Deciding how you’ll confirm reservations

Here’s what to consider when choosing either Instant Book or booking requests.
By Airbnb on Sep 1, 2023
2 min read
Updated Sep 1, 2023

You can accept guest reservations on Airbnb one of two ways: automatically with Instant Book, or manually by responding to booking requests that show up in your inbox. Many guests love the convenience of Instant Book, which also saves Hosts time and can even lead to more bookings.

What is Instant Book?

Instant Book is a setting that allows guests to immediately book your place for available dates on your calendar. You don’t have to review and accept every booking request individually. 

All guests must agree to your house rules and meet Airbnb’s requirements when they book. After you publish your listing, you can add settings that require guests to:

  • Have a good track record on Airbnb, with no reviews below three stars and no incidents reported to customer support

  • Read and respond to an automated pre-booking message that you create

How do booking requests work?

Booking requests allow you to manage your guest reservations manually using your Airbnb inbox. When a guest sends a booking request, you’ll have 24 hours to accept or decline it before it expires. You’ll be able to set up notifications to make sure you get requests as soon as possible.

When a guest requests a booking, the dates are automatically blocked on your calendar to prevent overlap with future requests. Those dates remain blocked if you accept the booking request or if you let it expire, so it’s important to respond to every request promptly.

Which option is right for you?

Here are some things to consider when deciding how you’ll receive bookings:

Instant Book

  • Guests like being able to confirm reservations immediately, which can lead to more bookings

  • Instant Book accepts bookings for you based on the parameters you set

  • You’ll need to keep your calendar up to date and sync it with any other calendars you use

Booking requests

  • Guests appreciate rapid responses, so it’s best to use this option only if you’re generally able to respond quickly and always within 24 hours

  • Booking requests let you communicate in greater depth about special rules or features of your place, such as steep stairs leading to the only entrance

  • You can’t refuse booking requests for reasons that violate Airbnb’s nondiscrimination policy

Choose the method that’ll help you avoid canceling on guests for preventable reasons, which could result in penalties. You can update your choice anytime in your booking settings.

Information contained in this article may have changed since publication.

Airbnb
Sep 1, 2023
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