Booking requests vs instant bookings

For each unit, you choose whether guests send a booking request that you confirm yourself, or make an instant booking that is confirmed after their first payment.

Booking requests

• A guest sends a booking request.

• The booking gets the unit's Initial status: Pending (the default for new units) or Confirmed.

• The guest can follow the status of their booking on their guest page.

• You confirm or cancel the booking yourself. You can also create an invoice, which is added to the guest page.

Want to confirm requests automatically once the guest pays? Turn on Automatically confirm booking requests after initial payment in the unit's settings. This requires an automated payment method.

Instant bookings

• A guest makes a booking.

• The invoice is created right away, and the guest is asked to pay.

• The booking is Pending until the first payment is received. It then becomes Confirmed automatically, and the guest receives a confirmation.

• If there is nothing to pay up front, the booking is Confirmed immediately.

With an automated payment method, you can also turn on Cancel bookings when initial payment fails. A payment fails when it expires or when the payment provider rejects it. Under Payment expires after, set how long guests have to pay.

Choose between booking requests and instant bookings

• Open a unit.

• Click on Settings.

• At Instant bookings, choose one of the options:

For booking requests, also choose the Initial status.

When a guest books multiple units at once and one of them only accepts booking requests, the whole booking becomes a booking request.