Responding to Service Inquiries
When a buyer books one of your service listings, their payment is authorized but not yet charged — we hold it while you confirm you can do the job. You have a confirmation window to accept or decline. This guide explains how long that window is, when the clock pauses, and how we remind you so you never lose a good booking.
Your window depends on how soon the event is
A request for tomorrow is urgent; a request for two months out is not. So instead of one fixed deadline for everything, your window scales with how close the event is when the inquiry lands:
| Time until the event | Your window to respond |
|---|---|
| 48 hours or less | 2 hours |
| 3 to 10 days | 4 hours |
| 11 to 30 days | 12 hours |
| 31 days or more | 24 hours |
The exact deadline is shown in every notification we send you, so you always know precisely when a request needs an answer.
The clock pauses overnight (quiet hours)
Your window counts only during the day. Between 9:00 PM and 8:00 AM in your local time, the confirmation clock pausesand picks back up in the morning — so a request that comes in at 11 PM won't quietly expire at 3 AM while you're asleep.
An example
A 4-hour booking lands at 8:00 PM. One hour counts before quiet hours begin at 9:00 PM, then the clock pauses overnight. The remaining 3 hours resume at 8:00 AM, so your deadline is 11:00 AM the next day — not 12:00 AM.
Your local time is based on your business address, so make sure it's accurate in Dashboard → Profile.
How we notify and remind you
We reach you by text and emailso a request never slips by. You'll get:
- The inquiry — sent the moment a buyer books, with the service, date, location, and the deadline to respond.
- A reminder partway throughthe window, if you haven't responded yet.
- A final reminder near the end, clearly stating the exact time the inquiry will auto-cancel.
Every message includes one-tap Accept and Decline buttons, so you can respond straight from your phone without logging in. You can always manage inquiries in full from Dashboard → Inquiries.
What each response does
You Accept
The booking is confirmed and the buyer's payment is captured. The job is yours — from here it follows the normal payout flow. See How Disbursements Work.
You Decline
The authorization is released, the buyer is never charged, and the slot is freed up so they can find another vendor.
No response in the window
The inquiry auto-cancels, the buyer's authorization is released, and they're notified to book elsewhere. Auto-cancels are a missed booking and a poor buyer experience — responding promptly keeps your shop in good standing.
Confirming is a yes or no — not a new conversation
The window is just for confirming availability. Everything the buyer purchased — the item, quantity, options, and price — is already set, so the question is simply whether you can do it. If you accept, you can include a short note to the buyer, but the unit and price stay fixed.
This is why upfront, unit-based pricing matters — it makes every inquiry answerable with a quick yes or no. For more on that, see Why Unit-Based Pricing, Not Quotes.