Instant Booking or approval for your boat charter is one setting per boat: the booking mode drop-down at the top of the boat editor. Instant Booking lets a guest who picks free dates book and pay straight away. Approval Needed sends you a request to accept or decline first, and Disabled takes the boat off the site.
Pick Instant Booking when your calendar is always up to date. Pick Approval Needed when you need to check each request before you commit to it.
How to change the booking mode
- In your dashboard, open Boats and click the boat's name. The boat editor opens.
- At the top right, beside Save Changes, open the drop-down.
- Pick Disabled, Approval Needed or Instant Booking.
- Click Save Changes.
Any member of your company can change it. When you add a boat, the wizard's Instant Book switch sets the starting mode.
Instant Booking
A guest who picks free dates books and pays straight away, without waiting for you. Your boat page then shows Instant Book, "Book immediately without waiting for host approval", as long as the boat can actually be booked.
Instant Booking only works for you if a week shown as free really is free. Keep your other calendars connected with Calendar Sync, and close the weeks you sell elsewhere with How do I block dates on my boat's calendar?.
Approval Needed
On a boat you price yourself, a guest's booking arrives as a request:
- We email your company address.
- The request shows as Pending Approval under Bookings.
- Its dates stay held on your calendar while it waits.
- The company owner opens it and clicks Review & Accept, where the price, fees or dates can be adjusted as a special offer, or Decline.
The steps for that screen are in How do I accept a booking request or send a special offer?.
On a boat priced through MMK or Nausys, a booking places an option in that system straight away, whichever of these two modes you pick.
Disabled
Disabled takes the boat off the site. The badge beside the boat's name turns Draft, and it stays that way until you pick another mode and save. Use it when the boat is out of service for a while. To close only some dates, block them on the calendar instead.
Why can't I pick Instant Booking?
On a boat with one-way delivery options, the editor shows Multi-port — approval required and Instant Booking is greyed out. Bookings on that boat need approval so the current location can be confirmed.
On some Nausys boats, saving Instant Booking is refused with this message: "Instant booking is not available for this boat: the charter operator has to approve the hold before the dates are confirmed." That comes from the boat's settings in Nausys. Change it there, or keep Approval Needed.
Which one should I choose?
If your calendars are connected and you block dates as soon as you sell them elsewhere, Instant Booking is the simpler choice for guests: they book in one go. If you sell the same weeks in several places by hand, or want to check each crew first, Approval Needed protects you from a clash.
The rest of the boat editor is covered in How do I edit my boat's listing?. For every other screen in your dashboard, see the Owner Dashboard guide. If something here does not match what you see, ask Mermaid in the chat, or write to support@charter.boats.