Ability to have one channel be instant book and air b&b not be

Status: Requested 1 Vote
Ventura County V
Mar 30, 2022 1:37 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 120 posts

On a prior provider, I was able to have direct bookings through Booking.com and still keep Air B&B to an "ask first" setting.  Why is this not possible with OR?  AB&B does not have any requirement for this (and really shouldn't be able to force this upon us).

 

Thanks,
Ryan

BlueMtnCabins
Mar 30, 2022 5:20 PM
Joined Jun, 2016 1127 posts

Actually it does have an Airbnb requirement, if you are IB on vrbo, you must be IB or Airbnb. If you want to have Airbnb on RTB, you have to change others to RTB as well. 

Ventura County V
Mar 30, 2022 5:31 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 120 posts

Actually it does have an Airbnb requirement, if you are IB on vrbo, you must be IB or Airbnb. If you want to have Airbnb on RTB, you have to change others to RTB as well. 

I'm coming from Lodgify where (as of this morning) I was instant book on Booking.com (only option they offer) and request to book on VRBO and AB&B.  If it were an ABB mandate, you'd expect it to be enforced with all their PMS partners.  Right now, I can't have one of my properties on Booking because of this.  I can't allow that one to be IB on ABB or VRBO because the demographic using those sites would book it for a party 9 times out of 10.  Booking, while providing me very few bookings, has all been a much different and more professional clientele.

As far as I know from researching close to a dozen PMSs over the last 9 months, OR is the only one with this requirement.

Ventura County V
Mar 30, 2022 5:38 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 120 posts

Though I do appreciate the Highlander reference on the integrations page.

Ken T
Mar 30, 2022 6:38 PM
Joined Aug, 2019 1707 posts

Well, that is the requirement that Airbnb imposed on us, in order to allow us to do Request-to-Book at all.  Their system, their rules I guess.

Are you sure that other systems allow RTB in Airbnb but IB on other channels?  Do you have a specific example?  Perhaps they have changed their policies and we can also take advantage.

Ventura County V
Mar 30, 2022 6:50 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 120 posts

Well, that is the requirement that Airbnb imposed on us, in order to allow us to do Request-to-Book at all.  Their system, their rules I guess.

Are you sure that other systems allow RTB in Airbnb but IB on other channels?  Do you have a specific example?  Perhaps they have changed their policies and we can also take advantage.

by Ken T – Mar 30, 2022 10:38 PM (UTC)

Understood, though unfortunate.  Yes, Lodgify is one I can attest to from first-hand experience.  At 8am this morning (Pacific), before I started migrating to OR, I had an API connection to Booking.com which was IB by it's very nature.  I had VRBO and ABB as IB.  This was for my "Resort" property. 

Up until two weeks ago on my "Oasis" property I had AB&B and VRBO as RTB and Booking.com as IB.  Two weeks ago we decided to go back to IB and I put ABB on IB.  VRBO I put on IB a few days ago, I think that may be a new feature for them as I don't recall seeing it before.

 

Booking is geared towards hotels, so it does not allow an RTB function.  That's the crux of the problem is that if I want to be on that site, I can't keep a higher level of control on the platforms where the userbase is more "party focused" and people will rent a space and think nothing of having 50 people come over for a wedding reception/brunch.  AB&B's party prohibition is completely ignored.

 

Edit: I was with them since May of 2021 and on Booking from probably August or September on.

Ventura County V
Apr 1, 2022 1:32 PM
Joined Mar, 2022 120 posts

For now, I've created a duplicate listing and sync'd their calendars.  The duplicate is only on BDC while the primary is on ABB and (eventually) VRBO.  $7/m workaround, but for now it'll have to do.