Pending Bookings

If a guest checks out of the booking process without making an immediate payment (via credit card or PayPal), the booking will be created in a pending status. This means the time is blocked, but there is a deadline for receiving the payment. Also, see the How can I ensure that door codes will not be sent to guests for last-minute pending bookings? FAQ.

If you don't receive the payment or mark the booking as paid within that time, it'll be automatically canceled. If a booking is pending, you'll see that as a status, and an hourglass will appear on the booking calendars. 

While OwnerRez will have the guest's credit card on file, allowing hosts to accept by clicking Confirm & Take Payment Now or cancel the pending booking, there is a default template for the pending reminder emails, which you can customize yourself by navigating to Settings > Messaging > System Messages > and on the right side of the "Send Pending Cancellation Reminder To Guest (payment" message, select Change Message from the Action dropdown menu.

• Property Pending & Auto Cancellation settings
• Request to Book Settings
• Manually Change Booking Pending Status
• Manually Change Quote Pending Status
• Check or Custom Instructions payments
• "Card will not be charged at checkout" rule
• Channel Integrations
• Bad cards through channel integrations
• Vrbo Channel Integration Request To Book Mode
• Finding Pending Bookings

The auto cancellation time is set in the rules section for each property by navigating to Properties > your specific Property > Rules > Change > Pending & Auto Cancellation. Here are the default settings. Bookings are set to auto-cancel if payment is not completed within 14 days. Note that OwnerRez recommends the "Card will be charged when the booking is made" option, which is the default.

You can choose to collect guest credit card information but to set the booking to a pending status, allowing hosts to "vet" the guest or get a completed renter agreement. For more information, see our Instant Book vs. Request to Book support article.

Request to Book Settings

If you want to set your Property Settings to Request to Book, change the property rules so that guests' credit cards are not charged immediately, so the booking remains pending until you decide to approve or cancel the guest. You set the credit card option by going to Properties > Select a property > Rules > Pending & Auto Cancellation > Change > For Credit Cards, select the choice "card will not be charged". Set the number of days for auto-cancellation, and decide whether to be notified or have the booking automatically expire. Carefully consider your auto-cancellation settings. If the booking has been "placed" but you have not confirmed that it is valid, you probably want it to auto-cancel after a few days. You certainly don't want to be stuck with your calendar blocked by an invalid "booking."

The other settings in this area let you disable pending cancellations and send yourself a warning notification email to address the issue.

Manually Change Booking Pending Status

You can manually set a booking as pending from being "permanent" under the specific Booking > Change Pending Status. You can make it pending for a specific number of hours or until a certain date.  You'll only be able to make manual changes if there are no payments yet - by definition, a pending booking is only pending because no payments have been made.  As soon as a payment is recorded, however small and by whatever method, the booking will become permanent. If the booking is already permanent, the Pending Status will not be available. Here are the Change Pending Status options. 

• Confirm this booking using the credit card on file (recommended).
• Remove the pending flag and make this booking permanent without collecting any payments.
• Make it Pending for a number of hours or days.
• Make it Pending until a specific date.

Once you've had a chance to review the guest's request and would like to move forward with the reservation, go to Bookings and open the reservation. You will see options at the top of the screen to "Confirm & Take Payment Now" (to process the payment) or "Change Pending Status."If you choose "Change Pending Status," you can either accept and charge or make the booking permanent without charging. To cancel the booking entirely, use the "Cancel Booking" option from the top-right kebab menu dropdown list.

You should normally use the "Confirm and Take Payment Now" link to accept a pending booking. While it is possible to manually accept a payment, if you do this, then none of the normal actions (additional payments, security deposits, etc.) will be automatically scheduled - in effect, it will be treated as a manual booking

Manually Change Quote Pending Status

You can change your Pending & Auto Cancellation rules for quotes by navigating to the specific Quote > Rules > Change > Pending & Auto Cancellation.

The settings appear and act just like property Pending & Auto Cancellation rules, but will only apply to that specific quote.

Check or Custom Instructions payments

If you've got a Check or Custom Instructions payment method and the guest uses it to check out, the booking will be flagged as pending until you receive the payment. Check payment methods show the "make check out to" and mailing information. Custom Instructions payment methods allow you to enter a block of text describing how to pay you -- for example, bank transfer or wire transfer instructions.

These payment methods will only be available based on the days or hours configured in the rules section for each property or quote.

By default, the arrival date must be 15 days in the future for them to show up during checkout. If it's fewer than the days in future settings, they won't appear, and any remaining payment methods (credit card/PayPal) will appear instead. If you don't have a credit card or PayPal payment method, and it's less than the days-in-the-future setting for your other payment methods, the guest won't be able to check out and will instead receive a message directing them to contact you to pay.

Once you get the check in the mail, wire transfer, etc, go to the specific Booking > Transactions > from the Payments dropdown list, select Record Payment.

Enter the Amount Paid and select the Payment Details Type and click Save.

That will record the payment in the system and clear the pending flag on the booking.

If you want to change the pending deadline date or turn off pending without receiving a payment, you can use the Change Pending Status link in the booking's pending bar on the booking:

"Card will not be charged at checkout" rule

"Confirmation required but credit card verified" is similar to the "check or custom payments pending" flow -- but for credit card payments instead. Follow the instructions in the Request to Book section.

The Vrbo configuration (cancellation policy, initial payment amount, charges, etc.) will be automatically passed through into the Booking.  However, if desired, you can make changes in the Rules or Charges tabs of the Booking, such as if you've made a private agreement with the guest to take a lower initial payment.

Once you've validated the guest and confirmed that the time is available in all calendars, use the "Confirm & Take Payment Now" link in the Booking's pending bar to actually charge the card.

Channel Integrations

In your fully channel-integrated listing channels, you can select hours (or days) from the dropdown menu to automatically place the booking in a pending state in the event of credit card failures.

You can review your channel-integrated listing channels by navigating to Settings > Channel Management > Channel Integrations > specific Listing Channel > Change > Credit Card Payments > If Card Fails.

Are you wondering what "fully integrated" means and which channel-integrated listing channels are classified as "fully integrated?" A fully integrated listing channel allows guests to book directly on the listing channel. Those channel-integrated listing channels include Vrbo, HomeToGo, GuestSmiles, getawayGoGo, Whimstay, Rentalz, Hopper Homes, and Got2Go.

Bad cards through channel integrations

The Vrbo and Booking.com channel integrations both send credit card info with bookings. They do some level of credit card validation before they allow a booking, but it's possible that the card succeeds on their end but the charge fails in OwnerRez -- perhaps the guest's card was valid but didn't have enough balance to run the first payment.

When this happens, the Booking will be set as pending in OwnerRez, and we'll send a card-failure email to you and the guest so the guest can update the card on file. You can also go to the Booking Transactions tab and send a Request > Request New Card which is basically the same thing.

Vrbo Channel Integration Request To Book Mode

By default, the Vrbo channel integration is in Instant Booking mode and runs the first payment as soon as the booking is received.

If you set it to Request To Book mode, all bookings will come into OwnerRez as pending for 24 hours by default -- similar to the "Card will not be charged at checkout" rule -- and you'll be able to choose to confirm them or cancel them using the links in the bar at the top of the Booking's page.

To reject the booking request, you have the option to Cancel the booking. It will automatically be rejected via the channel integration and cleared from your OwnerRez calendar. If you don't take action by the specified time, the booking will automatically be canceled.

Finding Pending Bookings

You can search for Pending Bookings in the main Bookings > List view > Filter > Booking Status, and select Pending only.