Instant Booking lets travellers book your holiday rental instantly, without waiting for your approval. It can also increase acceptance rates and improve visibility.
Instant Booking
Used for
Automatically confirms bookings
Benefits
Show up in more searches and improve rank
Overview
Instant Booking makes it easier for travellers to book your holiday rental when they’re interested, instead of having to wait for communication. Save time, increase bookings and improve your performance in the search results.
Instant Booking also supports our commitment to inclusion and diversity, which all property managers, owners and travellers are required to follow. In addition, many travellers appreciate that Instant Booking lets them book a listing without having to reveal their name or country of origin, which could lead to possible discrimination.
When travellers want to book your property, they can choose these options.
- Open communications with a question (an enquiry)
- Go directly to a confirmed booking (if you’re using Instant Booking)
Instant Booking makes booking easier
The quickest and easiest way for travellers to book your property is to enable Instant Booking. This feature lets travellers go straight to a confirmed booking — without you needing to review the booking request. This can save time for you and travellers.
Don’t worry. You can still communicate with travellers as needed after booking reservations are confirmed, even with instant bookings.
Travellers can view your saved rental agreement if you have one prior to booking and must agree to your house rules as part of the instant booking flow/process.
Once the booking is confirmed, you can cancel it if the traveller is in violation of your house rules, but otherwise should only be cancelled upon the traveller’s request.
Improve your performance in search results
Your performance in the search results depends on several factors, such as the quality of your listing content, competitive rates, the number and quality of reviews and your history of accepting and honouring bookings.
Too many unsuccessful booking attempts can make travellers not want to book holiday rentals at all, which is why we consider your acceptance rate — or how frequently you accept bookings compared to how often you decline — when coming up with your rank. This affects how you show up in the search results.
For example, if you decline 40% of the booking requests you receive, your acceptance rate is 60%. Instant Booking automatically accepts all bookings to make your acceptance rate 100%.
A high acceptance rate shows you’re committed to helping travellers find and book their perfect holiday rental, you’re available for more bookings and you provide a great booking experience.
We understand there are times when you must cancel bookings. This is okay! One or two cancellations won’t have a negative impact on your ranking. It’s when they add up that it matters.
Using 24-hour review instead of Instant Booking
24-hour review gives you more time to look at each booking request. If you choose not to use Instant Booking, it’s still important to respond to guests quickly so that you can confirm the booking.
- With each request, you’ll have 24 hours to review, ask questions and choose whether to accept each booking request.
- It’s okay if it doesn’t work out. However, if you give approval, your guests are excited and the money is waiting.
- Make your house rules clear so that guests know what is allowed.
For the best results, we recommend Instant Booking. With Instant Booking turned on, it’s easier to accept more bookings and improve visibility.
Concerned about vetting travellers or accidentally double booking?
We hear you, and know that keeping your property safe and tidy is of great importance. With Instant Booking, you can still have conversations with your future guests before their trip to find out more about their stays and ensure bookings comply with your house rules.
To prevent double bookings, simply set up iCal to synchronise your calendar with any other platform you might be using. You can also check over your booking window to update how close or far out guests can make a booking.
From your dashboard, visit ‘property’ then ‘rules and policies’, then ‘booking type’ and select ‘Instant Booking’.
How it works
Use Instant Booking to automatically confirm all booking requests. This saves time for you and travellers and could help your listing appear higher in the search results.
Instant Booking also gives you more potential traffic by appearing across all Expedia Group sites at no extra cost. And to keep you in control, all travellers must agree to the following before booking:
- House rules
- Owner cancellation policy
- Damage policy
- Rental agreement
If a traveller books through Instant Booking but doesn’t meet your stated house rules, you can cancel without penalty.
How to turn on Instant Booking
- Log in to your dashboard and click on the ‘property’ icon in the left-hand menu.
- Next, click on ‘rules and policies’ and then ‘booking type’.
- Select ‘instant booking’ as your booking method and click ‘save’.
You can select Instant Booking for any or all of your properties. You can also switch back to 24-hour review any time by simply changing your settings.
Pro tip: Remember to block out any dates that you don’t want travellers to book instantly. Otherwise, they’ll be open for booking.
Instant Booking for property managers
Smaller property managers can also turn on Instant Booking in their dashboard. We recommend that larger property managers contact their account manager for help setting it up.
Property managers will be able to manage the listings as usual once the booking is made. The only difference is that bookings will be automatically accepted instead of needing review.
From your dashboard, visit ‘property’ then ‘rules and policies’, then ‘booking type’ and select ‘Instant Booking’.
FAQs
- You’ll see the new booking in your inbox and reservation list. You’ll also receive an email notification and an SMS or push notification in the mobile owner app if you have those enabled.
- A booking will also appear in your calendar.
There are several ways to make sure your listing availability is accurate to avoid declines and cancellations that could negatively impact your search ranking.
- Make sure you’ve blocked your calendar when your listing will be unavailable.
- Utilise iCal sync, a file format that you can use to import and sync calendars across multiple platforms like Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and other booking site calendars.
Travellers can contact you directly with cancellation or booking change requests by email, allowing you and your traveller to connect more quickly for a faster resolution.
There's an API available for cancellation requests only (Cancellation Service - REST API) that's a great option for partners with high volumes of requests. Please contact your software provider to learn about this API and whether you currently have access.
You'll receive an email notification of the booking, containing the below traveller details:
- Name
- Phone number
- Additional information such as whether the traveller has ever booked with us before
We use machine learning to understand what travellers want for an upcoming trip. Our ranking system looks at all the properties in the area, comparing amenities, number of bedrooms, location, reviews and other criteria. Then it ranks all properties — including yours — by how well they fit the traveller’s needs. This ranking is combined with an individual traveller’s preferences to determine where your property shows up in their search results. Learn more.
To stand out in search results, make sure to take the following actions:
- Create high-quality content. How travellers respond to your headline, photos, amenities and descriptions affects your rank.
- Set competitive rates. Set prices appropriate for your property, area and goals. Tools like MarketMaker can help!
- Accept and honour bookings. Responding promptly to enquiries and booking requests, accepting bookings or enabling Instant Booking and having a low cancellation rate will also help boost your market rank. These actions show our ranking system that you’re committed to creating great traveller experiences even before they book.
- Earn great reviews. Positive reviews help travellers know you take pride in your property and that their holiday is in good hands. Four- and five-star reviews show you’re committed to your guests and can influence your rank.
Our easy-to-use owner dashboard will be the primary location for managing your reservations, updating rates and keeping your listing up to date. Some partners choose to use a software provider to link our systems. They still log in to the owner dashboard to leverage our more advanced tools like MarketMaker and Boost.
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If you haven’t found what you are looking for, visit our Help Centre for step-by-step guidance on how to use our products.
Be accommodating to individuals with special needs and their service animals.
Do not add security deposits or pet fees – service animals are not pets.
Do not request documentation for a service animal. However, you may ask whether the service animal is required because of a disability or ask about specific functions that the animal performs.
Visit your local laws page in your dashboard for more information.
If you’d like to get involved or learn more about the policy landscape in your community, please reach out to GovernmentAffairs@Vrbo.com.
Integrated property managers use third-party or proprietary software that they have connected to our travel platform to manage their listings. Integrated property managers can manage their listings directly from their software by an integration feed that automatically updates reservations, amenities, photos and more.
