Requests, approvals and card holds

When a booking is a request

A client sends a request instead of booking when the event is Bookings by request only, when the time starts within the event's window of Bookings within … are by request only, or when they ask for an unlisted time. Nothing is charged until you approve. The request email to you, and the one to the client, say which of these it was.

Answer deadlines

The client picks how soon they need an answer; the deadline never runs past the session's start. The request shows in Bookings → Requests with the deadline, and you get a reminder before it lapses. An unanswered request expires by itself and the client is told.

Approving and declining

Approve confirms the booking and emails the client. Decline sends your note to the client.

Requests for any available host

On an event several hosts share, a client who chooses Any available and sends a request gets no host yet. The request comes to you and your admins, never to a member, and its Host reads Any available.

Approve opens a list of the event's hosts who are free at that time. Leave it on Any available and the event's Assignment picks among the free hosts whose hours cover the time, or pick a host by name, even one outside their hours for the event (the list says so). The host you approve it with is emailed that the session is theirs, and the client's confirmation names them. When no host of the event is free then, the row reads No host free then: decline the request, or approve it once a host's time frees up. On a Google Meet event, a host whose Google Calendar isn't connected is left out of the list, since the link is made on the host's own calendar.

A request to a host the client picked by name goes to that host, and is approved as it is. An unlisted time is one that none of the event's hosts offers.

Holding the client's card

When a client requests a time and pays online, they hold their card on Stripe's secure page as they send the request: the amount is authorized, not charged. You hear about the request only once the hold is in place, and the row reads Card held · charged if approved.

• Approve charges the held card, and the booking is paid.
• Decline, the client withdrawing, or the request expiring unanswered releases the hold; nothing is charged, and the emails say so.
• A client who leaves Stripe's page without finishing withdraws the request by itself after 30 minutes; you are never notified about it.
• If a hold can't be charged when you approve (rare: the bank let it go), the confirmation carries a payment link with its own deadline instead; a link that lapses releases the time, and both of you are told. A client who paid by the deadline keeps the time; a payment that arrives after the release is refunded in full, and the client is told.

A request answers within 48 hours, well inside the week a card hold lasts. Discount codes, tips and sales tax work on the held amount as they do on any online payment.

Move requests

On an event with approval, or for a new time inside the event's by-request window, a client who wants a new time sends a move request from their booking link. The original time stays theirs until you approve the move; the row shows Move request with the old and new times, and the client can withdraw it.

On an event several hosts share, the move request of a client who booked Any available comes to you and your admins, never to a member, and its Host reads Any available: another host may take the new time. Approve gives it a host of the event who is free then, the session's own host included with no preference, by the event's Assignment or your pick. The client's new time names the host, and a host the session leaves is told it is off their schedule. A client who picked their host by name keeps that host, and their move request goes to that host.

Where requests can come from

• The booking page, on a request-only event or a time inside the by-request window.
• The request a time picker, when unlisted-time requests are on: every unoffered time of the day, priced by your peak windows.
• A client's booking link, as a move request.