How do I approve or decline online booking requests?

With manual confirmation on, online bookings arrive as pending requests you confirm or decline from the dashboard.

Online bookings arrive as pending requests when Require manual confirmation (online bookings only) is switched on in Settings → Bookings → Booking rules, under Booking windows. The setting is Available on Plus plan and above. Staff-created and imported bookings always confirm automatically.

Approving or declining

• Find the request — pending bookings appear in an amber Pending approvals strip at the top of the Bookings page, and under Needs attention on Home (labelled "Awaiting approval").
• Open the booking. Its action bar shows two buttons: Confirm and Decline.
• Click Confirm to accept — the customer then receives the booking confirmation email (and SMS, if enabled).
• Click Decline to turn it down — this cancels the request. The confirmation dialog shows a ticked Notify the customer by … box when the customer can be reached — leave it ticked and they receive the declined-booking email; untick it to decline silently. If they paid a deposit, it's refunded in full automatically, whatever your refund policy says.

What the customer sees

After submitting, the booking page shows "Request Submitted!" with "Your booking request has been sent for manual confirmation." — so customers know it isn't locked in until you approve it.

Related: How far ahead (and how late) can customers book? · How do I cancel a booking (and what happens to the deposit)? · Which confirmations and reminders do customers get?