirmed — meaning you may receive a confirmed Airbnb reservation without approving it first in Guesty.
Note:
Contact us if your listing wasn't configured to receive instant booking reservations at the time the reservation was made.
Learn more about the benefits of instant booking for Airbnb listings.
Follow the instructions below to change an Airbnb listing's booking settings.
ֿStep by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Growth mode.
- Click Distribution.
- Click Connected listings, located under the Airbnb thumbnail.
- Click the relevant listing.
- In the listing's menu, click Pricing & Policies.
- Select Reservation policies from the drop-down.
- On the right-hand side, scroll down to the "Additional rules" section.
- Click Edit.
- Select the relevant booking settings.
- Click Save.
ֿStep by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Airbnb.
- Click
next to the relevant listing. - In the listing's menu, click Pricing & Policies.
- Select Reservation policies from the drop-down.
- Under the "Booking options" section, click Edit.
- Select the relevant booking settings.
- Click Save.
Vrbo
Vrbo "Quote and Hold" Limitations
When an instant booking reservation is made in Vrbo, its status in Guesty is "confirmed". A non-Instant booking reservation - Quote and Hold in Vrbo - has a "reserved" status. Learn more.
You have up to 24 hours to either accept or cancel the request in Guesty. After 24 hours, the reservation will be canceled automatically. Please note that in order to maintain traveler trust in the Vrbo marketplace, it is essential partners confirm or cancel all bookings within 24 hours. If a partner is responsible for the cancellation, Vrbo will charge a tiered partner fee. Additional actions, such as a temporary listing suspension, may also be imposed.
Exceptions to the policy can be made for cancellations outside of the partner’s control.
If you prefer to streamline the process and avoid manual reviews, we recommend using the Instant booking setting. This option will bypass the need for manual intervention and can help you avoid potential cancellations.
If you change the booking setting, the listing will be updated in Vrbo within 24 hours. Follow the instructions below.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click, the icon drop-down menu and select Growth mode.
- Click Distribution.
- Click the HomeAway/Vrbo thumbnail.
- Click the relevant Vrbo account.
- Next to the relevant listing, click
. - Choose the relevant booking settings.
- Click Save.
Important:
If you connected Vrbo after 19 Feb 2024, this action must be taken in Vrbo. If you connected prior to this date, follow the instructions below.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels and select Vrbo.
- Click the relevant Vrbo account.
- To the right of the relevant listing, click the toggle to activate or deactivate instant booking.
Guesty Booking Engine (Booking Website for Lite users) 
When you create or edit a Booking Engine (Booking Website for Lite users), or a Booking Engine API (Pro users only) you can choose between two approaches: Request to book or Instant booking. When a booking request is made through your Booking Engine/Website, you will receive a notification in the Guesty Inbox.
Follow the steps below:
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click the mode selector and select Growth mode.
- Click Distribution.
- Click the Guesty Booking Engine thumbnail.
- In the relevant Booking Engine row, click
and then select Edit Booking Engine.
- At the left side bar, click Booking settings.
- Under "Booking options", from the "Select how guests book" dropdown menu, choose Request to book or Instant booking.
- If you selected "Request to book", you can select from the options under "Affect on calendar" dropdown menu.
- Navigate to "Web analytics (optional)" by clicking it in the side menu, or by clicking Next a few times at the top right of your screen.
- Click Save Booking Engine.
Step by step:
- Sign in to your Guesty account.
- In the top navigation bar, click Channels, then select Booking website.
- In the relevant Booking Website row, click
- At the left side bar, click Booking settings.
- Under "Booking options", from the "Select how guests book" dropdown menu, choose Request to book or Instant booking.
- If you selected "Request to book", you can select from the options under "Affect on calendar" dropdown menu.
- Navigate to "Web analytics (optional)" by clicking it in the side menu, or by clicking Next a few times at the top right of your screen.
- Click Save Booking Website.
You can also set an additional notification to appear in the Guesty dashboard.
Booking Engine API 
When you create a Booking Engine API, you choose between these booking options:
Only inquiries (requests to book), Only instant booking, or both (The guest can decide which option to use, or you can hard-code it into the booking engine by booking with or without a credit card token).
You will be notified via email when an instant reservation is made or when a request to book (inquiry) is sent to you. You will also receive a message in the Guesty Inbox if the reservation or request to book includes a message from the guest. You can also configure your Guesty dashboard notifications to alert you of reservations and/or requests to book made through a Booking Engine API instance.
Additional booking channels
Read this article to learn which booking options are supported in our channels.