The difference between instant book and request to book is actually quite simple. Instant book allows a guest to book with your rental immediately by using a debit or credit card. While with a request to book you will have to accept the guest’s reservation manually. Now although these differences are not overly complicated the difference it makes on your vacation rental can be huge.
In this article, I will discuss the Pros and Cons of both instant book and request book:
Pros and cons of instant book
Pros
- Improved guest experience
- More bookings
- Higher amount of revenue
- Appearing higher on search results
Cons
- Potential for getting unwanted guests
- Higher cancellations
- Required to keep calendars up to date
Pros and cons of request to book
Pros
- Full control over what guest books with you
- Typically will have fewer problems with guests
- Fill your calendar up how you want
Cons
- Not very appealing to many guests
- Potential loss revenue
- Fewer bookings
Instant Book Vs. Request to Book- Which should I choose?
This question can be slightly complex and really will boil down to what your personal priorities are. The real two differences are if you value more bookings and revenue over full control of what and when guests book.
Airbnb and Vrbo have said outright that they do prefer listings with instant booking enabled. This will be an important thing to note if these are the two main sources of bookings.
AirDNA conducted research on the median revenue differences between instant booking and request to book. The research clearly shows that no matter the location you will have an increase in revenue by using instant book. With hosts earning up to 52% revenue increase just by using instant book!
Instant Book Vs. Request to book- Conclusion
The final verdict to instant book or not is really up to you and what you think to be most important. At lodgable, we highly recommend hosts to use instant book. We find the value of instant book far outweighs the value of using request to book. The truth is the vacation rental industry is continually growing and continues to change. Every day more and more people are choosing to book places that allow them to book instantly.
