This applies to experiences that are not instantly confirmed. On those experiences, when a guest books, the booking starts as Unconfirmed and you need to accept or reject it before it becomes final. The guest's payment is held but not charged until you accept.
Experiences with instant confirmation are confirmed and charged automatically, without any action from you. You only need to respond to requests on experiences where instant confirmation is turned off.
Where the request shows up
An unconfirmed booking appears in several places:
In your booking list, with the status Unconfirmed.
On the booking page, with an Action required banner at the top and the buttons Accept booking and Reject booking. The same buttons sit in a bar at the bottom of the page.
In the chat with the guest, where the booking bar shows "Awaiting your reply" and how many hours you have left.
As a notification.
Accepting or rejecting
Open the booking from your booking list, the chat, or the notification. Review the date, time, number of adults and children, any request from the guest, and what you will receive. Then tap Accept booking or Reject booking.
If you accept, the booking becomes Confirmed and the guest is charged. If you reject, the guest is notified, the payment hold is released, and the booking shows as Rejected.
How long you have
You have 48 hours from the moment the request comes in, or until 6 hours before the experience starts, whichever comes first. If you don't respond by then, the request expires automatically. Both you and the guest are notified, and the payment hold is released.
You receive a reminder halfway through your response window, and another one in the last two hours before the deadline.
Good to know
Accepting a booking you can't host is worse than rejecting it. If you accept and then need to back out, you have to transfer or cancel, which affects your Booking Completion score, and a cancellation means you are not paid.
Rejecting a request does not count as a cancellation.
Replying to the guest's first message within 24 hours also earns Timely Response points. See Response time and timely response score.
If your availability has changed, update your calendar so new requests only come in for dates you can host.
You can hide unconfirmed bookings from your booking list with Booking overview settings; make sure that setting is off when you are waiting for requests.