Modify Reservations (Alterations)

When a guest needs to change their reservation — different dates, more guests, a different price, or even a different listing — you handle it with a reservation alteration. Vanio supports creating, accepting, declining, and tracking alterations on every Airbnb reservation directly from the dashboard.

Quick reference: Modify reservation, change dates, change check-in date, change check-out date, extend stay, shorten stay, add guests, change price, alteration request, alteration, modify booking, change booking, edit reservation — all done from the dashboard reservation modal → Modify action.

What's an alteration?

An alteration is a proposed change to an already-confirmed reservation. Either side (guest or host) can initiate one. The other side has to accept it for the change to take effect. Until accepted, the original reservation stays in place.

You can change:

• Check-in date — move it earlier or later
• Check-out date — extend or shorten the stay
• Number of guests — bump up or down
• Total price — override what the guest pays for the new dates
• Listing (in some cases) — move the same booking to a different unit you own

Once submitted, the other party has 24 hours to accept. If they don't act, the alteration expires automatically and the original reservation stands.

Where to find it

Open the reservation in the dashboard. The modal has a Modify action. Clicking it opens a form for the new values:

• New check-in / check-out date (leave blank to keep the same)
• New guest count (leave blank to keep the same)
• New total price (optional — only if you want to override the auto-calculated price)
• Message to guest (recommended — explains why you're proposing the change)

Submit. Vanio sends the alteration to Airbnb (or whichever channel the reservation came from). The guest sees it in their Airbnb inbox and can accept or decline.

Shortening a stay below the minimum-night requirement

Hosts can now successfully shorten a guest's stay even when the new length falls below the listing's minimum-night setting. If a guest originally booked the minimum number of nights required by your listing and you later agree to release some of those nights, Vanio will correctly approve the change when Airbnb asks for confirmation — instead of blocking it.

Here's the situation this fixes: suppose your listing has a four-night minimum. A guest books exactly four nights. Later, you and the guest agree that three nights would work better. You initiate the shortening on Airbnb and the guest accepts. Previously, Vanio would decline to confirm the change, citing your own minimum-night rule — even though the booking already existed and you had explicitly approved the alteration. Airbnb would then tell you to contact your channel manager, leaving the stay stuck at four nights with no way to resolve it from either side.

Vanio now correctly distinguishes between the two situations:

• A new booking request — minimum-night, maximum-night, and arrival/departure rules apply in full, just as before.
• A change to an existing reservation — only a genuine conflict with a different booking can block the alteration. Your listing's stay-length rules do not apply, because the booking is already on the calendar and you have already agreed to the change.

If the dates you're shortening to genuinely overlap with another confirmed reservation, Vanio will still decline the alteration and tell you why. The fix is targeted: it removes only the restriction that was incorrectly vetoing the host's own approved changes.

Nothing changes in how you initiate the alteration. Go to the reservation modal → Modify → set the new check-out date → add a message → Submit. Vanio and Airbnb handle the rest automatically.

Vanio AI and stay modifications

Vanio AI can now handle requests to shorten a stay below your minimum-night setting on its own — without escalating to you. When a guest asks Vanio AI to shorten a reservation, the AI checks whether the change is feasible and, if you have AI approvals enabled, completes the alteration automatically. The same rules apply as above: your minimum-night setting is not treated as a blocker for an existing reservation, only for new booking requests.

Previously, when a guest asked Vanio AI to shorten a stay to fewer nights than your listing's minimum, the AI would escalate the request to you even if you'd already approved changes like this in the past. That escalation path no longer applies to shortening an existing stay. The AI correctly recognizes that the booking is already confirmed and that your approval setting governs whether it proceeds — not your minimum-night rule.

What this means for you in practice:

• If you have AI auto-approval enabled, Vanio AI will complete the shortening on your behalf and notify you afterward.
• If you have AI approval required, Vanio AI will present the proposed change for your review rather than flagging it as something it can't handle.
• A genuine scheduling conflict with a different reservation will still stop the change and prompt the AI to explain why.

