# On request or instant confirmation: selling rooms you can't guarantee

> Sell a room instantly when you can guarantee it. Sell it on request when you can't: the agent books, the room is held, nothing is charged, and you answer by a deadline. When on request beats closing a date, what the agent sees, and why your public website should take an enquiry instead.

*Source: https://itravel.cloud/blog/on-request-vs-instant-confirmation · published Nov 1, 2026 · topic: Hotels & inventory*

Sell a room with instant confirmation when you can guarantee it: from rooms the hotel holds for you, or a free sale you trust. Sell it on request when you can't: the agent books, the room is held, nothing is charged, and you confirm or decline by a deadline. On request beats closing the date when the answer is often yes, and loses when it is nearly always no.

For the agent, the difference is sending their client a voucher now or saying "I'll come back to you". For you, it is a promise to answer, on a clock.

## What "on request" means in B2B

Three ways to sell the same room, which agents and systems often blur:

| | Instant confirmation | Hold (an option) | On request |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who decides | Nobody: it is sold | The agent, before the hold lapses | You, before your deadline |
| Room taken from stock | Yes | Yes | Yes, while it waits |
| Agent charged | At booking | When they confirm | When you confirm |
| Voucher | At once | After the agent confirms | After you confirm |
| If nothing happens | Nothing: it is already sold | The hold lapses, the room goes back | The request lapses, the room goes back |

A hold is the agent asking for time; on request is you asking for time. A room sold on request should not also be holdable, or you get an option on a room nobody has confirmed.

## When on request beats closing the date

Closing a date tells every agent "no" without asking anyone. On request asks the one party who can answer, the hotel, and is the better choice when there is a real chance of a yes.

- **The allotment is sold out, or the night has passed its release day.** The hotel may well have rooms in its own stock. Selling "on request when full" turns "sold out" into a question. Your [allotment and release period](/blog/hotel-allotment-release-period-stop-sale) still decide what sells instantly; only what is left over becomes a request.
- **The hotel gives you no allotment at all**, or only for some room types. Suites, villas and family rooms are often sold this way.
- **Rooms whose every booking needs the hotel's yes**: interconnecting rooms, accessible rooms, a villa the hotel will not commit to in advance.
- **Groups.** Eight rooms on one night is a different question from one room, and many hotels answer it separately. Larger groups usually need their own block and terms; see [group travel software](/group-travel-software).

It is the wrong choice when the answer is almost always no. A peak date the hotel is known to be full, a stop-sale it has just sent: these should stay closed. A request declined every time wastes the agent's day and their trust in every other request.

## A decision table

| Situation | Sell it | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms held for you, before the release day | Instantly | The rooms are yours to sell. |
| Free sale, hotel reliable about stop-sales | Instantly | The risk is small and visible. |
| Allotment sold out or released, hotel often has rooms | Instantly from stock, then on request when full | You keep selling without promising what you do not hold. |
| No allotment for this room type | On request | Every sale needs the hotel's yes. |
| Agent wants a few hours to talk to their client | A hold, if you offer holds | The agent is deciding, not the hotel. |
| Hotel closed or stopped sale on the date | Closed | A request would only collect declines. |
| Arrival is tonight or tomorrow | Usually instantly or closed | There is rarely time for a request to be answered and acted on. |

## What the agent sees, and what they tell their client

- **At search and on the hotel page**, the rate is marked "On request" before the agent chooses it.
- **At checkout**, a plain notice: the operator confirms or declines it; the room is held for you; nothing is charged until it is confirmed. The button says "Send the request", not "Confirm".
- **Straight after**, an email: request received, the time by which you will answer, nothing charged.
- **On the booking**, no voucher yet. A voucher for an unconfirmed room is the most dangerous document you can issue.
- **When you answer**, a confirmation with the voucher, or a decline with your reason. If nobody answers in time, the request lapses and the agent is told.
- **Meanwhile**, the agent can withdraw the request if their client changes their mind.

What the agent tells their client is the part no system can do, so give them the words. Something like: "This hotel confirms this room type itself. I have requested it and the room is held while they answer, which will be by tomorrow afternoon. Nothing is paid until it is confirmed. If they cannot do it, I have a second option ready."

The second option is the agent's job; a clear deadline and a fast answer are yours.

