When you need to make alterations to reservations booked on online travel agencies (OTAs), you may need to go to the booking platform to perform the alteration. It depends on the type of alteration that you want to make, and the OTA in question; is it Airbnb, Booking.com, or Vrbo?
Changing the Check-in or Check-out time for a particular reservation
If you have offered a guest an early check-in or late check-out, you can make changes to the check-in or check-out time directly in the conversation thread UI on Hospitable!
This applies to any reservation, regardless of the booking platform used.
Note:
Changing the check-in or check-out time for an OTA booking does not relay the updated times back to the booking platform!
The check-in and check-out times will, however, be updated in Hospitable's public API.
Changes made to the check-in and check-out times will be reflected in operational tasks, guest and team messaging.
For all platforms, you can update the reservation's check-in and checkout times directly from the conversation thread. To do this:
Go to Hospitable > Inbox
Open the guest's conversation thread
Click on the check-in or check-out time at the top of the left sidebar. (On mobile, this is within a sub-menu accessed by selecting ... at the top right within a guest conversation.)
Adjust the time using the up and down arrows.
Click away to save the change automatically
Be aware of changing AM and PM, so that you don't accidentally set it to midnight when you meant to set it to noon!
Note: Changing the check-in or check-out time on a reservation will not trigger the "New date alteration" notification rule under Operations!
In order to notify your teammates of the change, if they aren't assigned to a task related to check-in or check-out, you must set up a "New time alteration" notification rule.
For any other alterations (such as stay dates, guest count, or included pets):
Altering Airbnb reservations
For Airbnb reservations, you can select "Alter Reservation" on the guest's conversation page in Hospitable to start the alteration process. However, if you're on a limited connection to Hospitable, you will need to manage any alteration requests on Airbnb or your other software.
Walk through the steps of altering the reservation and click "Confirm" at the end.
This will create an alteration request, which will be sent to the guest to approve.
The alteration feature will calculate a new payout based on the changes you make.
Be mindful of this, and make sure to manually edit amounts where needed.
Altered amounts may be significantly reduced if, for example, you have added a promotion to the dates on your Airbnb calendar in the time since the reservation was booked.
Airbnb makes the financial calculations for the reservation, based on the reservation alteration data sent over by Hospitable. Hospitable displays the payout amounts we receive from Airbnb.
Altering Booking.com reservations
Similar to Airbnb, Booking.com reservations can be edited directly from the guest's conversation thread in Hospitable. However, there are some limits to this!
If you use Payments by Booking.com, then you can only make alterations to the reservations from Hospitable before the guest checks in! After their check-in, you will no longer be able to make alterations to the reservation in Hospitable.
In that case, please contact Booking.com's customer support to request an alteration.
If you do not use Payments by Booking.com, and you manage payments yourself, then you can make alterations to the reservation at any time from Hospitable.
Altering Vrbo reservations
For reservations booked through Vrbo, changes must be made directly on the booking platform.
Hospitable has no control over, or permission to make alteration requests for Vrbo reservations.
FAQs
Why is the price higher / lower than expected after the alteration?
Why is the price higher / lower than expected after the alteration?
The price can change after a reservation is altered due to the pricing rules set on your listing. For example, if you offer a weekly discount and the guest shortens their stay to less than a week, that discount will no longer apply, so the updated price may appear higher. Similarly, extending a stay might apply new discounts or pricing, which could lower the price.