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Your first booking

Chapter 07 · 6 min

Every booking begins as a conversation. This chapter follows one inquiry the whole way: a guest messages you, you quote, they pay, you verify, the unit confirms. Once you’ve done it twice it takes about two minutes of actual work.

  1. An inquiry opens. A first message on WhatsApp or Airbnb opens one automatically, with the chat attached; a phone call or walk-in you enter yourself on Inquiries → New inquiry. Either way you land on the inquiry page: guest details, dates, the conversation, and the quote builder.

    The Inquiries screen - the pre-booking funnel with each inquiry’s stage

  2. Build the quote. Pick the unit and dates; nightly price, fees, and taxes fill in from your setup. Adjust anything - the quote shows exactly what the guest will see.

  3. Send the quote link. One click shares a secure link in the chat. The guest opens a beautiful page - your letterhead, the itemized quote, your payment details - with no app and no login. (There’s a PDF version behind the same link.)

  4. The guest pays and uploads proof. On the quote page they upload a screenshot of their transfer. The guest never states an amount - you do: the proof lands on the inquiry’s Payment screenshots tab and on the Payments board, tagged against what’s actually due.

  5. The unit goes on hold. Recording the payment proof holds the unit - two hours by default (the “Listing hold” setting) - so two guests can’t chase the same nights. An expired hold releases itself; nothing to clean up.

  6. Verify the payment. On Payments, open the proof, compare it with the amount due, and verify (or reject, with a reason the guest can act on). Verification is what posts real money into your books - it’s a human decision, always.

    The Payments board - the awaiting-verification tile counts the uploaded proofs

  7. Confirm the unit. Back on the inquiry, Confirm the unit turns the inquiry into a booking. It appears in Bookings, on the Calendar, and in Today’s upcoming check-ins. The guest gets a confirmation automatically if you’ve enabled that agent rule.

Three things typically happen between now and check-in, each with its own guide:

  • Guest screening - request ID through a secure upload link. → Bookings & stays
  • Door codes - released by the dual gate (payment ✓ and ID ✓), by hand or by the pre-check-in agent. → Concepts: the lock-code gate
  • Check-in - one tap on Today when they arrive.

You can run this alone - but you shouldn’t have to: Invite your team.