Setting up your property listing
To open for bookings on our site, you'll first need to set up your property page and ensure that all the necessary information is provided.
Whether you’re in the process of completing your registration or doing a final check before you open for bookings, here is everything you need to know about your property listing.
Haven’t completed your registration process yet? Continue where you left off.
Complete your property listing checklist
Before you can open your property listing, you first have to provide the information required for you to accept and manage bookings as well as help guests understand what is available at your property. The following checklist is a great place to start:
- Your property setup: Adding property-level facilities is crucial as it allows guests to view and book based on their preferences. Facilities such as swimming pools, gyms, and saunas can be added during registration and edited in the Facilities & services section of your Property tab. Other important details like building information, safety features, self check-in options, and sustainability initiatives should also be included, so potential guests have all necessary information to make a decision.
- Your room setup: On the Property layout page under the Property tab you will be able to add your different room types and indicate bed options and occupancy. You can also set up your whole property to be listed as one unit. We recommend that for every room you add up-to-date room amenities as guests actively choose to book their stay based on these. For example, free Wi-Fi and air conditioning can be very attractive to potential guests.
- Your property, room and facility photos: Photos are one of the most important parts of your property listing, as potential guests rely heavily on them to decide whether to make a booking. Adding great photos can make your property stand out, and we recommend adding as many as you can. If possible, include a front-view of your property, all its rooms – including the kitchen and bathroom – and any facilities guests have access to.
- Pricing per guest: In addition to your base price, you can also set pricing per guest. Setting different rates based on the number of guests will make your property more appealing to a wider variety of guests such as solo travellers, couples or families.
- Syncing your availability across platforms: Make sure your calendar is always up-to-date, especially if you're listed on several online travel platforms. While a two-way calendar sync helps keep your availability synchronised across platforms, using Connectivity Providers might be a better choice for you to reduce manual work and possible double bookings.
How your property description is generated
At Booking.com we use smart descriptions for properties, which are automatically generated and translated based on the information you provide when setting up your property listing. These descriptions have two key advantages:
- Smart descriptions are proven to attract guests: Thanks to years of optimisation, we’ve found the best way to generate property descriptions based on the information you provide.
- Translated into all Booking.com language: Your property description is automatically translated into Booking.com's 43+ languages.
Explore the extranet
As a partner of Booking.com, you can manage your property by accessing the extranet - your administrative dashboard found at admin.booking.com. After completing registration, you will receive immediate access to the extranet.
While there are alternative ways to manage your property such as through our mobile app called Pulse or Connectivity Providers, we will primarily focus on the extranet throughout your onboarding process.
Review your property listing foundations
Now that you’ve added all of the necessary details, let’s take a closer look at the four elements that we consider to be the foundations of your property listing.
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Availability: The first step towards being visible to guests on Booking.com is adding availability for the dates and rooms/units that you would like to make available for bookings. Guests can search and book up to 16 months in advance so in order to maximise your potential visibility across all traveller types - from last-minute to early booker - we recommend to load availability 16 months in advance. For example, if you only add availability until the end of the current month, any guest searching for stays for the next month will not be able to see your property in search. |
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Rate plans: We encourage all partners to build a strong foundation for their pricing strategy by setting up two base rate plans: Fully-Flexible and Non-Refundable rate plans. We will dive deeper into rate plans in future sections of your onboarding journey, but it’s important to know that in addition to these base rate plans, you can also create your own, custom rate plans. |
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Prices: Every room or unit on Booking.com comes with a price - or rate - and you can add these in your calendar, per night. There is a balance to strike here, as prices also come into play with your rate plans. For example, guests are willing to pay extra for fully flexible rate plans, to give them a bit more freedom to reschedule if their plans change. |
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Restrictions: These are conditions and policies that you define in order to ensure that you receive the types of bookings you want. While restrictions can give you peace of mind, they can also impact your visibility to try and use them sparingly. For example if your minimum length of stay is 5 days, then you will not be seen by any guests that are searching for 2 night stays. |
Making the calendar work for you
Your Calendar, located in the Rates & Availability tab of your extranet, is where you centrally manage your availability, prices, and even select the cancellation policies or your restrictions, such as minimum advanced reservations or minimum length of stay.
Final tasks before opening
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Setting up guest payment options
After updating your bank details, in order to get paid for your bookings, you need to choose how you would like your guests to pay. You can choose from either a variety of credit card options or guests pay you cash at the property. Another option would be joining our Payments by Booking.com service and we can facilitate guest payments for you (when guests pay online).
To ensure that your guest payment methods are set up correctly, you can follow these steps:
- Log in to your extranet account
- Under the Property tab, click on Policies
- On this page, look for the section titled "Guest payment options"
- From there, you can choose which payment methods you would like to accept, such as credit cards or cash payments
After you set your "Guest payment options", and before you receive your first reservation, if you’re eligible you may sign up for Payments by Booking.com. We'll take care of guest payments for you, and you won't have to worry about invalid cards, fraud, or chargebacks – giving you more time to focus on your core business.
Learn more about Payments by Booking.com
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Filling out the “Know Your Partner” form
To comply with legal and regulatory requirements, all of our accommodation partners need to complete the Know Your Partner (KYP) form. If you ever need to change the data you added, you can reach out to Customer Service and they will reopen the form for you to make the necessary edits.
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Verifying your property location
To make sure that guests can easily find your property on arrival – as well as for security reasons – we may ask you to verify the location of your property. Depending on the location of your property, you may receive a letter in the post, have a phone call with a member of our team, or be asked to upload a video of your property.
It’s very important you complete the verification process promptly, because until you’re verified you will not be able to receive payouts or process credit cards from any reservations that you receive. In some situations we may temporarily close your property listing until you’ve completed this step.
Open for bookings
After setting up your basic property listing and filling out all necessary information, you will be prompted to preview your property page on Booking.com as it would appear to guests. Please review and ensure that everything is accurate. If necessary, make any corrections before proceeding.
Once your property page is complete and all necessary information is added, a banner will appear on the extranet homepage inviting you to "Make my property live". Click on this banner, and your property will be open and available for bookings on Booking.com.
Before you continue…
Before we move on to the next step, we kindly ask that you ensure your property page is up to date, your location is verified, and that you are open and bookable on Booking.com.
FAQs
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The Booking.com extranet is a platform that allows accommodation partners to manage their business by updating information, managing reservations, and accessing performance data. Partners can access the extranet by logging in with their Booking.com extranet account.
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To manage access rights for your Booking.com extranet account, go to the Account section on the top of the page and select "Create and manage users." From there, you can add, remove, or modify access rights for users associated with your account.
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To help guests find your property, you need to verify its location on Booking.com. Depending on where your property is located, you'll receive a call or a letter with instructions to complete the verification process. If you can't receive mail or access your property, contact Booking.com for an alternative verification method.
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To make your property bookable, complete its information and follow these steps: log in, go to the Home tab, and click "Make my property live." If checks are needed, please complete them and select "Automatically go live".