How travelers search and book

Travelers come to our platform to find their perfect vacation rental. Whether it’s that ideal beachfront location or a property big enough for their entire family, each traveler is searching for something a little different. When a traveler searches on our platform, your property will appear among many others in our marketplace. Having a property that performs well in search results is important to your performance. Your search position is influenced by many factors, including:

• Quality of your listing content
• The competitiveness of your rates
• Your history of accepting and honoring bookings
• The quality and quantity of your property reviews

Edit your listing

Why the booking journey is important

Knowing every option a traveler has to book your property helps you understand how you can adjust your listing or booking type settings to improve the booking experience for you and the traveler.

Travelers can take several paths to booking your property. They can start with a question (an inquiry), make a booking request (if you’re using 24-hour review), or go directly to a confirmed booking (if you’re using Instant Booking).

Inquiry

The traveler finds your listing and wants to know more about it. Once their questions are answered, you can secure the booking by sending a payment request. The traveler has 72 hours to make a payment to confirm the booking and automatically be added to your reservation calendar. 

Reservation request

If you're using 24-hour review, the traveler can send you a reservation request for the listing they want to book. You have one full day to respond to the request. If everything looks good, you can accept the request and the booking will automatically be added to your reservation calendar. 

Instant Booking

If you have Instant Booking  turned on, the traveler can book your listing and automatically be added to your reservation calendar.

Your inbox is where you manage all traveler communication, from inquiry to booking request. On your dashboard homepage you can see your most recent traveler communications right when you log in. It’s easy to identify which messages need your attention. 

Go to Inbox

Whether the traveler is asking a question or making a booking request, always try to respond quickly. This not only ensures that you can get the booking, but also gives travelers confidence you’ll provide them with a great experience. If you’re not already doing so, you can also turn on Instant Booking. This lets travelers go straight to a confirmed booking without the need for you to review a booking request. 

Switch to Instant Booking

From your dashboard, go to “Property”, then “Rules and polices”, then “Booking type”.