Nothing changes in how guests interact with Vanio AI. They ask for the change the same way they always have. The difference is that the AI now sees the request through and gives the guest a real answer, rather than asking you to step in.

Note: Vanio AI's ability to act autonomously on alteration requests depends on your AI approval settings. Go to Settings → Vanio AI to review or adjust those settings.

Real-time alteration notifications

Vanio now automatically notifies your connected tools the moment an alteration request is created or resolved. When a guest submits a change request on Airbnb, any app or integration you've connected through Vanio receives an instant notification — no polling, no manual refresh needed. You'll also get notified the moment that request is accepted, declined, or cancelled.

This means:

• Your connected tools stay in sync automatically. Channel managers, CRMs, revenue tools, or custom automations you've plugged into Vanio will reflect alteration activity as it happens, without waiting for a periodic sync.
• Two notification moments, every time:
  • When an alteration request first comes in (including what changed — dates, guest count, price — and who initiated it, whether guest or host)
  • When the alteration reaches a final outcome: accepted, declined, or cancelled
• No duplicate notifications. If Vanio receives the same update more than once from Airbnb (which can happen), it's smart enough to send the notification only once.

This works for Airbnb alterations. If you're building a custom integration, see the Repull webhook documentation for the reservation.alteration.created and reservation.alteration.responded event references.

Calendar sync improvements

Calendar updates now work correctly for all reservation modifications. Whether you initiate a change from the dashboard or a guest requests different dates through Airbnb directly, your Vanio calendar automatically updates to reflect the new booking dates.

Previously, when guests made date changes through Airbnb (extending their stay, moving check-in earlier, etc.), the reservation details and pricing would update correctly in Vanio, but the calendar display could get stuck showing availability on the old dates. This meant you might see calendar blocks that didn't match the actual reservation dates.

Now both host-initiated changes (made through the Vanio dashboard) and guest-initiated changes (made through Airbnb) properly sync your calendar availability in real-time.

Pricing changes — what to know

When you change dates, Airbnb auto-calculates a new total based on your nightly rate × new nights. If you want to override that (e.g. you're giving the guest a discount or charging extra for a peak weekend they're now adding), use the Total Price Override field.

Pricing changes now save correctly. Previously, when you modified cleaning fees, service charges, or other pricing details, the system would show a success message even though the changes weren't actually being stored. This has been fixed — all pricing modifications are now saved properly every time.

Full refunds and zeroed-out pricing on VRBO reservations

Zeroing out pricing fields for a full refund now works correctly for VRBO reservations. If you use Modify Pricing to fully refund a VRBO guest — setting pricing fields to zero — the host payout now correctly stays at $0 instead of reverting to a negative number. Applying the modification more than once will no longer flip the payout back to an incorrect value.

If you processed a full refund on a VRBO reservation before this fix and noticed a negative host payout, you can correct it by opening that reservation and applying the same Modify Pricing change again. The payout will update to $0 and stay there.

[Screenshot: Modify Pricing panel showing zeroed-out fields with a $0 host payout]

Currency is handled automatically

Manual reservations are now recorded in your property's configured currency automatically. If your listing is set to CAD, EUR, GBP, or any other currency, any reservation you create by hand will be recorded in that currency — you don't need to set it manually or worry about a mismatch.

Previously, manually entered reservations always defaulted to USD regardless of how the property was configured. This could result in incorrect currency records for non-USD properties. That's now fixed: Vanio reads the currency directly from your listing configuration and applies it to every manual booking.

Note: Reservations imported from channels (Airbnb, VRBO, etc.) always use the currency those channels report, which takes priority. The listing currency applies specifically when creating a reservation by hand through the dashboard.

