Bookings and inbox

Bookings list

• Desktop: /dashboard/bookings
• Mobile: /m/(owner)/bookings

Sorted by upcoming check-in date. Use this view to plan your turnover schedule and follow up on pending bookings.

Booking statuses

• Pending — guest started checkout but payment hasn't completed (or is awaiting your confirmation for direct-payment methods)
• Confirmed — payment processed; booking is locked in
• Cancelled — either guest or host cancelled

Bookings paid through a card or processor-based method auto-confirm on payment success. Bookings paid through a local method or self-arranged payment stay pending until you mark them confirmed — typically after the guest sends payment per your instructions.

Instant book

If your villa has instant book enabled and the guest meets your rules, the booking auto-confirms immediately on payment success. No approval action needed from you.

For non-instant-book villas, card and DOKU bookings still auto-confirm on payment — instant book is mostly relevant for direct-payment flows where manual confirmation is the default.

Inbox

• Desktop: /dashboard/inbox — split-pane layout (thread list on the left, conversation on the right via the ?thread=... query param)
• Mobile: /m/(owner)/inbox — list view that pushes to /m/(owner)/inbox/[threadId]

All guest conversations live here, grouped by thread. Each thread is one guest, one listing — the thread links to a booking once the guest books.

Pre-booking inquiries

Guests can message you before they book by tapping Message host on a villa page. You'll see these as inquiry threads in your inbox; the thread links to a listing but not yet a booking.

If the guest goes on to book, the thread auto-links to the new booking — same conversation, no fragmentation. If they don't book, the thread stays as an inquiry until you (or they) archive it.

AI draft replies

Tap Get AI suggestion on any guest message and Bukavilla generates a draft reply in your tone, based on the message and your past replies on this listing. You can:

• Send it as-is
• Edit it before sending
• Discard it and write your own

Daily quota: 20 drafts per owner per day. Usage is shown in the admin AI dashboard. The model is Claude Sonnet 4.6 with prompt caching for cost efficiency.

Drafts are useful for first-pass replies when you're handling many threads — they get the structure right and you tweak the specifics.

Auto-translation

If a guest writes in a different language, Bukavilla can translate the message into yours on demand. Your reply is translated back into the guest's language when they read it.

• 10 supported languages: English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic
• 100 translations per owner per day
• Up to 20 messages translated per request
• Cached, so re-reading a translated thread doesn't re-spend the quota

Notifications

• Email notifications on new messages
• Push notifications on mobile (if installed and permission granted)
• Configure frequency in profile settings

Archiving threads

Old threads can be archived from the thread menu. They're hidden from the inbox but data is preserved — useful for cleanup after a guest has checked out and left a review.