Approve or Decline a Booking Request

On a listing without Instant Book, a guest sends a booking request and waits for your answer. You review it, then approve or decline. This article covers where a request appears, the buttons you use, and what each choice does for the guest, the payment and your calendar.

How you hear about a request

Email — New reservation request for {listing}, with a View reservation button.
Text — New request to book, if you have text alerts set up. It is on by default; change it under Settings → Account & Profile → Notifications. See Text and WhatsApp Alerts.
In the dashboard — a pop-up reading {guest} asked to book {listing}, with a Review request button.

Where to find a request

Open Reservations & Inbox → Inbox. Each request is a card titled Accept a booking — {listing}. Click Review to open the reservation. The card stays there until you answer.
Or open Reservations & Inbox → Bookings and pick the Requested stage to see every request waiting on you.
Or open the guest's conversation in Communication → Inbox. The button with the stay's dates in its header opens the reservation, and the conversation's ⋯ menu has Approve booking… and Decline request….

Review the request

The reservation opens with an Action Required card. The guest's message is the first message in the conversation above it. The card shows any screening result and the add-ons the guest picked, then your buttons: Reject on the left, Approve on the right, and between them the ones that apply to this stay, such as Adjust price or fees and Cancellation policy.

To offer a discount or change a fee before you approve, click Adjust price or fees. See Offer a Discount or Change the Price on a Pending Request.
If the listing asks guests to sign the rental agreement right after booking, the signed copy is on the reservation before you decide.

Approve a request

Click Approve on the Action Required card (or Approve booking… in the conversation's ⋯ menu).
When the guest saved a card with the request, the dialog is Approve and charge and the button reads Approve and charge {total}, or Approve and charge {deposit} when the listing has a payment schedule. Otherwise the dialog is Approve Booking.
Optional: tick Offer a discount with approval to approve at a lower price in the same step.
Confirm.

Haven refuses the approval, and tells you why, when:

another approved or confirmed stay already has those dates, on this listing or on a listing linked to it in a Calendar Group;
your account is not on a paid plan, or Haven collects the payment and your Stripe payouts are not set up yet;
your PMS sets the price and you also changed it; change the price in your PMS, then approve.

What happens after you approve

What happens next depends on how the stay is paid for:

The guest saved a card — Haven charges it for the total the guest agreed to. When the charge goes through, the booking is Confirmed and the guest gets their confirmation email.
- If the card is declined or expired, or you approved at a higher total than the guest authorized, nothing is charged. The booking waits as Awaiting payment, the guest is emailed a payment link, and Haven sends a payment reminder every day. Haven never releases an approved booking on its own; cancel it if the guest never pays.
- Approving at a lower total charges the lower amount.
- If the listing has a payment schedule, approval charges only the deposit and the booking is Confirmed. The later payments are charged to the same card on their dates, unless the guest chose Pay in full instead, in which case the whole stay is charged on approval.
The total is $0 (for example a 100% discount code) — the booking is Confirmed and nothing is charged.
You collect payment yourself — your account uses Collect Payments Yourself, or the guest chose to pay you directly at checkout. The booking is Confirmed at once and Haven charges nothing. The guest gets the confirmation email and a How to pay you email with your payment details and the payment schedule.
Your PMS collects payment (for example OwnerRez in payment-processor mode) — the guest saved no card with Haven, so nothing is charged on approval. The guest is emailed a payment link and pays through your PMS.

A request sent before you connected Stripe has no card either. Once Stripe is connected you can approve it, and the guest pays through the payment link in their approval email.

An approved booking always holds its dates, whether or not it has been paid yet.

Decline a request

Click Reject on the Action Required card. In the conversation's ⋯ menu the same action is Decline request….
Confirm in the dialog: Reject Booking on the reservation, Decline request in the conversation.

Nothing is charged. Any card or gift card the guest put down with the request is released, the dates reopen, and the guest is emailed that the request was not approved. There is no penalty for declining: Haven does not track a decline rate or lower your ranking. See Your property, your rules.

To offer the guest other dates or a different price instead, decline and then send a new offer from the reservation. See Managing Bookings.

If you do nothing

A request expires 2 days after the guest sent it, or after the window you set under Sites → Listing settings → Unanswered requests expire. Haven emails you a few hours before it expires. When it expires, nothing is charged and both you and the guest are emailed. See Auto-Expire Pending Requests.
While it waits, a request takes its dates off sale only if Hold dates for requests is on. It is off by default. See Hold Dates for Pending Requests.

Requests and inquiries

An inquiry is a question, not a booking: the guest saved no card and nothing is held. Its card in Reservations & Inbox → Inbox reads Guest inquiry — {listing} with a Respond button, and you answer it or Pre-approve the guest to book. Inquiries never expire. See Guest Inquiries.