Enquiries, visits and reservations

8 min read  ·  Updated October 2026

Requests started from an Unverified hostel

A visitor to an Unverified directory page chooses Request nearby options. The form explains that it cannot book a visit or reserve a bed there. The visitor must explicitly agree to sharing their request with relevant nearby verified hostels; consent is not preselected. The source listing determines the city, area and hostel type.

These requests appear in the existing Customers nearby / Open leads workflow for participating verified hostels of the matching type in that city. Sharing is limited to 8 km when both map positions are known, or the same named area when distance cannot be measured. Widening your filters does not widen that permission. Existing eligibility, freshness, contact masking, reveal limits, blocks and STOP rules apply. Taking a lead does not create a visit, reservation or occupied bed.

Eligible nearby verified hostels can receive the usual lead bell and email, subject to notification preferences, distance and delivery limits. A request with no measurable distance may be visible in the relevant area without an immediate alert. The customer sees an on-screen receipt but receives neither a welcome email nor a confirmation email for this request. The unverified hostel is not emailed. No reply, room availability or booking is guaranteed.

Submitting the same request again within the duplicate window updates the open request rather than sending another round of alerts. If requests are temporarily disabled or the source listing has been withdrawn, return to search and choose an available option. Sharing can produce no matches; do not interpret submission as confirmation from an owner.

Everything your public listing produces arrives in one place: Leads in the sidebar. These are people who have already found you, looked at your hostel and put their name forward. They are worth more attention than anything else on your screen.

Customers looking near your hostel

The dashboard highlights recent enquiries with wording such as 2 new customers looking for accommodation near your hostel. The smaller line states the counting window, normally the last 24 hours. View customers opens the first category with new enquiries; the links underneath open each category directly. The total includes your visits, reservation requests, Facebook enquiries and eligible nearby enquiries. It counts enquiries, not confirmed residents or necessarily different people.

The Leads page has two places at the top: My leads, with your own Visits, Reservations and (when you have them) Facebook tabs under it, and Customers nearby. Each shows how many arrived in the stated window, and the page title follows the one you are on. Open Leads → Visits and press Customers nearby (previously Open leads) to find people looking for accommodation near your hostel; My leads goes back to the tab you had open. Customers nearby shows the same customer-focused wording above Available. Its new count uses the stated time window, while Available includes older eligible enquiries too; filters can narrow the cards without changing the new badge. The area, distance and hostel type help you assess suitability. These people may have enquired at another hostel or posted a general request; they have not necessarily contacted yours or agreed to move in.

Every choice sits on the toolbar as its own switch: first Available or Taken by you, each with how many, then the distance, for example ‹ Within 5 km ›, the order, the joining date and Any visit date / Still to come. Press the arrows to step through a choice one option at a time, or press its name to pick from the full list. The list starts Nearest first; choose Newest first or New first, then nearest to change it. Still to come keeps only people whose viewing or joining date is still ahead. Reset puts every choice except the distance back. The leads you have already taken also appear at the end of Available, after a Taken by you line. The distance narrows Available only; Taken by you always lists every lead you have taken.

Customers nearby shows people up to 8 km from your hostel. The distance opens on the nearest one that has anyone in it: if nobody is within 1 km, it opens on Within 2 km. Its list runs from there to 8 km and says how many people each distance covers. When fewer than five people are shown, a button under the cards, for example Show 2 more within 4 km, widens it to the next distance with more people, until 8 km.

Each card leads with what the person wants, for example Abubakar wants a hostel near DHA, with their name and city underneath, and when they want to move in, for example He wants to join around October 2026. A pulsing green dot marks enquiries from the last 3 days. The map button in a card's top corner shows a small map of the area they named and your hostel: hover over it on a computer, or tap it on a phone.

A map sits above the list: your hostel, the distance you picked drawn around it, and a numbered pin for each area where people are looking. Hover over a pin to see who is looking there — one person's details in full, or a short line each when there are several — and press it to list just those people; Show everyone goes back. A pin marks the middle of the area named on the card — or, for a request, the spot the customer pinned when they posted it (to about 100 m) — never the hostel they enquired at or where they live; anyone with no position is counted under the map. Hide map puts the map away and Show map brings it back. Under it, choose Cards or Profiles (one person per row, their picture beside what they asked for). A customer's profile picture shows when they have one, otherwise their initials. Neither the map nor the picture reveals contact details; you still show the number with the eye, as below. Your choices are remembered on that device.

