Pre-Book Message without Instant Book?

[A-J-39]

I love the idea of the pre-book popup message.  But apparently it is only available if Instant Book is on (if I am wrong about this please advise).  What is the logic behind that?  Whenever I get a booking request I manually do a quick reply to reinforce to the guest the very stringent no pet/no smoking policy imposed by our HOA.  Would love that to be a pop-up when they place a booking request.

[Joan2709]

Hi @A-J-39 

Other platforms do offer that option, but Airbnb doesn't. Airbnb may reason that you have to respond to a trip request and would include your information regarding your policies in a response to the guest before accepting the booking. You can then decide if you want to accept the booking based on the response from the prospective guest. 

For Instant Book, the pre-booking message doesn't prevent a reservation from being booked, It just allows the Host to add info they want the guest to know, as they can't pre-screen guests like they would be able to with Trip Requests. 

[A-J-39]

Thanks Joan!  That makes sense.  To expedite the booking process, I might just reiterate our  HOA's no pet/no smoking policy in the scheduled message that goes out as soon as I accept the reservation request.  If the guest balks they have 48 hours to change their mind without penalty.