You can add a tentative reservation to place a hold on the availability calendar. A tentative reservation is treated the same as a confirmed reservation in most ways, but it will expire if it is not confirmed by the expiration date. This means that you can edit the guest profile, see the financials, send emails to the guest and manage operations for the reservation, but it will not be counted as a confirmed reservation until you actually confirm it.
If the tentative reservation isn't confirmed by the expiration date, it'll revert into a saved quote.
Tentative reservations can be added to hold dates for a guest who isn't ready to book yet. You may also see tentative reservations placed in CiiRUS from Vrbo where a guest has booked, but their payment declines. This gives you some time to follow up with the guest to obtain a new payment method before confirming the reservation.
This article will cover the following:
How to add tentative reservations
How to update the expiration date of a tentative reservation
How to confirm a tentative reservation
Vrbo tentative reservations
How to add a tentative reservation
The same way you'd add a confirmed reservation, is how you'll add a tentative one. You can use the add reservation shortcut from anywhere in the system, or you can add a reservation to a specific unit from the Reservations Manager or Reservations Calendar.
We'll add a tentative reservation from the Quick Actions menu in this example.
From the top navigation, click the dotted icon to open the Quick Actions menu and select "Add Reservation"
From the add reservation popup window, enter the following details:
Confirm the unit selection
Specify "Reservation" as the type
Enable the checkbox for 'Tentative Reservation' and choose the expiration date. (It defaults to three calendar days.)
Select the arrival and departure date
Enter the guest details
Choose a reservation source such as PMC or Vrbo based on where the reservation came from (PMC is the default)
Click the "Add" button
Tentative reservations will be highlighted in red when looking at your reservations from the Reservations Manager or Reservations List:
Convert a confirmed reservation to tentative
If you have already added a reservation, you can still convert it to a tentative reservation from the Reservation Folio. To do this, in the Folio header, click the arrow under the Reservation Status field and select "Make reservation tentative."
How to update the expiration date of a tentative reservation
From the Reservation Folio, you'll easily be able to see if the reservation is tentative and update the expiration date from the Folio header. By default, the expiration date is three calendar days for new tentative reservations, but you can push the date forward or back:
How to confirm or expire a tentative reservation
To confirm or expire a tentative reservation, simply select the from the buttons within the Folio header:
After expiring a tentative reservation, it'll convert into a saved quote. The details will still be available from the "Saved Quotes" module.
Tentative reservations from Vrbo
If you see a tentative reservation from Vrbo, it's likely that the guest's payment information was declined when they made the booking. The reservation is tentative to give you a chance to follow up with the guest to obtain new payment details.
Expert tip: We recommend auditing your new reservations at least once a day to ensure that you do not miss any tentative reservations from Vrbo.
Warning: If the tentative reservation expires, the dates will be released back to the calendar. It is best to ask the guest to rebook on Vrbo instead of converting the saved quote into a reservation. This will prevent the reservation from being picked up as an offline reservation, which could result in increased commission charges from Vrbo.