Reservation processing

Instant booking process

Depending on your booking policy in Airbnb, your guests can use Instant booking process or Request-to-book. All listings connected to Rentals United are set to instant book by default. If a listing was previously set to request to book, it will be automatically changed to instant book after you API-connect it.

If you are on instant bookings, your guests will see the Book now option on the Airbnb website.

  1. A guest enters the reservation page on the Airbnb website and provides the details of a reservation (dates, number of guests etc.).

  2. Airbnb checks with Rentals United if the property is available for the selected dates and number of guests.

  3. Rentals United confirms if the property is available or not.

    Note: Airbnb does not quote Rentals United for the pricing details. Instead, it calculates it itself on the basis of the pricing plan, taxes and fees shared with the Airbnb.

    Quote is performed in the following way:

    • in case the reservation was generated in a regular flow, then Rentals United is quoted for the property's availability, Minimum stay, Changeover restrictions and Preparation Time Before Arrival.

    • in case the reservation is a Special Offer, then only availability is checked.

  4. If the property is available to rent, the guest completes the reservation process on the Airbnb website by providing their personal data.

  5. Airbnb inserts a booking to Rentals United.

  6. Rentals United sends a reservation confirmation to Airbnb.

  7. Airbnb confirms the reservation on their side. An email notification with new reservation details is sent to the PM’s confirmation email address.

Request-to-book

Rentals United allows you to set the booking policy for your listings. The default booking policy mode is Instant bookings, but you can switch to On-Request Only. You can change the booking mode for each individual property.

In order to switch to On-Request Only, you need to contact the Rentals United Support Team and request a switch. The requirements are the following:

  • The property must run on the Sync Everything mode.

  • The property must not be available for instant bookings on any sales channel. It is only allowed to be on request

When the booking policy is set to On-Request Only, no instant bookings are possible. Instead, guests can create a request to book while browsing your property on Airbnb. You have 24 hours to confirm or decline a booking request. You can use this time for the guest verification purposes, for example.

While booking a property, the guest initially sees the Reserve button, as shown in the first picture. However, after they click it, they will see the Request to book option on the bottom of the page. After they book your property via Request to book, you will receive a booking request in Rentals United (it will be marked in a blue colour). This booking will not block your calendar’s availability yet.

Booking requests are created in the following cases:

  • Your property’s booking policy is On-Request Only

  • The reservation dates are shorter than the minimum stay requirements for this property and the host allows for booking requests in such a case;

  • The guest does not meet the requirements for instant book, which were set by the host;

  • There are specific restrictions on the listing or guest party, for example the property is not suitable for children, but the reservation includes children;

 

Booking requests can be confirmed or declined in the Rentals United platform and via API. You can see the step-by-step instructions on how to confirm and decline requests in the platform and via API here.

  • If you confirm the request, the booking request will be changed to a regular reservation (the confirmed reservation will be indicated by the green colour). The status changes to Confirmed and soon your guest will be charged automatically by Airbnb. The availability will also be blocked.

  • If you reject the request to book, you need to provide a reason for the rejection. The status changes to Rejected.

  • If you do not take any action about the request within 24 hours, Airbnb will change the request status to Expired.

 

Confirm a request

  1. Open Guest Planner and find the request you wish to confirm. Requests have a blue label and are in the Request status.

  2. Click the Accept this request button. The status changes now to Confirmed. The availability is blocked now and Airbnb has 24 hours to process the payment from the guest. In case the processing is not successful, this booking will be cancelled and the availability will be released.

  3. The request becomes a Confirmed reservation.

Reject a request

  1. Open Guest Planner and find the request you wish to confirm. Requests have a blue label and are in the Request status.

  2. Click the Reject this request button.

  3. 3. A pop-up displays. From the dropdown, select the reason for rejection. You need to provide an explanation in the Add a note textbox. Confirm by clicking Reject this request.

  4. The request will change its status to Rejected.

Contact host flow

While booking a property, the guest will see the Contact host option in Airbnb. You will receive a lead in Rentals United (it is marked in a blue colour). This booking will not block your calendar’s availability, but contain less information than a booking request. For Airbnb, leads can be differentiated from requests by their external reservation ID. For Airbnb, their external reservation ID starts with “T”.

Leads cannot be confirmed or declined. Their purpose is to let you know that the guest has tried to contact you. You can reach out to the guest via Guest Communication or the chat on the Airbnb website and ask them to make a booking through Airbnb.

 

Tip: Are you looking for ways to engage your clients to book your property? You may find it useful to read about Pre-approvals.

Inserting reservation manually

It is always possible to insert reservation manually in Rentals United Guest Planner or in the Bookings tab. In such a case, the availability is blocked and the channel is updated.

Note: Airbnb will not have access to the details of any reservation inserted manually.

Reservation details

When a reservation is received, Airbnb provides us with the standard guest personal data (name, surname, phone number etc.) and booking details (property name, number of guests, date, price). Some channels also include additional information. All these details can be accessed in Guest Planner > Big Card or via API methods used to retrieve reservations, for example Pull_ListReservations_RQ.

Airbnb provides now the detailed information on how much the guest paid for the reservation (Guest price).