Pricing rules to remember:

• Lengthening a stay — Vanio defaults to charging the same nightly rate × extra nights. Override if you want a different deal.
• Shortening a stay — Vanio defaults to refunding the unused nights. Override if you want to keep some of the money (e.g. as a cancellation fee for the missing nights).
• Different dates entirely — repriced from scratch using your current nightly rate, dynamic discounts, fees.
• Adding guests — if you have a per-extra-guest fee set in pricing, the alteration auto-includes those.

The new total is shown in the alteration form before you submit, so you can verify before sending.

Same-day turnovers and stay extensions

Vanio AI correctly handles extensions when another guest is checking in on your checkout day. This is called a same-day turnover — one guest checks out in the morning and a new guest checks in later that day — and it's fully supported.

Here's what that means in practice: if your current checkout is Sunday and you want to add Sunday night (checking out Monday instead), Vanio AI will correctly recognize that as available — even if another guest is already scheduled to check in on Monday. The Monday check-in doesn't affect the Sunday night you're adding; it only occupies Monday night onward. Vanio AI checks the actual availability of the night being added, not the checkout date itself.

If you ever ask Vanio AI to extend a stay and it comes back confirming the extension is possible, that verdict is accurate — same-day turnovers at the new checkout date are not a conflict.

Note: If the night you're actually trying to add is genuinely occupied by another booking (not just the checkout date, but the night itself), Vanio AI will still correctly refuse that extension and let you know why.

Who initiates and what each means

Host initiates → guest accepts

You spotted a calendar conflict, the price was wrong, or the guest asked you to extend the stay. You propose the change. The guest gets a notification. They accept (booking updates) or decline (booking stays as-is).

Guest initiates → host accepts

The guest opens their Airbnb trip and requests a change. The alteration arrives in your dashboard with status Pending, and you'll see it on the reservation modal. You review the new dates / guest count / price and either Accept or Decline.

The dashboard shows pending alterations in a dedicated Alteration Requests filter so you don't miss any. You can also enable a notification (Settings → Notifications → Alteration Request) to get a Slack or email ping the moment one comes in.

Status lifecycle

Each alteration has a status that progresses through:

• Pending — submitted, waiting for the other side to act
• Accepted — both sides agreed; the change is now live and the reservation reflects the new values
• Declined — the other side rejected it; the original reservation continues unchanged
• Canceled — the initiator pulled it back before the other side acted
• Voided — the alteration expired (24-hour window passed without action) or got invalidated by another change

You can see every historical alteration for a reservation by clicking History in the modal. Useful when there's been a back-and-forth and you need to figure out what was agreed when.

What syncs

For Airbnb, alterations sync via the official Airbnb reservations alteration API. The lifecycle (pending → accepted/declined) is fully bidirectional — Vanio mirrors Airbnb and Airbnb mirrors Vanio.

For Booking.com and VRBO, the host-side alteration API surface is more limited. Vanio supports viewing alterations and accepting/declining, but proactive host-initiated alterations may need to go through the channel's own extranet for those bookings. Native creation of host-initiated alterations on those channels is on the roadmap.

For your direct booking website, alterations work the same way but Vanio handles them internally (no third-party API). Refunds for shortened stays go through payment processing automatically.

Common scenarios

"Guest wants to extend by 2 nights and the dates are open." Open reservation → Modify → New check-out = +2 days → Total Price Override left blank (Vanio uses your nightly rate) → Message: "Sure, those nights are available. Confirming the extension." → Submit. Guest accepts → reservation now spans the extra nights.

"Guest wants to extend by 1 night, and a new guest is checking in on the new checkout day." This is a same-day turnover — fully supported. The night being added is available as long as it isn't occupied by the other booking. Vanio AI will confirm the extension is possible. Open reservation → Modify → New check-out = +1 day → Submit. The back-to-back works automatically: your current guest checks out that morning, and the new guest checks in later the same day.

"Guest wants to extend but I have someone else booked starting that day." Don't accept the alteration. Decline with a message: "Unfortunately the next two nights are already booked. The earliest I could host you again is [date]." Suggest alternative dates or another property if you have one.

