How to keep a guest from booking the night of

[Johanna248]

Hello.

We have instant booking turned on and last night we had a guest book with us at 11pm for the same night. We had already gone to bed and weren't expecting anyone, so we were very startled and underprepared when they arrived around midnight.

Is there any way to prevent guests from booking so last-minute, other than turning instant booking off every night and turning it back on again in the morning? We'd really like to be able to leave it on so that guests that are booking at least 1 day before arrival won't have to wait around for our response.

Thanks!

[Rachel177]

@Johanna248 you can set a limit on when you will accept reservations. Go into edit your listing, then into the availability. The first section that you see will have reservation preferences. Go into the advance notice & select 1 days notice, if you want to have a day's notice (guests can still book up to midnight the night before they arrive). Or you can select a longer time for advance notice, or if you are comfortable with same day booking & check in you can cut off the booking time at 6pm (or whatever time suits you).

[Emilia42 · Accepted solution]

@Johanna248

 Set your advanced notice to "At least one day " Note that guests will still be able to book at 11:58pm for check in the following day. If this is still not enough time, set on at least 2 days. Make sure that little box for instant book hosts is UNCHECKED. You don't want people send you requests on the day of since you will likely be declining them.

[Emilia42]

P.S. Contrary to what some other hosts may say here about Instant booking ... it can be a really great thing as long as you know how to use all the tools and set them in your favor.