## How long should an agent wait?

As short as your desk can reliably keep, and never longer than the booking can bear. Two limits apply:

1. **Your answer time**, a number of hours you commit to.
2. **The service itself.** A request for a stay starting tomorrow cannot wait 24 hours, so the answer is due at your answer time or before the booking cut-off ahead of check-in, whichever comes first.

The worst outcome is not a decline. It is a request left to lapse after the agent has told their client to expect an answer.

## Your desk's side: who confirms, and when the hotel says no

On request moves work from the system to your reservations desk. Plan it like a shift:

- **One list of waiting requests, soonest deadline first**, so nobody answers the easy ones and lets the urgent one lapse.
- **A reminder before each deadline**, to the desk, not to the agent.
- **Ask the hotel in the way the hotel answers fastest.** For many it is still a phone call or an email to reservations. Find out which, hotel by hotel, before the first request arrives.
- **Record the hotel's confirmation number** when you confirm, so the voucher and the rooming list carry it.
- **Charge the agent when you confirm**, not before. If their account can no longer cover it, you find out then and decide whether to extend credit or decline, which is why funds should be checked when the request is made too. More in [agent credit and prepaid wallets](/blog/agent-credit-and-prepaid-wallets).

When the hotel says no, decline quickly and say why, with an alternative if you have one: "Garden rooms are full on the 14th; Pool rooms are available at a supplement." Once you decline, the room goes back to stock and nothing was charged, so there is nothing to refund.

Once a request is confirmed it is an ordinary booking, under the cancellation policy it was sold with. Make sure that policy is one the agent read before sending it: see [cancellation policies agents can't misread](/blog/cancellation-policies-agents-can-read).

## Why a public website should take an enquiry instead

Agents know what on request means; a traveller on your website may not. A traveller who pays by card and receives "your booking request has been declined" two days later has had a refund instead of a holiday, and the disappointment lands on your brand, not the hotel's.

So on a public website, a line you sell on request should not be bookable. Show it, explain that you confirm each booking yourself, and take an enquiry: you answer with what you can actually offer before anyone has paid. "On request when full" belongs to your trade channel for the same reason: on the website, sold out should read as sold out. More on running both channels from one stock in [selling B2B and B2C from one inventory](/blog/sell-b2b-and-b2c-from-one-inventory), and on the site itself in [travel website builder](/travel-website-builder).

## How iTravel does it

- **You choose what is on request:** a hotel rate plan, or a whole room type, which puts every rate of that room on request. Separately, a rate plan can keep selling **on request when sold out**, which turns a sold-out or released night into a request; a stop-sale, a closed arrival or departure day and a minimum stay still refuse.
- **Only your own agents send requests.** The request is a real booking with the status "on request": its rooms are taken under the same lock as a sale, and the agency's funds are checked but not charged.
- **Your answer time** is yours to set (24 hours unless you choose otherwise). The deadline is that, or the product's booking cut-off before the service starts if sooner, and never less than 15 minutes. Your desk is reminded before it (two hours unless you change it, or never).
- **Manage → Requests** lists what is waiting, soonest deadline first, with a count of those due within three hours. Confirm, and in one step the booking is confirmed and the agency charged; if its account cannot carry it, the confirmation is refused and nothing changes. Decline with a reason the agent reads. Unanswered requests lapse on their own, and declined, lapsed or withdrawn requests give their rooms back with nothing charged.
- **The agent is emailed** when the request is received, confirmed, declined or has lapsed. No voucher is issued until it is confirmed.
- **Something on request is never offered as a hold.** Holds are a separate setting: hours per rate plan, with a cap per agency if you want one.
- **Your website does not sell on-request lines.** It says the operator confirms each booking and invites an enquiry.

For a DMC selling to agencies abroad, this is part of the daily operation described on [DMC software](/dmc-software).

## Setting up on request: a checklist

- [ ] Decide, room type by room type, whether the hotel guarantees rooms (instant) or confirms each booking (on request).
- [ ] For allotment rooms, decide whether to keep selling on request once the allotment runs out or the night is released.
- [ ] Set an answer time your desk can keep on its worst day, not its best.
- [ ] Name who watches the requests list, including weekends and the hotel's time zone.
- [ ] Agree with each hotel how you ask and how fast they answer, and keep its reservations contact up to date.
- [ ] Write two or three decline reasons with alternatives, so declines go out fast.
- [ ] Check your agents' credit before peak season: a confirmed request is charged at confirmation.
- [ ] Check your website shows on-request lines as an enquiry, not as a booking.