"Guest wants to shorten by 3 nights — what should I refund them?" Open the modal → Modify → New check-out = -3 days. Vanio defaults to refunding the 3 nights at full nightly rate. If your cancellation policy is firmer than that (Strict or Super Strict), use Total Price Override to keep some of the money. Be transparent in the Message field: "Per our [policy] cancellation policy, the new total reflects a 50% refund for the unused nights."

"My listing has a four-night minimum. The guest booked four nights but only needs three. Can I shorten the stay?" Yes. Initiate the change on Airbnb and ask the guest to accept, or have the guest request the change themselves. Once both sides agree, Vanio will correctly confirm the alteration — your listing's minimum-night rule applies to new bookings, not to changes you've already approved on an existing reservation. The shorter stay will go through without any channel manager error. If you use Vanio AI, it will handle the guest's request directly without needing to escalate to you.

"A guest asked Vanio AI to shorten their stay below our minimum-night setting. Will the AI be able to handle it, or will it ask me to step in?" Vanio AI will handle it. The AI now correctly treats this as a change to an existing booking rather than a new booking request, so your minimum-night setting doesn't block it. Whether the AI completes the change automatically or brings it to you for a final go-ahead depends on your AI approval settings in Settings → Vanio AI. Either way, the AI won't escalate it as something it can't do.

"I need to fully refund a VRBO guest and zero out all pricing fields." Open reservation → Modify → Modify Pricing → set all fields to zero → Save. The host payout will correctly show $0 and stay there. If you applied this same change before a recent update and the payout shows a negative number, simply open the reservation and apply the Modify Pricing change again — it will self-correct.

"I want to move a guest from unit 3B to unit 4A because 3B has a maintenance issue." This is a listing change, not just a date change. Use the Move Listing action in the dashboard modal (it's a separate action, not under Modify). It re-creates the reservation on the new listing while preserving the same confirmation code. See Reservation Operations for the move-listing flow specifically.

"The guest sent me an alteration request and I haven't acted on it for 12 hours." You have 24 hours from when the request was sent to act before it auto-expires. Open it from your inbox or the Alteration Requests filter and accept/decline. After 24 hours of inaction, Airbnb voids the request automatically and the original reservation stands.

"Can I auto-accept alterations under certain conditions (e.g. extending by ≤ 2 nights)?" Yes — set up an Automation. Workflows → Trigger: Alteration request received → Conditions: extension ≤ 2 nights AND new dates available AND no price decrease → Action: Accept alteration. This is useful for high-volume hosts who get a lot of legitimate small changes.

"I manage mostly Canadian properties. Will manually created reservations be recorded in CAD?" Yes. As long as your listings are configured with CAD as the currency, any reservation you create manually will automatically be recorded in CAD. You don't need to do anything extra — Vanio picks up the currency from your listing settings.

"I use a third-party tool connected to Vanio. Will it automatically know when an alteration comes in?" Yes — as long as that tool is connected through Vanio's integration layer, it will receive an instant notification when a new alteration request arrives and again when it's accepted, declined, or cancelled. Your connected tools don't need to check for updates manually; Vanio pushes the information to them as soon as it happens.

What you can't do here

• Move money you've already collected — alterations only adjust the reservation. If you collected a payment via your direct site and need to refund part of it, that's a separate refund action under the Payments tab in the modal.
• Change the guest's name — Airbnb doesn't allow this via alteration. The reservation stays under the original name. If a different guest is checking in, the original guest is still legally responsible.
• Change the cancellation policy — the policy is locked at booking time. Subsequent alterations don't change which policy applies.

Audit trail

Every alteration is logged with: who initiated, when, what changed, the new values, the message sent, and whether it was accepted or declined. You can see the full history in the reservation modal under History. For reporting, alterations are also surfaced in the dashboard activity feed so PMs can see what's been changing across the portfolio at a glance.