Making an offer

When you'll see it

Not every villa takes offers. Villas you can book instantly show a Book now button and a total — those are fixed prices, and the price you see is the price you pay.

Some villas instead show a Make an offer panel. These are villas where the host takes enquiries rather than instant bookings, so there is no live nightly rate to book against. Instead of guessing, you propose a total and the host replies.

If you see a calendar with every date open and a field asking what you found elsewhere, you're on an offer villa.

How to send one

1. Pick your dates. The calendar shows availability as the host has published it.
2. Enter the total you found elsewhere. Usually this is the Airbnb total for the same villa and the same dates. Some villas ask for the total from the host's own website instead, if they aren't on Airbnb.
3. Enter what you'd like to pay. Bukavilla suggests a figure, and shows you the percentage you'd save against the number you entered. You can change it.
4. Send it.

Enter both totals in the same currency, and make sure it's the currency you were actually shown. Airbnb displays prices in each viewer's own account currency, so the number you copied may not be in the villa's local currency.

What happens next

If you're signed in, your offer goes to the host straight away.

If you're not signed in, you'll get a confirmation email first. The offer isn't sent until you click the link in it. This is deliberate — it stops anyone from sending offers in your name — but it does mean that if you skip the email, the host never hears from you.

Either way the host receives your offer by email, with your address set as the reply-to. They can reply to you directly.

What the host can do

• Accept — they'll confirm the dates and total with you, and you arrange payment together
• Counter — they propose a different total and you can accept, counter again, or walk away
• Ignore it — not every host replies, and there's no obligation on either side

You can also withdraw an offer before the host acts on it.

The limits

• Offers expire after 7 days if the host doesn't act. Send a fresh one if you're still interested.
• Five offers per day. This is a spam guard, not a judgement on your negotiating.

A realistic expectation

An offer is a conversation starter, not a discount button. Hosts on Bukavilla already keep 100% of what you pay — there's no commission for them to absorb — so the room to move comes from what they'd otherwise lose in OTA fees, not from cutting their own rate.

Offers close to the host's real price get answered. Offers far below it usually don't.

Bukavilla's role

Bukavilla passes the offer along and gives you both a thread to talk in. It doesn't negotiate for you, doesn't hold money, and isn't party to whatever you agree. Once you've agreed a price, payment is arranged directly with the host — see Booking and payment for the methods hosts use.