Use this article to understand how "Instant Book" and "Request to Book" policies work for Airbnb reservations. This article explains the benefits of each policy, the reservation flow from inquiry to confirmation, and specific scenarios where a reservation defaults to a "Request to Book" even when an instant booking setting is active.
Learn how to configure or change the booking policy for a listing for instant and request to book.
Before you begin
Connect a payment processor to Airbnb.
Instant booking
Choosing an instant approval policy saves you time and effort as a reservation is automatically approved if the listing is available for booking, and the guest provides their payment details.
When a reservation is approved, the status changes to “Confirmed”, and Guesty blocks the listing’s calendar across all connected channels.
An instant booking policy provides several advantages:
- Improves your Airbnb response rate.
- Boosts your listing's ranking in Airbnb search results.
- Increases your chances of becoming an Airbnb Superhost.
- Allows you to cancel certain reservations without violating Airbnb’s cancellation policy.
Note:
For guest inquiries: A reservation is instantly approved if you pre-approve a guest’s inquiry regardless of your booking policy.
Learn more about how instant booking works in Airbnb.
Request to book
A request to book policy is useful if you prefer to pre-approve guests or take payment on-site. When using this policy, guests must still provide payment details during the booking process.
Reservations arrive with a "Reserved" status, and Guesty blocks the calendar dates for a limited time. A request to book policy allows you to add a verification step for your guests before they can book. You have 23 hours and 50 minutes to approve or decline the booking request before it expires.
There are cases when a reservation will always be received as a request to book, regardless of the listing's booking policy.
Understanding the reservation flow
When a guest enters their payment details and clicks "Reserve", the reservation status in Airbnb updates to “Pending verification”.
Airbnb then performs the following checks:
- Availability and Occupancy: Airbnb verifies the calendar availability and ensures the guest count doesn't exceed the maximum occupancy. If these requirements are not met, Airbnb automatically declines the reservation.
- Identity and Payment: Airbnb verifies the guest's identity and payment method. This process can take up to 24 hours. If verification fails, Airbnb cancels the reservation, and it doesn't sync to Guesty.
Successful verification
If the verification is successful, the process differs based on your policy:
- Instant book: Airbnb attempts to charge the guest immediately.
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Request to book: The reservation in Airbnb changes to "Pending". You have 23 hours and 50 minutes to approve or decline the reservation before it automatically expires. If the request expires, an automatic message is sent to the guest informing them that the request has been denied. This message can't be altered or removed.
Once you approve, Airbnb attempts to charge the guest.
If the charge is successful, Airbnb performs a final availability check. If the listing is still available, the status becomes "Confirmed".
If the payment fails, the status changes to "Awaiting payment". The guest has 24 hours to update their details before Airbnb cancels the reservation.
Receiving a reservation as a request to book
In certain scenarios, a reservation arrives as a request to book regardless of your settings.
Identity verification
Airbnb requires guests to verify their identity. If a guest doesn't complete this within 12 hours, the request expires. These appear in Airbnb as "Awaiting guest ID" where the reservation can still be accepted or declined.
Guesty receives these requests once the verification is complete. After verification, the reservation and any associated messages sync to Guesty with a "Reserved" status, and the dates are blocked. The request expires after 24 hours if it is not confirmed or declined.
Configuration mismatches
A reservation defaults to a request to book if doesn’t meet the listing’s configurations regardless of your listing booking policy.
For example:
- Advance notice: The booking falls within your defined advance notice period.
- House rules: The guest doesn't agree to your house rules, safety considerations, or guest verification requirements.
- Age restrictions: The guest doesn't comply with age limitations set in Airbnb. For example, if a guest includes children on a listing marked "not suitable for children." Outline the desired age of guests in the listing’s description fields.
- Stay duration: The guest requests a stay exceeding your maximum nights setting. Note that seasonal or daily maximum nights settings override this.
- Last-minute check-in: A guest books within 48 hours of check-in and selects a custom check-in time outside your defined window.
- Regional policies: If you have a “Strict” cancellation policy, South Korean guests can cancel their reservation at any time and receive up to a 50% refund, except for reservation on listings in Italy.
- High-risk flags: Airbnb flags the booking as a high risk for a party or event.
- Existing conversations: A guest requests a new reservation through an existing message thread.
- Flexible settings: The check-in or check-out settings are set to "flexible", allowing guests to edit these times during booking.
Note:
- When a guest clicks "Contact host" in the Airbnb platform, a reservation with an "Inquiry" status is created. You can change its status to Confirmed or Closed. Inquiries don't block the Guesty calendar.
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If a listing has a note saying that "the listing is not yet available to all guests", learn how to resolve the issue.