Owners and staff given Customers nearby can open the tab; taking a lead (showing its number with the eye) and changing the tab's settings need its Edit tick. Nearby sharing must be enabled and your hostel must meet the setup requirements shown on the page. Follow its setup message or use Turn on when sharing is switched off. Your own enquiries are shared on the same terms. If the platform has disabled the feature, it cannot be enabled from your hostel.

A card shows the number and email partly hidden, for example 0302•••••27 and exe•••@gmail.com, with what they wrote in a yellow Their message box. On a suitable card, press the eye beside the hidden number. Showing the number takes the lead: nearby contacts need this even on an active plan, which includes unlimited unlocks, but each enquiry still has a limited number of hostel places. Without a plan, a dialog first confirms the free unlock it uses. The card then shows the full name, phone number and email, and the lead is also saved under Taken by you. Press the green Message to open WhatsApp with a first message ready; showing a number alone does not send a message or confirm a booking. The crossed-out eye hides the number again on your screen; the lead stays yours. If the free allowance is exhausted, the eye offers a subscription. If all places are taken or the enquiry is no longer available, the card disappears; choose another suitable enquiry.

When a customer within 8 km of your hostel posts a Find me a hostel request, the owner and the staff who can open Customers nearby get a bell and an email straight away; other new customers nearby come in a summary email. Each email shows the customer as their card does — what they want, their answers and message, the phone and email partly hidden — and View contact opens that card on Customers nearby, where the eye shows the number. Customers further than 8 km, or whose distance cannot be measured, are not emailed. Emails can be switched off from your profile.

No new enquiries means no dashboard banner or new-count sentence. Closing the banner hides it until the count grows or its time window expires; it does not delete enquiries or change notification settings. If the count cannot be loaded or you lack access, the banner is hidden. An empty nearby list can mean no enquiries match your choices or distance; press Reset or pick a farther distance and check again. For a loading error, use Try again. Existing lead notifications still lead to the same page; this wording change does not introduce a new notification.

The two kinds

Both usually tell you when the person wants to join and how many beds they need, sometimes a month rather than an exact date, because people plan around a term starting rather than a day. A request for three beds is one enquiry, not three.

Visits and reservations from customers' Houstel accounts

A customer who is still choosing a hostel can also look through every hostel live on Houstel.pk from their own Houstel account (Explore hostels), and book a visit or reserve a room there. These reach you exactly like the ones from your Houstel.pk page: the same Visits and Reservations lists, the same bell, email and WhatsApp alerts, and still no phone number or email in the alert. A reservation made this way carries the customer's CNIC, like one from the website.

• The customer sees what your Houstel.pk page shows: photos, videos, rooms you show there, their prices and free seats. Rooms you hide from Houstel.pk and prices you keep "on request" stay hidden.
• They find hostels on a map, and by searching a city, an area or a place such as a university. Your pin is the location on your Houstel.pk page, so check it sits on your building: a wrong pin hides you from people searching your area.
• Each hostel in their list has a Message button that starts a chat with you straight away. It reaches you like any first message from a new customer (see alerts for a new enquiry).
• If they cancel a visit or a reservation from their account, the bell tells you at once and a reserved seat is free again.
• Your own residents never see other hostels there: not while they live with you, not once you have booked them in, and not for 90 days after you register them (unless a booking follows).

Speed is the whole game

Somebody looking for a room this week has usually contacted several hostels the same afternoon. The one that answers first gets the visit; the one that gets the visit usually gets the resident. An hour matters. A day is often too late.

• Turn on notifications so a new lead reaches your phone rather than waiting for you to open the dashboard.
• Reply even when the answer is no. “We are full until March, shall I call you then?” keeps a lead alive.
• If somebody asked for a visit on a particular day, confirm that day explicitly. “Come any time” is how people end up at a locked gate.

Seeing a lead's phone number

On an active plan your own enquiries show their contact details. On Customers nearby, press the eye beside the number first, as described above.

Without a plan, the page shows your remaining lifetime free unlock allowance. One shared allowance covers visits, reservations, nearby enquiries and Facebook leads. You choose which enquiries to unlock, one at a time; review their details before spending it.

