Instant and Request bookings

Instant Booking is a type of booking that allows you to pre-approve all available times on your calendar for reservations up to a certain party size. This means when a Guest makes a reservation request, they can confirm and pay immediately, and you don't need to manually approve the request.

Request-based booking is the other process by which Guests can book. After a guest requests your listing, you, as the Host, review the request and manually approve or decline it, and the Guest confirms that they’ll be attending. 

Change requests also follow the booking's creation type. For example, if a guest requests to increase the number of guest or amount of time of a reservation created through instant booking, their change request will be automatically approved. Request-based bookings changes will require the host approval before being confirmed.

Turning Instant book on makes you 80% more likely to get a booking, as it pushes your listing up in the search results, and eases the booking process for Guests. Your pool will appear before other pools in your area without Instant Book on, and Guests are more likely to book with you as they know they will not have to wait to be approved or declined. We recommend having Instant Book turned on if you are a Host who is widely available and is open to a higher volume of bookings. 

As long as it is within the timeframe of your cancellation policy, a Guest can cancel their reservation regardless of how it's booked. It should also be noted that Instant Book does not affect your advance notice policy. for more info on advanced notice and other availability settings, please see Managing availability

To set up instant book using our website, follow these steps:  Select Manage Listing from the main menu Select the listing to be changed Select the Host Settings tab Find Instant Book, under the Booking section. Click Edit A popup will appear that allows you to select the maximum party size allowed for instant bookings. Click Enable Instant Book After Instant Book is enabled, you can change the allowed party size or disable it by selecting the Edit button again If you choose to deactivate Instant Book, a new popup will appear that asks you to confirm your decision

To set up Instant Booking from the Swimply app, follow these steps: 

1. Select the Manage Tab after logging in as a host
2. Find the correct listing and select Manage your listing, under the listing's thumbnail
3. Under Host Settings, select Booking settings
4. Next, select Instant Book
5. Selecting Instant Book will bring up a new page with four blue numbers and a header that reads “Learn how guests book”. Scroll to the second number, and select the line that reads “I don’t want to review every request” 
6. You will then be able to select the max group size that you want to allow for instant booking. Any booking requests that include more than the amount shown here will still require your approval.
7. Request-based bookings can be enabled for all bookings, by selected “I want to review every request”
8. Make sure to select “Got It” to save your changes