Review booking requests

A submitted booking request is waiting for your decision. Accepting it creates a confirmed booking and invoice. Email verification, a temporary slot hold and a paid request deposit do not confirm the appointment on their own.

Open the queue

1. Go to Bookings → Requests.
2. Start with Pending requests and open one to review.
3. Check the client and pet, requested services, time, groomer, client notes and any paid deposit.

Public requests appear for normal review after the client verifies their email, resolves any pet or time selection and pays any required deposit. Unfinished unpaid requests are not ready for staff acceptance. Requests with payment or refund issues can remain visible so staff can resolve the money safely.

Accept a request

1. Review the booking details and adjust services, pricing, groomer or time where needed.
2. Check the final total and remaining balance. A paid request deposit is already covered; do not record it again.
3. Check the summary of default contracts that will attach on acceptance.
4. In Summary & Confirm, choose Accept Booking.

Barkway checks availability again before accepting. If the time clashes, or the groomer is not working then, Barkway explains why and suggests other times for that groomer. Choose an available alternative and review the details before confirming.

Acceptance creates the booking and invoice, applies any paid request deposit and attaches all eligible default contracts. The client can view the confirmed appointment in the portal. Attached contracts are available through Documents and the booking details; unsigned contracts do not prevent confirmation. See Manage contracts.

Reject a request

Use Reject request and review the rejection confirmation. A rejected request does not create a booking. If the client paid a request deposit, Barkway starts a full card refund automatically; check its refund status rather than assuming the money has already arrived back on the card.

See Refund a payment if a request refund is pending, needs attention or has failed.

Requests that expire or are cancelled

Booking request expiry in Settings → Portal sets how many days a submitted pending request remains open. This is separate from the public form's 30-minute slot hold and the deposit payment deadline.

Clients can cancel a pending request from My booking requests. Expired or cancelled requests do not create bookings. Barkway starts a refund for any paid request deposit. Once accepted, manage changes or cancellation on the resulting booking instead.

When a request shows Slot unavailable

Slot unavailable means the request never became a confirmed booking. You do not accept or reject it in the usual way. The client sees that the time could not be kept and, if they paid a request deposit, that a refund is in progress or complete.

Common reasons include:

• Someone else took the slot while the client was verifying their email or paying a deposit.
• The groomer is no longer working at that time (Set groomer working hours).
• The client's chosen time passed before they finished, including when payment completed after the appointment start time.

Barkway starts a full refund of any paid request deposit automatically. Open Bookings → Requests, filter by Slot unavailable, and check the deposit refund status rather than assuming the money has already returned to the card. See Refund a payment if a refund is pending, needs attention or has failed.

This is different from an Unavailable diary block you create in the diary without a pet. See Block out time in the diary.

Availability while a request is pending

A paid pending request protects its slot from other portal requests until it is reviewed or expires. Staff can still change the diary, and acceptance always checks availability again. A submitted request without a deposit does not reserve the slot after submission.

Statuses clients see

• Pending / awaiting review: submitted, waiting for the groomer to decide.
• Accepted: the confirmed booking has been created.
• Rejected: the groomer declined the request.
• Cancelled: the client cancelled the request before acceptance.
• Expired: the pending request's review period ended.
• Slot unavailable: the time could not be kept before acceptance; any paid deposit is refunded.
• Payment and refund messages explain other requests that could not finish or need financial follow-up.

For setup and new-client onboarding, see Public booking requests. For upfront payments, see Deposits and saved cards.

Choose whether clients receive request received, accepted and declined updates in Configure client notifications. When enabled, the acceptance message links to the booking and points clients to outstanding documents where applicable. The booking's status is authoritative even if a notification is disabled.