Working the list

Each lead moves through stages, and the list keeps them in front of you until they are resolved:

1. New Just arrived, nobody has spoken to them. This is where speed counts.
2. Contacted You have reached out. Messaging them on WhatsApp from the lead moves it here on its own.
3. Visited They came and saw the hostel.
4. Joined They moved in. Turn them into a resident from the lead itself, so their details carry over rather than being typed again.
5. Cold Not going anywhere for now. Mark it and it drops out of your working queue without being deleted.

You can also see how many times you have contacted somebody: once, twice, three or more. A lead you have chased three times with no reply is a different problem from one you have never called.

Do not delete leads

Mark them cold instead. People who were looking in June start looking again in August, and a hostel that kept the record can start the conversation with “you asked us about a room a few months ago”. A deleted lead takes its history with it and cannot be brought back.

Managing visits

You can publish the times you are happy to receive visitors, so people book into a slot that suits you instead of arriving during dinner. Someone may also request visits at several hostels at once. If you are one of them, you are being compared directly, and being the one who confirmed first is a real advantage.

The Online booking switch and the Visiting hours button sit at the top of the Visits and Reservations tabs. They are not shown on Customers nearby or Facebook, which they do not affect. Switching online booking needs the Visits Edit permission.

Share a lead with your other branches

If you run more than one hostel, you can share any lead with one or more of your other branches: a visit, a reservation, a Facebook lead, or a customer nearby you have taken. The lead stays on this branch's list and also appears on the same tab at every branch you pick. Use it when this branch is full, the person wants a different area, or you want each branch to try.

1. Press Share on the lead On Visits, Reservations and Facebook it is in the row of buttons at the foot of the card. On Customers nearby it is the share button beside Message, on leads under Taken by you.
2. Pick the branches Your other approved branches are shown as boxes, each with its area. If you have both boys' and girls' branches, they are in two groups, this branch's kind first, and each group has its own Pick all. Tick as many as you like; with many branches, search above them. A branch the lead is already shared with shows Already shared. If you pick branches of the other kind, the window says how many; it does not stop you.
3. Add a note, then share The note is for those branches: why you are sharing the lead and what the person wants. Press Share with and the branch name, or Share with 3 branches.

The owner and the Houstel.pk team also see a Staff chat tab in this window, to put the lead into a conversation with staff instead (see Staff chat). The customer is not told: nothing is emailed or sent to them when you share.

What happens next

• At each branch, its owner and the staff who can open that tab get one alert in their bell and on their phone. Someone who works at two of the branches gets one alert, not two. The alert names the person and your branch, never their phone number or email.
• There, the card shows Shared by and your branch's name; hover over or tap it to see who shared it and your note. It counts as new there for a day.
• Their contact is open at that branch and does not use its free unlocks, because you had already opened it. A reservation's CNIC stays at your branch.
• The lead stays yours. Only your branch reschedules a visit, records its outcome, confirms or rejects a reservation, or shares it further. The other branch calls the person and, if they take a room there, registers them as its own resident (on a visit or reservation, Register here, which finds them if they are already on Houstel.pk).
• Your card shows Shared with and the branches. Press it, or Shared at the top of the Leads page for everything this branch shared, to see for each branch: who shared it and when, your note, its status, and who there was told, each with Seen and when, or Not seen yet. If nobody at a branch can open that kind of lead, it says so; give someone Leads access on the Hostel Staff page.

What came of it

Each branch you shared with has its own status. At that branch, the card has Set status: pick Contacted, Interested, Coming to visit, Visited, Booked here, Not interested or Unreachable, add what the person said if useful, and press Save. Whoever shared the lead and the owner get an alert with the status. Your card then shows how many branches have an update.

When your staff tell you the result instead, by phone or in chat, set it yourself: in the Shared window press Set status (or Change status) under that branch; nobody is alerted about a status you set yourself. Clear takes a status off. Setting a status needs the Edit permission for that kind of lead.

Stop sharing

In the Shared window, press Stop sharing under a branch. The lead leaves that branch's list; nobody is told. A resident they already registered stays theirs, the history stays in your window, and you can share the lead with them again later.

Turning a lead into a resident

When somebody agrees to move in, convert the lead rather than starting a fresh resident record. Their name and number carry over, the enquiry stays linked to the stay, and you keep a straight answer to a question worth asking later: how many of my residents came from my Houstel.pk listing?

