Auto-Expire Pending Requests

Auto-expire automatically cancels booking requests that you haven't approved or declined within a window you choose, so stale requests stop holding your calendar. It's an account-wide setting that applies to every listing, and it's off by default — pending requests never expire from age unless you turn this on.

When to Use Auto-Expire

• You take request-to-book reservations (Instant Book is off) and don't want unanswered requests blocking dates indefinitely.
• You want a guaranteed cleanup window so dates reopen for other guests if you can't respond in time.
• You'd like a reminder nudge before a request is cancelled, instead of having to police Home → Overview → Inbox manually.

How to Turn On Auto-Expire

1. Go to Sites → Single Property (the listings page, /host?tab=listings).
2. Click the gear icon on the listings toolbar to open Property settings.
3. In the Auto-expire pending requests row, toggle it Enabled.
4. Choose how long a request can sit before it expires:
   • 24 hours
   • 2 days
   • Custom — enter any number of days (up to 90).
5. Your choice saves automatically — there's no Save button.

You can also reach this setting from the Listing editor → Availability tab, which links straight to Property settings.

What Happens When a Request Expires

• The request is measured from when the guest submitted it.
• A warning email is sent to you a few hours before the deadline, so you still have time to approve or decline.
• If you take no action, Haven automatically cancels the request, frees the dates on your calendar, and sends the guest the standard "reservation request expired" email.
• The host and guest are both notified. No payment is involved — pending requests are not yet paid.

Key Details

• Account-wide — the window applies to all of your listings at once.
• Whether a pending request blocks dates at all is a separate choice. By default it doesn't: the nights keep selling on Haven, your PMS, and channels until someone books them, which makes auto-expire a tidiness tool rather than a revenue one. See Hold Dates for Pending Requests.
• Inquiries are never auto-expired — only real booking requests are affected.
• Instant Book bookings are unaffected; they don't go through the request-approval step.
• Turning the toggle off stops all auto-expiry immediately; existing pending requests will simply wait for your action again.
• Declining a request is not penalized. Haven has no Superhost-style ding, ranking hit, or decline-rate score. Auto-expire is optional cleanup, not a punishment. See Your property, your rules.

What Auto-Expire Does NOT Do

• It does not cancel confirmed (paid) reservations.
• It does not expire guest inquiries.
• It does not change your cancellation policy or refund behavior.

Related Articles

• Hold Dates for Pending Requests
• Managing Bookings
• Your property, your rules
• Offer a Discount or Change the Price on a Pending Request
• Manual Bookings
• Security Deposits