Everything you need to know about Request to Book

Updated 1 month ago | 4 min read
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Request to Book is a feature that offers you full control to manage booking requests. Unlike Instant Booking where guests can book a property directly, Request to Book requires guests to send a booking request that you can accept or decline. 

Request to Book takes more time for management than Instant Booking, and can result in fewer bookings and less revenue.

In this article:

  1. How Request to Book works
  2. How pricing and payments work
  3. Setting up Request to Book
  4. Managing booking requests
  5. FAQs

How Request to Book works

Guests can only view properties using the Request to Book feature if they’re searching for stays with a check-in date more than three days away. If a guest wants to make a last-minute booking, they can only book an Instant Booking property.

Here’s how Request to Book works:

  1. Guests who want to stay at your property send you a booking request at least three days before check-in.
  2. You receive a booking request notification and have 24 hours to accept or decline it.
  3. If you accept the request, the guest has 24 hours to complete their booking and confirm their stay. If they don’t complete the booking in time, the request will expire and no reservation will be made.

You won’t be able to communicate directly with the guest until the booking is confirmed. You can answer common questions in the Extranet’s Property questions and answers section.

How pricing and payments work

Pricing

The price shown when a booking request is sent is the price the guest would pay if they booked immediately. This price may differ from the one they’ll pay when they confirm their booking. 

The price may change if:

  • You start offering a promotion
  • You change the rate of your rooms

If the price changes after the guest submits their booking request, they’ll be notified of the new price after you accept the request. If they’re okay with the new price, they can continue and confirm their booking. If they’re not okay with the new price, they can look for another property to book. There will be no penalty if they decide not to complete the booking after seeing the new price.

Payment

The guest can only confirm a booking if you accept their request, but they won’t pay until they confirm the booking. When exactly payment occurs depends on how you manage guest payments at your property.

Setting up Request to Book

You can set up Request to Book during the registration process on our platform. Here’s how:

  1. When you reach the How you receive bookings page, select All guests will need to request to book to set up Request to Book. If you prefer to set up Instant Booking, choose All guests can book instantly. 
  2. Follow the rest of the instructions to finish setting up your property. 

You can start receiving booking requests as soon as your property is live on our platform. 

You can switch between Instant Booking and Request to Book anytime by following these steps:

  1. Log in to the Extranet
  2. Select the Property tab and click Policies.
  3. Under Other policies, click Edit in the How you receive bookings box.
  4. Under How can guests book your property? choose All guests can book instantly to activate Instant Booking. Choose All guests will need to request to book to activate Request to Book.
  5. Click Save.

Managing booking requests

There are several ways you can accept or decline booking requests.

Via your email inbox

Here’s how to accept or decline booking requests via email notifications:

  1. From your inbox, open the email notifying you about a new booking request.
  2. Click the Accept or decline request button to open the Extranet’s Request details page.
  3. Under Booking request details, select Accept or Decline.

 

Via the Extranet

To accept or decline booking requests on the Extranet, follow these instructions:

  1. Log in to the Extranet
  2. Go to the Reservations tab and select Booking requests.
  3. Under Status, you’ll see reservations with a pending response – click the link under Guests.
  4. In the Booking request details, click Accept or Decline for the request.

 

Via the Pulse app

To accept or decline booking requests directly in the Pulse app:

  1. Log in to the Pulse app.
  2. Select a pending request from the Home tab, or go to Bookings and select Booking requests to find the full list of bookings.
  3. Click a request with a pending status.
  4. In the Booking request details, click Accept or Decline for the request.

Before declining a booking request, review our Non-discrimination Policy. Declining a lot of requests can negatively impact how guests experience your property.

FAQs

  • Request to Book currently has limited availability. Only certain property types located in the following countries are eligible:

    • Italy
    • The United Kingdom 
    • France
    • Spain 
    • Germany
    • Australia 
    • The United States

    If your property is eligible, you’ll see Request to Book as an option during the registration process or on the Extranet’s Policies page.

  • We’ll send you an email if: 

    • You received a new booking request
    • A booking request expired before you took action
    • A booking request expired before the guest confirmed it
    • You have too many pending booking requests

    We’ll send you a push notification if:

    • You received a new booking request
    • A booking request will expire soon
    • You have too many pending booking requests

    If you use the Pulse app, make sure you have notifications turned on.

  • To let you choose which requests suit you best, we don’t automatically block availability in your calendar when a guest sends a booking request. This means you might receive requests with partially or fully overlapping stay dates. In that case, you can choose which booking to accept and which to decline on the Extranet or the Pulse app.

  • Request to Book will soon be available for partners who use channel managers and property management systems. Check with your channel manager or property management system to see if this option is available for your properties.

  • We take discrimination very seriously and expect that you review and follow our Non-discrimination guidelines before declining a booking request.

  • We recommend accepting or declining booking requests as fast as possible to provide travelers with a good customer experience. They’ll appreciate your quick action and leave with a more positive opinion of you and your property, even if you decline their request. Not taking action on booking requests also means a longer backlog of requests to catch up on, fewer bookings, and potentially less revenue.

  • If you don’t accept or decline a request within 24 hours, we’ll notify you that the request expired and was automatically declined. After it expires, you can no longer take any action for that request. Guests will receive an email explaining that you didn’t respond, and asking if they want to send another request or choose a different property. A few expired requests shouldn’t impact your business, but too many can result in disappointed guests, fewer bookings, and potentially less revenue.

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