Leads from Facebook and Instagram ads

When Houstel.pk runs a Facebook or Instagram ad for your hostel, the people who fill in the ad's form arrive on a Facebook tab under Leads. The tab only appears once your hostel has an ad or leads from one. You work these leads like any other.

Ad results on that tab opens a window with the ad as people see it in their feed and what it has done so far: what it spent, the leads it brought, the cost per lead, how many people it reached, its clicks, its budget, when it started and when it ends. The comments people left under the ad are shown underneath.

An ad with several pictures or videos shows all of them, one at a time: use the arrows or swipe, and the counter shows which one you are on. A carousel ad shows each card with its own headline and button. A video plays when you press it.

Who sees your ad

Under the numbers, Who sees it shows who the ad was set up to reach:

• Area: the places it is shown in, with the distance around each one, and whether that means people who live there or were there recently.
• Age and Gender.
• Interests and Languages, if the ad uses them.
• Shown on: Facebook, Instagram or other apps. “Facebook picks the spots” means Facebook chooses where it appears.

Facebook can be allowed to go beyond a setting when it expects more leads that way. If so, the row tells you. “May go wider: 18–65+” under an age means the ad aims at that age but can reach anyone in the wider range. “Others may see it too” under a gender means the ad is not shown to that gender only. Hover over or tap a row's name for an explanation. Within these limits, Facebook decides which people actually see the ad.

Messages about your ad, and adding funds

Houstel tells the hostel owner how the ad is doing. Staff do not get these messages.

• When Facebook approves the ad, and when it starts showing: an email, a notification and a WhatsApp message. An ad that is approved and starts showing straight away gets one message.
• When something else changes: the ad is paused or runs again, is not approved, gets a new end date or budget, or finishes. You get an email and a notification.
• About a day before the ad ends: an email, a notification and a WhatsApp message with what it has done so far: the days it ran, the people it reached and the leads it brought. Ads that run for less than two days do not get this reminder.
• On the 1st of each month, if your ad ran in the month before: a short report on that month's days, people reached, clicks and leads. Nothing is sent for a month in which no ad ran.

The reminder and the monthly report never show money: no spend, budget or cost per lead. Those are in Ad results.

To keep the ad running, or to start it again, add funds before it ends. Press Add funds in Ad results, or Add funds on WhatsApp in the email. It opens a WhatsApp chat with Houstel with your hostel's name already written, and the team arranges it with you. Ad results shows this at the top when every ad ends within three days or none is running, and as a button at the bottom the rest of the time. There is no payment for ads inside the dashboard.

Mark what came of each lead

Every card on the Facebook tab has an Outcome button. Press it and pick what happened: Contacted, deciding, Coming to visit, Visited, deciding, Booked, or the reason it ended (Wants other option, Not interested, Booked elsewhere, Unreachable, Invalid lead). You can add a note and a follow-up date. Change the outcome again whenever the lead moves on. Saving with nothing picked reopens the lead.

Tapping the phone number or WhatsApp on a card marks it Contacted. That only says you tried. It is not an outcome, so choose one once you know how the conversation went.

Outcomes are useful to you on their own, and they can also help your ad. When Houstel.pk is passing outcomes to Facebook for your hostel, the tab says so: a line above the cards counts the leads of the last 30 days that have no outcome yet, and How it works opens a short explanation. Houstel.pk then tells Facebook which step each lead reached:

• Contacted, deciding: a real person who answered.
• Coming to visit or Visited, deciding: a visit.
• Booked: they took a room.
• Any other choice: nothing is sent, so the lead counts as one that went nowhere.

Facebook uses these steps to learn which people turn out real, so it can show your ad to more people like them. The more leads have an outcome, the more it has to learn from. It takes a few weeks to show, and how much it helps is up to Facebook. Houstel.pk cannot promise more leads or better ones.

Getting more of them

Leads come from your listing, so the fixes are all on the listing:

• More and better photos, the biggest single lever by a distance.
• Accurate rents. Hidden or vague pricing loses people before they ever contact you.
• Nearby landmarks on your profile, because most people search “hostel near X”.
• Reviews, which decide it when two listings look alike.
• Featured placement, if you want to appear above other hostels in your area during a busy season.

Common questions