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.

A guest enters the reservation page on the Airbnb website and provides the details of a reservation (dates, number of guests etc.).
Airbnb checks with Rentals United if the property is available for the selected dates and number of guests.
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.
If the property is available to rent, the guest completes the reservation process on the Airbnb website by providing their personal data.
Airbnb inserts a booking to Rentals United.
Rentals United sends a reservation confirmation to Airbnb.
Airbnb confirms the reservation on their side. An email notification with new reservation details is sent to the PM’s confirmation email address.

Reservation details

When a reservation arrives, theSales Channel provides the standard guest information (such as name, surname, and phone number) along with booking details including the property name, number of guests, stay dates, and price. All of this information is available in Guest Planner > Booking details.

If you are an API user, you can get access to this information via the following API methods:

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

Item	More info	Example
Guest details	Guest name and surname Email (Airbnb-generated email) Mobile phone number Guests - hover over the tooltip and get access to additional information Number of adults Number of children Number of infants Number of guests Number of pets Number of pets is synchronised and available via Rentals United API: e.g. by using Pull_ListReservations_RQ.
Booking details	Reservation ID Airbnb ID (confirmation code) Creation date Modification date Guest’s preferred language
Property details	Property name and ID in Rentals United Check-in and check-out Guests - maximum number of guests that can be accommodated Property location
Channel breakdown according to Airbnb	Sales Channel provides the final reservation price breakdown. Whenever available, it should be used instead of the Rentals United breakdown. Total and daily breakdown of rent, fees and taxes Guest price - the total price booked by the guest Price to you - the amount that you will receive for this reservation Already paid - the amount of the booking that has been already paid Unpaid - the remaining amount of the booking to be paid by the guest Channel commission You should follow this breakdown to access the final and most reliable information about your reservation costs.
Channel breakdown according to Rentals United	Rentals United also provides a reservation breakdown. This breakdown follows your set-up in Rentals United. It may slightly differ from the channel breakdown due to the following reasons: Rentals United breakdown does not include the mark-up value Rentals United breakdown deducts the items in a specific order. Then, the received price is the rent value. The rent value is then divided by the number of booked nights. So it may happen that the rent value is different from the actual rent. The channel may apply additional costs to the reservations (e.g. additional fee) Some fees and taxes amounts may be added together due to mappings Rentals United fees and taxes the same item on the channel side The channel may charge the commission from the provided prices You should use it only to verify your reservation costs set up in Rentals United. Total and daily breakdown of rent, fees and taxes
Comments	Comments include the summary of the booking generated by Rentals United. Check-in and check-out dates Simple price breakdown Cancellation policy code used in Airbnb. However, Airbnb 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.

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.