You have 48 hours to accept or decline a booking request. If you do not respond within that window, the request expires automatically and the tenant is not charged — the tenant’s payment is only taken after you accept.
The 48-hour response window
From the moment a tenant sends a booking request, the 48-hour clock starts. You have three options: accept, decline or suggest new dates. You can respond directly from the notification email or from your Personal Dashboard under Bookings.
Respond as early as you can. Tenants searching for accommodation are often applying to several listings at the same time, and a quick response increases the chance that the tenant is still available and has not confirmed a booking elsewhere — if they do, their pending request to you is cancelled automatically.
Before you accept
Check that the price, availability and facilities on your listing are correct before you accept a request. Once you accept and the tenant’s payment succeeds, the booking is confirmed and you are bound to provide the accommodation for those dates, at the listed price, with the property not materially different from your listing.
How to accept a booking
- Log in and go to your Personal Dashboard
- Click Bookings and select the pending request
- Review the tenant’s profile, dates and message
- Click Accept
When you accept, Uniplaces charges the tenant for the first rental payment, the Uniplaces service fee and, where your listing has one, the holding deposit (a sum that reserves the accommodation; not a damages deposit). If the payment succeeds, the booking is confirmed and you receive an email with the tenant’s contact details and a booking summary; if it does not, the booking is not confirmed. Uniplaces holds the first rental payment and transfers it to you, minus commission, within two business days of the move-in date, once the 24-hour Safety Period — the tenant’s 24 hours after the move-in date to report a problem to Uniplaces — has passed without a help request. See What Happens After I Accept a Booking Request?.
How to decline a booking
- Go to your Personal Dashboard → Bookings
- Select the pending request
- Click Decline and select a reason
Provide a reason when declining — it helps Uniplaces improve the matching between landlords and tenants, and it is courteous to the tenant. The tenant is not charged for a declined request.
What happens if you don’t respond?
If the 48-hour window passes without a response, the request expires automatically. The tenant receives a notification and is free to search for other listings. The tenant is not charged for an expired request.
Consistently missing response deadlines lowers your response rate, which tenants can filter by.
Does not responding affect your ranking?
Uniplaces tracks your response rate as part of your listing quality. Tenants can filter for landlords who answer within 12 hours or who have a high response rate.
If you know you will be away or unavailable, block your dates in the availability calendar so that requests do not arrive during that period. See How to Update Your Availability Calendar.
When to contact Uniplaces support
- You accidentally declined a request
- A request has expired and you want to reach the tenant
- A tenant’s payment did not go through after you accepted
Frequently asked questions
Can I accept a booking request after it has expired?
No — once a request expires it cannot be reactivated. If the tenant is still interested, they need to send a new booking request. Contact the Uniplaces support team if you need assistance reaching a tenant whose request has expired.
Can I suggest different dates instead of accepting or declining?
Yes — if the tenant’s proposed dates do not work for you, you can suggest alternative dates from the booking request view in your Personal Dashboard. The tenant can then accept your suggested dates or withdraw their request. If they accept, the suggested dates become the booking dates and the tenant’s payment is taken for that booking.
What if I accidentally decline a request?
Once a request is declined, it cannot be reversed. Contact the Uniplaces support team immediately — they may be able to assist depending on the circumstances, but there is no guarantee the tenant will still be available.
Can I accept more than one request for the same listing?
You can accept multiple requests for the same listing as long as the dates do not overlap. Once you accept a request for a specific period, all other requests for that same period are automatically declined. You can accept another request for a different availability window.
Is the tenant charged when they send the request?
No. The tenant provides payment details when sending the request and a temporary authorisation is placed on their card, but the payment is only taken after you accept. If you decline or the request expires, nothing is charged and the authorisation is released by the tenant’s bank.