If you haven’t already seen our latest direct booking feature, we have some exciting news to share! We are constantly striving to enhance our Direct solution and make life easier for short-term rental owners and property managers like you. That’s why we’re delighted to introduce our latest feature: Instant Booking. With Instant Booking, you can now accept booking requests in a snap as long as guests pass the stringent guest screening process powered by Autohost.
So, how does it work? When guests create a booking request, Hospitable automatically blocks those dates on any connected third-party online travel agencies (OTAs), such as Airbnb, where you may also list your property. This ensures that you avoid any double bookings or scheduling conflicts. But that’s just the beginning.
We’ve partnered with Autohost, a leading guest screening solution, to take guest verification to the next level. Guests are asked to upload a photo of their identification and a selfie. Autohost’s advanced machine learning algorithms then scan the ID for any signs of alteration or fraud. In addition, their facial recognition system verifies if the selfie matches the ID. Autohost also screens the reservation for common flags such as name mismatches, payment concerns, local 1-night stays, credit card declines, guests under 25, and guests on a blacklist.
Only verified guests will automatically be accepted, while the rest will be available for your review at your discretion. This means you can confidently accept qualified booking requests promptly without spending time manually reviewing requests that can come in at any time of the day. Instant Book streamlines your operations and saves you valuable time.
But there’s more! This identity verification also helps us to defend against chargebacks resulting from attempted fraud. This sets Hospitable apart, as we offer a unique direct booking solution that provides comprehensive protection against chargebacks for our hosts.
Instant Book is currently available as part of our Direct Premium solution, which is available in the USA and Australia. With Direct Premium, you have the flexibility to build your own website using our customizable templates or insert the Hospitable booking widget into your existing website. Each direct booking made through your website is covered by our robust guest screening process, $5 million worth of damage protection, and Hospitable acting as the Merchant of Record for payment processing.
Instant Book is also coming soon to Direct Basic, available everywhere Stripe is available. With Direct Basic, you can use the direct website templates and booking widget, but guest vetting and damage protection are not included, and you need to connect your own Stripe account.
Find out how to enable Instant Book in our help article.