Booking.com’s Request to Book feature is available in all markets for eligible property types. It allows hosts to disable Instant Booking and review a guest’s booking request before accepting or declining it.
This article explains how Booking.com Request to Book works, how Hospitable handles these requests, and which property types are eligible.
Request to Book in Hospitable
Booking.com’s Request to Book feature is sometimes referred to as an “inquiry.” However, a request to book and an inquiry are different events and are associated with different event messaging rules.
Hospitable treats a Booking.com booking request as an Inquiry. To communicate with guests who request to book your property, use the New inquiry event messaging rule.
🚨 Note: Booking.com does not yet allow hosts to message guests through a third-party software like Hospitable during an inquiry.
The only exception to this is if the guest made the request to book using the iOS Booking.com app on their phone or device.
How Booking.com Request to Book works
When a guest submits a request to book a property on Booking.com:
The host has 24 hours to accept or decline the request.
If the host does not respond within 24 hours, Booking.com automatically declines the request.
If the host accepts the request, the guest has another 24 hours to complete the booking.
If the guest does not complete the booking within those 24 hours, the request expires, and no booking is created.
The dates are not blocked on your Hospitable or other listing calendars!
🚨 A Request to Book from Booking.com does not block the requested dates on your Hospitable calendar. This means that:
A guest could book those dates on another listing on the same property (Airbnb, Vrbo, etc) before you accept the Booking.com booking request, or before the guest has completed their booking and paid.
If a guest books the requested dates on a different platform, you will not be able to accept the booking request.
If a guest books the requested dates on a different platform after you've accepted the Request to Book, the guest will not be able to complete their booking.
Double bookings are prevented this way.
Eligible property types
The request to book feature is not available for all property types.
The feature was intended for short-term rental hosts, and not for hotels.
Eligible property types are:
Holiday homes
Apartments
Villas
For any questions about your eligibility or about the request to book feature in general, please contact Booking.com's support directly.
How to enable Request to Book for Booking.com
In Hospitable:
Go to Properties and select the property that contains your Booking.com listing.
Go to the Availability page on the left-hand side menu.
Go to the Instant book tab.
Select the Review and approve option for the Booking.com listing.
Save your changes.
FAQs and troubleshooting
Why can't I toggle Request to Book on for my Booking.com listing?
Why can't I toggle Request to Book on for my Booking.com listing?
There is a specific scenario where hosts aren't able to switch between "Instant book" and "Request to book" on Booking.com.
When you created your listing on Booking.com, if you selected to set your listing to "Instant book" during the creation flow, and you then connected that listing to a property management software like Hospitable, you will not be able to change the booking preference to "Request to book".
This is a limitation placed by Booking.com, and something Hospitable cannot override.
How do I accept or reject a request to book from a Booking.com guest?
How do I accept or reject a request to book from a Booking.com guest?
You can accept or reject a guest's request to book with you directly from the Hospitable inbox.
These are the only actions a host can take on a request to book from Booking.com.
Why can't I message a guest who requested to book with me on Booking.com?
Why can't I message a guest who requested to book with me on Booking.com?
Booking.com does not yet allow hosts to message guests who made a request to book through a third-party software like Hospitable.
When you receive a request to book, and if you want to message the guest, you need to go to the Booking.com Pulse app or Extranet.
The only exception to this is if the guest made the request to book using the iOS Booking.com app on their phone or device.