Also, when a reservation is inserted to Rentals United, there is a price breakdown available in the Comments section of a reservation under the Booking tab or in Guest Planner.

Airbnb takes the following elements into account:

  • Daily price or LOS pricing;

  • Price modifiers;

  • Cleaning fee from Rentals United;

  • Guest fee (Rentals United does not have access to this information);

  • Currency conversion fee;

  • Mandatory local taxes in some locations;

  • Extra fees and taxes set in Step 5: Price and availability.

The sum of the above components is split into Daily price.

Comments section is updated every time there is a modification to the booking from Airbnb.

Item More info

Guest number

Pets number

Airbnb shares information about:

  • Number of adults

  • Number of children

  • Number of infants

  • Number of guests

  • Number of pets

Rentals United presents the information from the number of guests field. If absent, we add the number of adults and the number of children. You will find this information in the reservation.

Number of pets is synchronised and available via Rentals United API: e.g. by using Pull_ListReservations_RQ..
Cancellation Policy

Airbnb shares the cancellation policy that was used in the reservation.

However, it provides only part of their cancellation policies to Rentals United via API. Rentals United just displays the cancellation policy category received from Airbnb. For the detailed description of the cancellation policy categories, go here.

Importing bookings

In case you worked with Airbnb and received bookings prior to connecting to it via Rentals United, it is possible to import them into Rentals United to ensure all information is in one place.

Note: Only bookings held for future Rentals United will be imported. Note that this feature will only copy your bookings from Airbnb to . In case of modifications or cancellations of the copied bookings, the same rules as for other bookings apply.

If you have existing bookings in Rentals United, we will update them in Rentals United with the information from Airbnb.

Note: In case of Airbnb, Guest Communication threads will be imported together with the reservations. Note that the threads will be empty (will not include past messages), but you will be able to chat with the guests immediately after the import.

Bear in mind that this is a one-time action that is supposed to import bookings which were created before you have started using Rentals United or connected to Airbnb. Any new bookings will be automatically created in , without any need to manually import them.

  1. In Rentals United platform, go to the Services tab.

  2. Select the proper list to search for Airbnb.

    • Find Services lists the channels you are not yet connected to,

    • My Services lists the channels which you have already established connection with and channels that are in the process of being connected.

  3. Type the Airbnb name in the search box or scroll down through the list of available channels.

  4. Unfold the Airbnb section by clicking the Down arrow button.

  5. Click the Property Settings button.

  1. Find the account you would like to import bookings for. Hover the mouse over the three-dot menu on the account level. Click Import Airbnb bookings.

    Note: You can import bookings for the whole account only. This means it will import bookings from all listings referenced under one account. If you have more Airbnb accounts, you need to repeat it for each of them.

  2. Confirmation pop-up is displayed. Click Proceed & Import to continue.

  3. The process is initialized. Do not exit the page until it is finished. Depending on the number of bookings you have in your account, it may take a while to complete. Once the bookings import is complete, the page will reload. Please, verify if new bookings were successfully copied to Rentals United. You can do it directly through Guest Planner. If the process was not successful, you will see an error. In this case, try again. If the error persists, please contact the Rentals United Support Team.

    Note: If some of your seasons are blocked in Rentals United and you import bookings, these imported bookings will be placed within the blocked periods anyway. They may show up as overbookings. This is only a visual issue and there's nothing to worry about.

     

Modifying a reservation

Any reservation on Airbnb can be modified after both the host and guest come to an agreement about the changes. This is called Reservation Alteration. Either the host or the guest can start the alteration process, which creates a pending alteration. Modifications can be initiated only in Airbnb and will be synchronized to Rentals United in real time.

A guest can request changes to the dates and the number of guests. In such a case, the price is preserved for the days already reserved. Additional price is calculated for the dates outside of the existing reservation dates. The host can accept or deny the alteration request in Airbnb dashboard. If the host accepts, the reservation is modified. The reservation details are updated in Rentals United platform, as well as the property's availability.

The host can also modify the reservation conditions, for example dates or property. The guest must accept or deny the alteration request, otherwise the reservation remains unchanged. If the guest accepts, the reservation is modified. The reservation details are updated in Rentals United platform, too. You can read more about it in Airbnb Help.

Important: If you attempt to change the property, you must make sure that the new property is available in the reservation dates. Airbnb does not check the availability when reservation property is modified!

For listings using Daily price

Whenever a reservation's dates are modified: 

  • originally booked dates will maintain the same Daily price;

  • newly-booked dates will be assigned the most up-to-date Daily price.

For listings using LOS pricing

For listings using LOS pricing, the guest may not be able to begin an alteration. In such a case, the guest may ask the host to initiate the alteration.

If the LOS pricing for the original reservation dates were removed, for example you switched from LOS pricing to Daily price, then the new price will be calculated using Daily price.

Cancelling a reservation

It is recommended to avoid cancelling reservations to not face penalties from Airbnb. Because cancellations disrupt guests' plans and impact confidence in the Airbnb community, hosts should fulfil all confirmed reservations. If a host cancels a reservation, there are consequences that apply. In most cases, cancelling a reservation will place a calendar block on those dates. More detailed information on cancellation penalties can be found in the Airbnb Help Center.

Cancellations are initiated in Airbnb and synchronized to Rentals United in real time.