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.

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.

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 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.

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 Stripe Connect 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 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."

"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.

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.