A reservation is created when a guest starts any type of communication with you regarding a booking. Each reservation contains a unique reservation code and status which allows both you and the guest to see information in real-time related to a specific booking. You can approve or decline a reservation or an inquiry at any time.
Once a reservation is confirmed, you cannot change its status to Reserved or Inquiry. Also, if a reservation is set to inactive status (such as Closed), it cannot be reverted to active status. You can create a new reservation and update it with the relevant status, instead.
Find information about the stages of the reservation lifecycle below.
Inquiry
An Inquiry status is used when the guest asks the host a general question but hasn't submitted a "formal" booking request. An Inquiry contains dates, listing names, and the number of guests, but does not have a reservation number, and it does not affect the calendar.
When creating a manual reservation, you can set its status to “Inquiry” if choosing not to reserve the dates for the guest.
An inquiry status can be used when sending a quote. If the guest makes a booking via the quote, the reservation status will automatically change to Confirmed.
Vrbo and Airbnb guests can send you an inquiry by clicking “Contact host”, and a reservation with “Inquiry” status will be created in Guesty, but won't appear in the calendar. Inquiries don't include payment details. You can create a reservations report to locate your inquiries. You can also pre-approve Airbnb inquiries.
Reserved
A reserved status appears in the following cases:
- Manual reservations can be classified as "Reserved", for either a specific period (from 12 hours to 72 hours) or indefinitely.
- For channels with a "request to book" policy (known as "Quote and hold" for Vrbo users), when a guest makes a booking, they are required to insert their contact information and add their payment details. A request to book is pending the host's confirmation. You will have 24 hours to manually confirm or close the request. Otherwise, the request will automatically be declined, and the status will change to Expired or Declined (refer to the relevant sections in the article). To be able to confirm a request to book, the listing must be vacant for the dates of the reservation, and not under any block.
- A quote has been sent to the guest, and classified as Reserved (Pro users only). If the guest booked a reservation via the quote, the status will automatically change to Confirmed.
A Reserved reservation blocks the calendar.
Important:
- If choosing to approve a reserved reservation, you'll need to manually change its status to "Confirmed". If choosing to reject it, you'll need to change its status to "Closed".
- When sending a quote (Pro users only), the reservation expires after passing the time that was set when creating the quote. Then, the reservation's status will be changed to Expired. Note that the time set cannot be extended once it is set.
Expired
An Expired status is displayed when the time to approve a "Reserved" reservation is over. For Vrbo and Airbnb, the time is 24 hours, while for manual reservations, it can vary (see the "Reserved" section). An Expired status cannot be reverted.
Confirmed
A Confirmed reservation blocks the calendar. Once the reservation status is changed to Confirmed, it cannot be modified to an Inquiry or a Reserved status.
A reservation status will change to Confirmed if the following conditions are met:
- The requested dates are available for booking and are not under any type of block.
- In the case of a multi-unit, there are vacant sub-units to host the guest stay. By default, multiple sub-units can be used for different parts of the same reservation. You can change these settings at any time.
- In case you created a manual reservation and set its status to Confirmed, or manually changed a reservation status to Confirmed.
- In case the listing has an instant booking policy, the reservation status will automatically change to Confirmed in the following cases:
- The guest added their payment details to the reservation, and clicked "Book now".
- You connected a payment processor to Guesty
- When a guest confirms a quote and has added their payment details (if required)
Canceled
A Canceled reservation status appears when a host or a guest has canceled a confirmed reservation. This status removes the reservation's block in the calendar. A canceled reservation cannot be reverted.
Closed
You can manually change the status of Inquiry/Reserved to Closed if you choose not to approve the reservation.
This status removes the reservation block in the calendar.
Declined
A reservation’s status will change to “Declined” if the reservation was in “Reserved” status and the guest declined it, or, in the case of Vrbo's Quote and Hold, the request was auto-declined after 24 hours.
A Declined status doesn't block the calendar.
For Vrbo's Quote and Hold, if the host 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.
Awaiting payment
You can use this status in case you already confirmed a reservation, yet the guest's payment hasn't been processed yet.
This status blocks the calendar